Politics
THE All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate in Oyo State, Sen. Teslim Folarin, has promised total overhaul of the state’s education and health sector, if elected.
He made the disclosure while featuring on the maiden guest forum of Oyo State Correspondents’ Chapel of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) in Ibadan.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Folarin, a former senate leader, is the current Chairman, Senate Committee on Local Content.
Folarin said that the education sector of the state needed serious overhauling, lamenting the recent ranking of the state on WAEC performance chart and delisting of 50 secondary schools.
The APC governorship candidate said that Gov. Seyi Makinde had abandoned education for misplaced priorities, such as building of bus terminals.
He described as disheartening that the state government Makinde was building bus terminals instead of standard schools across the state.
“The terminus in Lagos is different from what we have here. Makinde is building bus terminus at N4.5 billion each.
“If you do a calculation of N50 million per block of classrooms, you will build a nothing less than 370 across the 33 local governments in the state,” he said.
The former senate leader said that building of motor parks instead of schools was unacceptable to the people, promising to give purposeful leadership which would address the challenge.
Folarin promised to sit down with stakeholders, government agencies, old student associations, parents, religious bodies and others to decide the way forward for the sector.
He also promised to ensure total overhaul of the health sector, saying the people needed to enjoy quality healthcare services.
The APC candidate, who promised to give purposeful leadership, blamed the current hardship on the effect of COVID-19 and Russia-Ukraine war.
Folarin said that the same thing was witnessed in other countries, describing subsidy as the biggest scam in the country.
“We spend nothing less than four trillion naira on subsidy. Oil subsidy when removed is enough to solve ASUU issues and others.
“Reduce subsidy in short term, the price will rise and when competition sets in, the prices comes down. The issue now is a matter of the cabal fighting back,” the APC governorship candidate said.
The western countries, he said, were technically in recession as a result of the COVID-19 lockdown and the Russia-Ukraine war.
Folarin said that western countries borrowed huge amounts of money to sustain their system during the lockdown, thinking it would be ploughed back through taxation.
“Now, there is nothing to tax. This pushes the prices of energy up. So, we cannot say we aren’t part of the global community,” he said.
Folarin promised to lay solid foundation that would prepare the state for post-oil years. (NAN)
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