The former governor of Ogun State, Olusegun Osoba, has opened up on the reason he stopped sponsoring pilgrims to Mecca and Jerusalem during his tenure.
Osoba explained that he was disturbed that students in public schools were bringing desks from home, while many brilliant pupils were unable to sit for the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) because their parents could not afford the fees.
He stated that he decided to divert the funds for the pilgrimage to education and public infrastructure.
The former Governor made the disclosure while speaking after his investiture as Life Vice Patron of a club in Abeokuta, alongside Chief Olusegun Osunkeye.
“When I came in as governor in 1999, I was very upset that students were carrying desks from home to school, and a lot of brilliant students could not sit for WAEC because their parents could not afford the fee,” he said.
According to him, rather than spend public funds on Christian and Muslim pilgrimages, he chose to invest in education by producing and distributing desks and chairs to schools across the state and paying examination fees for final-year students.
“That was why I told them that instead of spending money on pilgrims, either Christian or Muslim, let me stop that and use the money to construct desks. I paid the WAEC fees of all the students. So whether your parents were able to pay or not, the government took care of the payment,” he stated.
He urged governments at all levels to embrace continuity in governance, noting that the lack of sustained policy implementation had been a major setback to Nigeria’s development.
He also called on Nigerians to take up farming as a survival strategy and urged governors to invest more in agriculture to tackle food insecurity.
Reflecting on his time in office, Osoba said he relied solely on career civil servants and did not bring in outsiders
“I never brought anyone from outside the state to work with me, not even a messenger. Whatever modest success we recorded was the work of the civil servants,” he said, citing rural electrification projects, rural road construction and the Abeokuta Hilltop housing estate as examples.
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