It is mindboggling for one to read in the Guardian of Monday October 19, 2009, a report credited to the Action Congress (AC) that the 33 vice chairmen in Oyo state, all members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), spent N3 billion on a foreign trip. The Education Rights Campaign (ERC) condemns this wasteful venture and sees it as not only irresponsible, but also a crime against the people of Oyo state and by extension, Nigerians. The jamboree trip is also unacceptable to Nigeria students and youths.


The ERC finds it extremely difficult to appreciate why the Alao-Akala led government would embark on extravagant activities when the state is suffering from huge infrastructural deficit and workers poorly remunerated. This is a state where public sector workers have been told that they do not deserve anything better than the poverty minimum wage they currently earn, an action that has provoked several strike actions. The Oyo state government like other state governments will always claim not to have money for social infrastructures, workers and student welfares and other developmental programs, but will readily, with the speed of the light, always embark on wasteful activities and looting of public resources. Each time these self serving leaders are confronted with their responsibilities, they keep stating that there is global economic meltdown; federal monthly allocation has gone down; paying workers more salaries will cause inflation, and all kinds of jargons.

The Action Congress (AC) is not any way different from the People Democratic Party (PDP), hence cannot claim to be fundamentally opposed to the PDP. PDP and AC are political parties that engage in all manners of anti-people activities vis-à-vis waste and corrupt practices. In the same Oyo state, the 3 AC lawmakers were part of the 32 Oyo state lawmakers (23 PDP and 6 ANPP) that embarked on a wasteful trip to Germany early this year which gulp N100 million. It was the second similar trip embarked upon by the lawmakers; the first was a trip to United Kingdom between September and October 2008. This goes to show that there is no clear difference amongst the established political parties. If there were any difference, the 3 AC lawmakers would not have joined in similar jamborees. In other words, the AC is only crying out loud, because it did not participate in or benefit from the recent jamboree, and definitely not for the love it has for the people.

The Education Rights Campaign (ERC) calls on the Oyo state government to immediately put an end to this policy and regime of profligacy. We also demand that the government should immediately deduct all money spent on these wasteful trips from the emoluments of the beneficiaries while such resources along other taxpayer’s money should be used to fund education, health and other basic infrastructures.





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Hassan Taiwo Soweto Chinedu Bosah

National Coordinator National Secretary

070336997259. 07033775517.