Hon. Fatai Olukoga is the Special
Adviser on Education to the executive governor of Lagos, Barrister Babatunde
Raji Fashola (SAN), the experienced politician who retired as permanent
secretary in the civil service told Faith Irabor his political plans come 2015.
It is an interesting chat.
How would you describe yourself sir?
Well, as you already know my name
is Hon. Fatai Olukoga , and I am the Special Adviser on Education to Governor
Babatunde Raji Fashola .
What’s your score sheet for the Fashola`s
administration especially in the area of Education?
Yeah, the administration has really
gotten a lot of improvements in terms of the standard of classrooms that we
have now, which is conducive for learning, it has also improved in the area of
curriculum, we have given more books to students and there are lots of mock
exams that prepare them for their final exams like WAEC or NECO and while
you’re taking the exams if you do not pass, forget about going to the next
class and also if you do not pass, Lagos State Government would not pay for
your exams and this has made a lot of our students to struggle hard, and get
serious with their studies.
What were the structures that were
on ground before you joined the train and what are your contributions?
Okay, the same structures that have
been there right from the days of Governor Bola Tinubu and Jakande unlike the
Military era.
How exactly do you mean?
Yeah, Jakande tried as much as
possible to get lots of land to build structures to hold on and these are what
Tinubu laid on to build good class rooms that are very conducive for learning.
And Fashola also picked it up from there. For example go to Agidingbi Grammar
School, Mogaji Grammar school in Ojodu, and so on.
You’ve just talked about the
secondary school, let’s go to the tertiary institution now, for example we have
the case of the Lagos State University LASU where students are ask to pay through
their nose?
Let me tell you that there is no
way you can get your tertiary education free, it’s not free even in America, they pay between Twenty to
Thirty thousand Dollars for you to get it, but in Nigeria we have Universities
where students pay less and still get subsidized, what we call Bursary
awards and scholarships. Pointing back
to why the school fees were increased, these are the things that happened through the panel that was set up to look at
the many strikes that happened in schools, it was even this panel that said
school fees must be increased in order to have standard facilities in our
campuses. The school fees was improved to One Hundred and Ninety Four thousand
Naira which is the minimum and the maximum is Three Hundred and Forty Eight
thousand naira and with that we still
have a lot of them that are on scholarship and bursary awards. The non
indigenes go to their state to get this money and come to Lagos state
government to pay peanuts for getting best education. Our university is the
best in Medicines, Law and Engineering. Go to their hostel in Ikeja, you will
see that it’s of high standard with air conditioned facilities.
But I don’t want to believe that we
still can’t achieve this without the school fees being increased?
Exactly, it is not the fees that
would bring all that. If you look at the students that are coming in, let’s
assume one thousand students pay the one hundred and ninety four thousand
naira, you know how much that is if you calculate, while the Lagos state Government
is putting about six Billion Naira
yearly to improve the facility. If you go there, you will see the central
library going on, so also is the Senate building, we also have the Law library
just completed and well furnished, the science faculty, transportation and all
are going on there.
What did the government do on the
protest that held weeks back?
Well those who protested are not
the real students of LASU. They are from
the external campus. What happened about the protest is because the National
University commission has directed that the external campus be scrapped and
it’s been abolished since last year 2011 and it’s only those who are there that
we are waiting for to finish their programmes and we can’t have new
admission. It’s like a face out and they
will get their certificates.
But do you think this is fair?
Yeah I think it’s good, they are
scrapping it because you can’t compare the type of education they are getting
to those at the main campus. These are people that go to work and would attend
classes only in the evenings, they have the means and could easily want to lure
lecturers to pass them if they need to, even though lecturers might refuse. So
these are the issues. Let me also say that those that conducted the rally have
their reserve. We wanted to know their actual numbers because some of them
would write exams and not pay, so these are their grouse but the issue has been
resolved.
So we won’t be seeing more of such
protest?
No no no… they have also come to
realize our point, though they were being used by the owner of the institution
and we know because their school fees has not been increased, and the increase at
the main campus does not affect them.
As an adviser on Education, what’s
your view on the propose changing of University of Lagos to MAOLAG in memory of
late Chief M.K.O Abiola?
Well to me, the Federal government should have
first taken the opinion of the people before they do it and that’s what they
have not done. They just woke up and say University of Lagos should be named
after late M.K.O Abiola. The school has been in existence for over fifty years
and they just want to change it all of a sudden. This is an institution that
has made its name and mark in the area of education. I think what the federal
government should have done is to create a new institution and name it after
Abiola rather than the way they went about it. I think it has gone through
reading in the National Assembly.
Do you think it would go the way
they want it?
To me, it may not be because there
are lots of agitation and people are no longer sleeping and are kicking against
it.
Would you say Governor Fashola has
done well in area of Education?
Yes of course, and that’s why
everybody is coming to understudy Lagos because of the way things are been done
in Governance, education, environment, medicine, transportation and so on. It’s
a model and nobody can doubt the ability of the current governor.
On a
lighter note, how do you find time to relax?
I unwind whenever time permits and
besides we are used to it. I was in the system before and retired as a
permanent secretary and I went back after retirement to join politics so it has
been part of me and I don’t see any difference again.
Can you run us through your
educational background?
I attended Ansarudeen College Isolo, after I left St. John School for my primary
school. I attended Makome’s college to do Medicine but after going for some
practical classes, I fainted and I realized I couldn’t cope with it, so I was
given Diploma in Applied Science. I also had my Bsc. in Social Science and
masters in Marketing & Industrial Relations. I am an author of a book
titled Managing People and I also co author Personal Income Tax in Nigeria.
Do we see you contesting for any
post come 2015?
Let me say this, in 2011, I ran for
the House of Representatives, Ikorodu Constituency same as where Abike Dabiri
came from so because of the party decision that Abike has to continue because
she’s doing well, we all had to accept that she did it again but now that she
has gone for third term, am sure that position would be vacant and I am going
to fight for it.
It’s been nice chatting with you?
Thanks.
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