One of the two surviving members of the recently deceased Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi’s inner caucus, Chief Moses Oyedele Ogunmola, has revealed that the late Oba Adeyemi III was responsible for the no record of herders clashes in Oyo.
The former Nigerian Ambassador to Zambia and Malawi disclosed this while granting an interview with The Nation newspaper.
“You would notice that we don’t have problems with herders. It was because of God’s authority and his. He did not allow our farmers to be oppressed by any herders. He would not allow it. He had his traditional machinery that would check the herders who would want to override the farmers and destroy their farms”, Ogunmola stated.
Speaking of the fond memories he had with the Alaafin, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi III, the Ọtun Oyo described the late monarch as a great man and a latitudinarian, one who never played his religion to the extreme by embracing the Muslims, Christians, and traditional worshippers.
“He was the incarnation of Atiba 1838-1858. He was an icon of history, an icon of tradition, an icon of Yoruba sartorial exhibition and authority. He represented the height, the glory of Oyo traditional institutions. He loved us; we accepted him as our Oba. He did so many things that we can never forget”.
The high chief, who went ahead to assess the state of education in the state and nationally, stated that as the founder and proprietor of Ladigbolu Grammar school, established in 1965 before the government took it over in 1977, he had seen the sector degenerate to a pitiful state after many poorly executed policies in the sector.
On the solution to rescuing the education sector, he stated, “The first thing according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in education, you need 15-20 percent of your budget. Some states are not spending up to 7 percent of their budget on education. Ab initio, once you cannot spend on education, you have destroyed education. The money on education must not go into the pockets of people who will say in feeding school children; they put the money in their pockets. That should be safely guided that the money should go for books, for quality teacher training and appointment”.
He went further to speak on the relevance of suitable infrastructure to aid the learning and retention of students.
“…The building should be alright; you cannot study under the three like in the olden days. Those days are gone. It would help if you had a decent place. This is why you need 15-20 percent of your budget. If you do quality training for teachers, if teachers are appointed, so that a class at most 35 and in most cases 30, and I think the class should be reduced to 25 as in Government College in those days where the classes were limited to 25, that would improve education”, he concluded.
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