Osun govt disrupts Dotun Babayemi-sponsored summer classes for students

Bola Bamigbola, Osogbo.

For the last four years, the people of Osun West Senatorial District have benefited 

from free health and free qualitative summer coaching across the 110 wards that 

make up the senatorial district via the ALAAFIA DOTUN foundation. The 

foundation was set up and is driven by Omooba Dotun Babayemi.

The Gbongan prince started as a member of the All Progressives Congress and 

contributed all he has to ensure that students in Osun West Senatorial District do 

not lack behind educationally, among other philanthropic steps. 

The foundation organises annual free summer classes for students of both public and private schools in the ten local governments that make up the Senatorial District after 

seeking and obtaining approval from the Ministry of education for the last four 

years. In July and August 2018, Omooba Babayemi again organised the free 

coaching classes where thousands of students benefitted.

The story changed when Omooba Dotun Babayemi refused to go with political 

ideologies of the All Progressives Congress. The party refused to heed the call of 

reasoning and had concluded plans to marginalise Osun West Senatorial District 

from producing the candidate in the last governorship election. 

As a result of this, in September 2018, the Gbongan prince left the All Progressives 

Congress for the Action Democratic Party, ADP .

Having moved to the main opposition party, Peoples Democratic Party, P.D.P in 

the early part of 2019, he sought the approval of the Osun state Ministry of 

Education to use some public schools for the 2019 edition of the free summer 

classes and an approval was given via a letter dated 24th July 2019 and signed by 

one O.O Adeyeye on behalf of the permanent secretary, Festus  Olajide.

Based on this approval, Babayemi, through his foundation and with the support of 

the PDP leadership in Osun put together all logistics and had commenced classes 

in all the 28 centers with an average of 300 students registered in each of the 

schools obtained permission for, only for another letter dated 6th August 2019 to come from the office of the permanent secretary, Osun State Ministry of Education 

terminating the prior approval based on what the government called “logistic 

issues".

This initiative has been holding annually for the last few years and students across 

the District have been looking forward to this year’s edition with excitement.

The purpose of this initiative is to take these school children off the streets and get them 

engaged academically during the long holiday which has been done successfully in 

the last couple of years with quality coaching preparing them ahead of the new 

school session.

However, with this partisan decision from the Osun state Government, these 

innocent children, mostly from poor family backgrounds across Osun West 

Senatorial District, will be denied this opportunity of free qualitative education 

for six weeks.

The APC government in Osun has for the last few years to date introduced and 

implemented a fee for education across board for all children via the backdoor 

scheme of education tax. 

Students are not allowed to stay in school irrespective of  their family financial status while the government just keeps building and 

commissioning structures called mega schools worth billions of naira and getting 

poor families to pay for their ineptitude via a backdoor policy of education tax.

The questions that readily come to the mind of any right thinking member of the 

society are, did the ALAAFIA DOTUN foundation request other resources like 

teachers, instructional materials and writing materials from the state government?

Is the foundation planning to use all schools in Osun West Senatorial District?

Again, why is it that all the selected schools for this year’s edition were affected by 

what the government of the day termed “logistics”?

The state government should remember that education is important to the 

development of any society and as such, stop playing blind politics with the future 

of innocent children in Osun West Senatorial District.

Moreover, any lover of education would wonder why a government which is 

claiming to raise the standard of education after spending several billions of naira 

on school structures, is now raising this flimsy excuse and blocking these future 

leaders from having a taste of free qualitative education brought to their doorstep 

by someone that has been sympathetic about the state of education of children in 

his Senatorial District for years.

He is just trying to pull these children out of the abyss of examination failure which the APC government in Osun has brought upon them with failed  education programmes.

Writing the Zonal Inspectors of Education, putting an abrupt end to the summer 

coaching, actually shows the state government as enemy of progress.

It would be recalled that through the ALAAFIA DOTUN foundation, over four 

hundred students have enjoyed scholarship throughout their course of study in 

various universities across the country.