- APC: Makinde Govt Relegating Education to the Background
- PDP: We’re Clearing Mess Left By APC, Ajimobi Govt
By Kolawole Ojebisi
The All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Oyo State have started trading words over the supposed conversion of a part of the library complex in Dugbe, Ibadan, into a shopping complex.
The Oyo APC, through its Publicity Secretary, Mr Olawale Sadare, in a statement, described as sad the fact that buildings that should serve as public libraries and archives were being converted to commercial and business structures.
It described the erection of a shopping mall on the premises of the Oyo State Library as “stunning, shameful, ill-conceived and grossly unacceptable.”
The statement added that education and research have been relegated to the background just as aversion to reading is growing among the youth in the state.
“It is a sad reality that the buildings which used to serve as public libraries and archives in Dugbe axis of Ibadan have now paved the way for the development of commercial and business structures and the implication of this is that education and research development have been relegated to the background in the state by the same administration which has refused to address the issue of poor reading culture among young students.” the statement reads.
But in a swift reaction, the Oyo PDP through its acting Publicity Secretary, Mr Michael Ogunsina, said part of the plans of the Governor Seyi Makinde-led government was to relocate the library from where it is to another place conducive to its purpose.
The party argued that the particular part where the shopping complex was being built was the bushy part of the library premises which had been unattended to for many years and was becoming a haven for criminals and miscreants around the axis.
Ogunsina said the particular part of the library had become an eyesore, adding that the state government had an agreement with the developer currently working on the shopping complex to build a 200-seater CBT facility inside the library board for the use of the state.
“The library board is there and there is nothing that has happened to it. The APC should stop misinforming the people of Oyo State as that will lead them to nowhere.
“If their administration had done right by the library board, this administration wouldn’t have had any reason to convert the bushy part of the library board to a shopping complex befitting of the aesthetic of Ibadan city.
“The APC should be reminded that during the eight years they held sway, they did nothing to renovate the libraries in Oyo State.”
