Members of the Oyo State Chapter of All Nigeria Confederation of Principals of Secondary Schools have distanced self from a publication in which some secondary school principals allegedly reported to have threatened a showdown with the State governor, Engr. Seyi Makinde over non payment of school grants.
Recall some school principals according to interview granted anonymously have threatened that the first term exam slated to have commenced Monday this week would not go on unless the State government releases grant and subvention that would serve as logistics for the exam purpose.
In a statement issued on Wednesday and signed and sent to ODUDUWA NEWS by the State Chairman and the Secretary of ANCOPSS, Pastor Ojetunde Mojisola and Comrade Akin Akinade respectively, the body described the publication as another propaganda that must be challenged, as there was no time or occasion that called for such threat.
They said the cordial relationship between the present administration and the State’s ANCOPSS would not be allowed to be destroyed by those behind what they termed ‘spurious allegation’ which claimed that the body has directed all principals in the State not to commence examinations in schools until school grants are paid.
Oyo ANCOPSS challenged those behind the report to come up with written or oral evidence of such directive from the leadership of the Principals.
“The attention of the leadership of All Nigeria Confederation of Principals of Secondary Schools in Oyo State, ANCOPSS, has just been drawn to a publication by ‘Oyo Today’ with the caption above. Ordinarily, the Confederation,(ANCOPSS), as a responsible and reliable professional body, would not have dignified the publication with any response, but since the paper categorically stated that the leadership of the principals directed them not to start examinations until the grants are paid; then there is an urgent need to set the record straight.
“Joseph Goebbels, the infamous Nazi Minister of Propaganda said;
”The bigger the lie, the more people will believe, If you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it and you will even come to believe it yourself”, So, there is the need not to allow such spurious allegation to go unchallenged as it may be seen as the truth if left unchallenged.
“We are also conscious of the fact that this is the season of election where all sorts of lies are bound to fly around all in the name of dirty politics. Consequently, the Confederation will not fold its arms and allow purveyors of lies to destroy the cordial relationship that exists between the Confederation and His Excellency, Engineer Seyi Makinde (FNSE) since the inception of this administration.
“The Confederation wants to make it categorically clear that the leadership of ANCOPSS in the state at no time instructed its members either orally or in writing or in any form not to start the examinations. We challenge the writer to bring any proof to the contrary since the burden of proof is upon the person making the allegation. Such a bogus claim could only have emanated from the warped imagination of the writer.
“It should also be noted that this is the first term examinations where each principal is allowed to use his/her discretion to decide when to start, unlike the joint promotion examination with a rigid time table, as a matter of fact, many of our schools already started their examinations while others are preparing to start this week and early next week.”
They also punctured another claim in the said publication which stated that Oyo State was came thirty-three in the ranking of the 2022 West African Examination Council (WAEC) examinations, saying that the council’s head in Nigeria has denied the report over a month ago.
“The Publication also claimed that Oyo State placed 33rd in the 2022 WAEC conducted senior secondary school certificate examinations. This is despite the fact that the Head of National Office in Nigeria came on national television to deny such a ranking more than four weeks ago.
“The Commissioners of Education in the South West Geopolitical zone invited the Head of WAEC in Nigeria to a meeting where he denied that the organization made such a statement. All these were generously reported by both print and electronic media, but these purveyors of fake news still went ahead to make their bogus claims.
”It is crystal clear that it is the desire of these political jobbers to destroy the cordial relationship between GSM and the principals which led the enemies of progress, the brewers of hate, discord and disharmony to script a dirty tale to ruin this cordial relationship because, they nurse a noxious, deep-rooted loathing for ANCOPSS as a supporter of GSM’s administration.”
The leadership of Oyo State ANCOPSS went further to reveal that many opposition parties have invited the body to meetings in the build-up to the 2023 general elections which were turned down as they would not want to be dragged into open politics.
“May we also place it on record that the leadership of ANCOPSS has been invited by many politicians to meetings that they politely turned down with the explanation that we are professionals, not politicians. It is on account of this that they assembled morally degenerate dissemblers who accept money from their pay masters, then go ahead projecting their moral fragility, journalism ethical rottenness and lack of principles.
“The Principals in Oyo State are very senior public servants with ample knowledge of public service rules and would therefore, not allow anybody to drag them into the murky waters of politics. We have informed our legal adviser to take any action he deems fit to ensure that nobody tarnishes the good reputation built over six decades by our founding fathers and mothers.
“The principals in Oyo State already keyed in into the vision of His Excellency for accelerated educational development in the state, and we shall continue running with that vision.
”Having traveled far and wide and having exchanged notes with our colleagues from all the States of the federation, we can say without fear of contradiction that we stand with His Excellency on his educational policy.
”Virtually all what principals in other States are begging for have been given to us without any agitation whatsoever in Oyo State. These include the position of Tutors General, employment of over 5000 teachers in one fell swoop while over a thousand non-teaching staff have been converted to teaching staff.
“Also, there have been distribution of furniture and laboratory equipments, intervention classes for students across the State, promotion of members as at when due, regular payment of salary and pensions, training and retraining of teachers and many others. We stand with GSM,” the statement read.