Getting citizens employed is stomach infrastructure, says Ajimobi
The governor of Oyo State, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, has said that his government’s understanding of the so-called stomach infrastructure was to make the citizens gainfully employed so that they could have food to feed their families.
He made this known at the Obaseeku High School, Eruwa on his tour of Ibarapa area of the state and to distribute letters to applicants from the zone who were part of the 5,300 applicants recently employed into the state teaching service by his government.
According to the governor, the Yoruba people were too sophisticated to be dolled alms to in the name of stomach infrastructure.
Ajimobi illustrated his statement with the biblical encounter of Jesus Christ with Peter and how Christ had promised to make him fisher of men, rather than the fishing that he was engaged in.
“The philosophy of our government is to make fishers of men through engaging them in jobs with which they can feed their families and thereby making them productive citizens,” he said.
The governor recited off hand the famous Yoruba poetry “Ise loogun Ise” (Work is the antidote to poverty) to which the crowd applauded in admiration.
While handing over appointment letters to some Ibarapa sons and daughters who were part of those recently employed by the government, Governor Ajimobi said the exercise was the first in the history of governance in the state.
He said as against the practice of employing teachers in Ibadan by previous governments and posting them to Ibarapa zone, his government decided to employ teachers from Ibarapa to teach students from the zone, thereby empowering the youth from the area.
“We decided to localize the selection and employment of teachers so as to give opportunities to qualified teachers to teach in their communities and contribute to the development of the area, unlike it was done in past administrations which deployed teachers to various zones from Ibadan. We consider this unfair,” he said.
Ajimobi also announced that his administration had upgraded the College of Agriculture, Igboora, to include the teaching of technology, as well as turning the Polytechnic Ibadan, Eruwa campus into an autonomous polytechnic of its own, stating that these actions were a function of the government’s love and admiration for the people of the area.
He said that out of the 20,000 cadets employed by the government, Eruwa had 750, many of whom had been upgraded into teachers while government was also building a model school in the town.
At the palace of the Eleruwa of Eruwa earlier, Ajimobi said the most significant thing the government had done for the people of the state was to bring peace and order into the state.
He said that peaceful atmosphere of governance was very important to his administration and that this informed the aggressive manner it had been seeking to consolidate it.
In his speech, the Eleruwa, Oba Samuel Adegbola, commended the administration of governor Ajimobi for its various achievements, especially the teaching appointments given to Eruwa indigenes, stating that it had never happened before in the history of the state.
“We are proud of you, especially your spirit of tolerance which is also commendable. To maintain peace, even among the different political persuasions at the House of Assembly is in itself a great achievement. The entire Ibarapa traditional council appreciates your effort to give autonomy to the Eruwa polytechnic and the establishment of a model school here,” he said.
