Chief Press Secretary to Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, Mr. Taiwo Adisa, has declared that there was no sign of lopsidedness in the composition of Governing Councils of State-owned tertiary institutions announced on Tuesday.
DAILY POST gathered that Makinde had yesterday constituted governing boards of the six tertiary institutions in the state.
The composition was however described as lopsided in favour of Christians by the Director of the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), Professor Isiaq Akintola.
But, Adisa while reacting said that there was no truth whatsoever in the claims by Akintola.
Adisa said that an analysis of the appointments indicated that out of a total of 41 appointees named into the Governing Councils of the different state-owned institutions, there were 22 Muslims, while the list had 19 Christians.
“It was illogical for anyone to imagine that in a state like Oyo, a government would play up religious differences and make nominations into critical institutions without sound judgment.
“There is no truth whatsoever in the allegation that appointments into Oyo State tertiary institutions were lopsided against the Muslims.
“A peep through the list of appointees would show that for Ibarapa Polytechnic, out of the six appointees, there were three Muslims and three Christians.
“The same is also true of Emmanuel Alayande College of Education, Oyo, which had three Muslims and Christians apiece. The same is also true of Oke-Ogun Polytechnic which had three Muslims and Christians apiece.
“For the College of Education, Lanlate, there were three Christians and two Muslims. There were three Christians as against seven Muslims on the board of the College of Agriculture, Igbo-Ora, while the Polytechnic Ibadan had four Muslims and four Christians on its board.
“We need to state it clearly that religious leaders must get their facts correct before coming into the open to make statements.
“However, no amount of spirited efforts by vested interests would succeed in dividing our people along religious lines. Our people are far too advanced to be deceived by such mundane sentiments. We can only advise purveyors of such unhelpful fiction to focus on another agenda that can assist the developmental agenda of the state.”
