Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State has charged public secondary school principals in the state to discharge their professional assignments without political partisanship and other unbecoming acts.
He gave the charge while declaring open the 35th congress of the state branch of the All Nigeria Confederation of Principals of Secondary Schools (ANCOPSS) at Lagelu Grammar School, Ibadan on Thursday.
The governor, who said that the charge had become necessary in view of the 2015 electioneering lurking around the corner, said “politics should be left to politicians so that our present level of friendship and progress will be sustained beyond the year 2015.”
While acknowledging their strategic roles in the development of the education sector in the state, he said that his administration had been partnering and synergising with ANCOPSS on how to build an Oyo State of his dream.
“Our administration regards education, not only as a social service but the best heritage that could be bequeathed to our children as leaders of tomorrow, hence, the prioritisation of the provision of education as a right of every child and youth of Oyo State,” he said.
Ajimobi advised the organisation to allow internal democracy to pervade the state congress, pointing out that the stability of ANCOPSS was the stability of secondary education in the state.
In her address, outgoing President of ANCOPSS, Mrs. Olufunmilayo Ojoawo, commended the support of the Ajimobi administration towards the achievements of the organization, praising the governor for lifting the ban on running grants to secondary schools and providing enhanced salary for teachers in the state.
Ajimobi, also on Thursday, condoled with family, friends and associates of former Managing Director of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Mrs Oluremi Oyo, over her passing.
The governor, in a statement signed by his Special Adviser on Media, Dr. Festus Adedayo, said that the demise of Mrs. Oyo, who was also a two-term President of the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) in a London hospital on Wednesday, was shocking and disheartening.
“Mrs. Oyo was a leading light in the journalism profession in Nigeria. She was a professional to the core and had used her skill and dexterity to lift the profession and impact positively on the lives of upcoming journalists.
“Her indelible contributions to the soaring image of the Nigerian Guild of Editors during her two-term tenure as the President of the body between 1999 and 2003 cannot be over-emphasised as she raised the ante of the Guild and brought it into more reckoning in the scheme of things in Nigeria.”
