Oyo Govt Reaffirms Religious Balance In Appointment Of Tertiary Institutions Boards

The Chief Press Secretary to the governor of Oyo State, Engineer Seyi Makinde, Mr. Taiwo Adisa, has declared that there was no sign of lopsidedness in the composition of Governing Councils of State-owned tertiary institutions announced on Tuesday.

A statement by the Governor’s Media aide, which was made available in Ibadan on Thursday, indicated that there was no truth whatsoever in the claims credited to a Muslim leader and Director of the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), Prof. Isiaq Akintola, that the appointments came with religious bias against the Muslims.

According to the statement, an analysis of the appointments released by the government of Oyo State on Tuesday indicated that out of a total of 41 appointees named into the Governing Councils of the different state-owned institutions, there were 22 Muslims, while the list had 19 Christians.

The statement read: “It was illogical for anyone to imagine that in a state like Oyo, a government would play up religious differences and make nominations into critical institutions without sound judgment.

“There is no truth whatsoever in the allegation that appointments into Oyo State tertiary institutions were lopsided against the Muslims.

“A peep through the list of appointees would show that for Ibarapa Polytechnic, out of the six appointees, there were three Muslims and three Christians.

“The same is also true of Emmanuel Alayande College of Education, Oyo, which had three Muslims and Christians apiece.

“The same is also true of Oke-Ogun Polytechnic which had three Muslims and Christians apiece.

“For the College of Education, Lanlate, there were three Christians and two Muslims.

“There were three Christians as against seven Muslims on the board of the College of Agriculture, Igbo-Ora, while the Polytechnic Ibadan had four Muslims and four Christians on its board.”

“We need to state it clearly that religious leaders must get their facts correct before coming into the open to make statements.

“However, no amount of spirited efforts by vested interests would succeed in dividing our people along religious lines. Our people are far too advanced to be deceived by such mundane sentiments.

“We can only advise purveyors of such unhelpful fiction to focus on other agenda that can assist the developmental agenda of the state.”