The member representing Oriade/Obokun Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Hon. Wole Oke, has accused the Osun State Government of frustrating his plans to recruit about 700 part-time teachers into public schools within his constituency.
The allegation was contained in a statement signed by his Senior Media Aide, Mr. Segun Omolebi-Sunday, and made available to journalists on Thursday in Osogbo, the Osun State capital. According to the lawmaker, the initiative was conceived as an educational intervention to address acute teacher shortages in public schools across the constituency.
Oke explained that the proposed recruitment was to be implemented through his Education Trust Fund as a constituency-based intervention aimed at complementing, not competing with, the constitutional responsibilities of the state government. He said the plan was informed by the deteriorating state of public education in the area.
“At the time, public schools across Ijesa North were severely understaffed. Core subject teachers were scarce, classrooms were overcrowded, and learning outcomes were steadily declining,” the statement read. “The intervention sought to provide immediate relief through the recruitment of 700 qualified teachers drawn from NCE holders and university graduates.”
According to Oke, applications were publicly invited and received in large numbers, with candidates shortlisted using clearly defined criteria. He added that the Ipetu-Ijesa Campus of Osun State University (UNIOSUN) was selected as a neutral and accessible venue to ensure transparency and credibility in the process.
He disclosed that the recruitment exercise was designed to include multiple stages, including candidate briefing, aptitude tests, verification of credentials, oral interviews, and micro-teaching assessments, followed by panel deliberations. “A comprehensive screening schedule was issued ahead of the exercise, and everything was set after several weeks of planning,” he said.
Oke, however, alleged that the process was abruptly halted by the Osun State Government without prior notice or consultation. “There was no formal engagement with the organisers, no harmonisation framework proposed, and no structured absorption plan offered. The recruitment exercise was simply stopped,” he stated.
He further claimed that shortly after his initiative was stalled, the state government announced its own teachers’ recruitment exercise, which he suggested was intended to counter his intervention rather than collaborate on addressing the manpower gap in schools.
Reacting swiftly, the Osun State Government dismissed the allegation, describing it as an attempt by the lawmaker to score cheap political points. The Commissioner for Education, Mr. Dipo Eluwole, said he was unaware of any such recruitment plan by Oke.
“There is nothing of such. As the Commissioner for Education, I am hearing this for the first time,” Eluwole said. “Nobody stopped anything. There are PTA teachers everywhere. He is only trying to score a political point.”
The development adds to a history of political disagreements between Oke and the Osun State Government, particularly since the lawmaker left the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Both sides have clashed in the past over governance and political issues in the state.
Oke recently courted controversy after urging the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to deregister the Accord Party, the platform used by Governor Ademola Adeleke in the last governorship election on the grounds that it had no elected officials. The call was rejected by the governor’s camp, with Adeleke’s spokesperson, Mr. Olawale Rasheed, describing the demand as an “obsession with illegal and unconstitutional thinking,” and insisting that Accord remains a viable political platform.
