Date: 2012-09-18

The Kwara State Government has advised the state chapter of the Action Congress of Nigeria(ACN) to properly educate itself about the state it is seeking to govern rather than distracting the people with meaningless propaganda.

Reacting to a statement by the ACN challenging Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed's reported assertion that the state has 25000 teachers at the basic education level, Senior Special Assistant on Media and Communications to the governor, Dr. Muyideen Akorede, dismissed claims that the state governor deliberately misinformed the public and admonished the opposition to check their facts before tackling the government on its policies and programs.

"The ACN continues to seek relevance through vile but mischievous and misinformed attacks on the state government. To challenge the reported assertion that we have 25000 teachers in basic schools across the state reflects ACN's ignorance about the state it is desperate to govern. Kwara State has 1500 schools at the basic level, which, we must state for the ACN's information, comprises primary schools and junior secondary schools. Any primary school pupil with knowledge of basic mathematics will know that translates to roughly 17 teachers per school, not 50 as the ACN wrongly claims. If we factor in the number of arms at each of the six classes at primary schools, for example, the figure is even lower. This obvious misrepresentation illustrates not only ACN's ignorance but exemplifies an on-going charade designed to persuade its paymasters in Lagos of continued relevance in Kwara politics", said Akorede.

The state government said it is common knowledge that additional qualified teachers are still required at the basic and secondary education levels, especially given the government's emphasis on reducing class sizes and the ratio of teachers to pupils. It called for constructive opposition based on meaningful criticism and robust alternatives to government's laudable programs rather than misrepresentation and misdirection. Exhorting the ACN to stop playing politics with serious issues of governance which concern the people's welfare, the government pointed to its employment of 2000 youths, the rehabilitation of 240 blocks of classrooms, regular payment of student bursary, rehabilitation of the education resource centre and the forth coming International Vocational Centre, Ajase-Ipo as examples of its on-going strides in the education sector.

While calling on the people of Kwara State to continue their support for the PDP administration of Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed and its people-friendly programs, the government advised them to ignore the antics of the opposition party? Akorede warned ACN officials to conduct themselves with decorum and refrain from calling the governor names as this is unjustified, untenable and unacceptable.