Last week, I watched the Secretary to the Government of Edo State, Barrister Musa Ikhilor who appeared on Channels TV Politics Today roasting the former Governor, Godwin Obaseki and by extension, his Education Commissioner, Joan Oviawe who oversaw the sham known as EdoBest.
The SSG said EdoBest was never about improving education but a well packaged deception to secure the World Bank’s $75 million grant. He alleged that under Obaseki and Oviawe, EdoBest became a PR stunt with no real substance. And the reality as even the anchor of the program, Seun Okinbaloye would testify was crumbling classrooms, unpaid teachers and students leaning under trees.
The anchor narrated the true story himself when Oviawe had opportunity for a right of reply in the same program and in a different date – if EdoBest was truly a success, why are Edo schools in their worst condition ever? But Oviawe was dumbfounded and unable to put up a defence over the sham she supervised.
Barrister Ikhilor has seen firsthand, what Obaseki left behind – ghost schools, dilapidated buildings, and a learning system in shambles and of course, Seun Okinbaloye attested to this when Oviawe appeared on the show.
According to Ikhilor, even in major local government areas like Oredo and Ikpoba-Okha, basic education infrastructure is nonexistent. Besides, there are no trained teachers, no functional classrooms and no resources. But Oviawe and Obaseki called this a revolution.
“Oviawe can lie”, someone commented on the video. “She lies effortlessly”, another commentator said. When Oviawe said that Obaseki’s first visit as governor was to Benin Technical College, she refused to tell her audience that only a few classrooms were renovated at the Benin Technical College and this was largely funded by international donors such as Canadian government, Italy among others. Obaseki did nothing for technical education.
But here is a contrary – Governor Monday Okpebholo has within his first 100 days in office, approved the recruitment of 100 teachers for technical colleges across the state and more in the offing.
According to Oviawe and in her defence of Obaseki said her Boss gave us speeches and workshops within his 100 days in office – “in Obaseki’s first 100 days, he organized Basic Education Workshop”. But here we have a governor who is giving us teachers and infrastructure within his first 100 days in office.
So, it took Obaseki and Oviawe three months to put together a meeting, while schools continued to rot. Meanwhile, it is this same period and timeframe that Okpebholo is already hiring teachers, fixing schools, and breathing life into the education sector. While one wasted time on “policy discussions”, the other is actually solving problems – practical governance.
That’s not all. Oviawe even indicted herself in that interview with Seun. She admitted that when Obaseki took office, learning outcomes were at an all-time low, teachers were not going to work, and primary six students could not read or write.
But here is the gist. Obaseki was the Chief Economic Adviser to the Comrade Adams Oshiomhole administration before he became governor. And so, if the education system was already shaky, what did he do as the key policy adviser of the previous government? So, it’s safe to say Obaseki watched the system collapse. Obaseki sat in the office approving policies that led to this decline. That’s exactly what Oviawe simply implied. It was simply a self-indictment because Oviawe’s statement proves that Obaseki inherited a crisis he helped to create.
Here’s another – one of EdoBest’s flagship programs according to Oviawe was EdoStar – Edo Supporting Teachers to Achieve Results, which was nothing but a deceptive contract employment scheme. Teachers were brought in under the guise of a proper job, but they were placed on short-term contracts with no job security. Oviawe testified to this too.
That’s not all, Oviawe herself admitted on national television that these teachers were only to be permanent if they performed well. That means Obaseki didn’t actually hire teachers – he simply introduced a temporary, unsustainable system.
Now, contrast this with Governor Okpebholo, who has already approved full-time recruitment of 100 teachers for technical schools and 500 for other schools.
The thing is – if Barrister Ikhilor wasn’t demolishing Obaseki and Oviawe, Seun Okinbaloye did. The Channels Politics Today’s anchor journalist confronted Oviawe with damning statistics saying, “over 20% dropout rate in Edo schools under Obaseki, over 20% upper secondary school students out of school, and classrooms in Edo state were so bad that even animals would struggle to stay in them.”
Faced with these cold facts, Oviawe had no defense. She stumbled, deflected, and failed to explain why Edo state education sector deteriorated so badly under her watch. The scam she supervised.
When asked why so many schools were left to rot, Oviawe’s excuse was, “no government can fix everything”. But in the same breath, she blamed the previous Oshiomhole administration where Obaseki was the Chief Economic Adviser. The question is: how does that make sense? If Obaseki was in charge of policy under Oshiomhole, then he was part of the problem.
And so, we now have an Oviawe who has exposed her own contradictions – a prevaricator and hypocrite. This is what we have as EdoWorst – no infrastructure, no qualified teachers, no effective learning system and no real progress.
For eight years, Obaseki and Oviawe sold Edo people a lie – they called it “EdoBest,” but in reality, it was EdoWorst.
