Public school: Ogun Assembly rejects bill on office holders’ children

Ogun State House of Assembly has thrown out a bill seeking to prohibit political office holders and public servants from sending their children to private schools.

The bill entitled: “A bill for a law to make political office holders and public servants to enrol their children in Ogun State public schools,” sponsored by the lawmaker representing Ogun Waterside, Hon. Harrison Adeyemi, was said to have been thrown out because of the procedural error on the part of Speaker Adekunbi Ishola Suraj.

The bill was initially presented at the plenary session of the House and had gone through first reading before it suffered a major setback when the Speaker called for the opinion of members of the House on it during the House sitting last Thursday.

The bill had sought an enabling law which would fast-track and enhance the educational transformation agenda of the present administration in the state under Governor Ibikunle Amosun and the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, government which has introduced free education policy as well as engaged in building model schools across the three Senatorial Districts of the state.

Adeyemi, who is the chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture and Forestry, had moved the motion for the second reading of the bill and had been seconded by Hon. Babatunde Edjunjobi representing Yewa South when it was thrown out.

After the motion for the second reading, instead of calling for the opening of the debate on the bill, the Speaker called for the opinion of members on it. All the other 24 lawmakers vehemently rejected the bill through their overwhelming “No” voice election.

It was, however, learnt that the bill was deliberately killed because most of the lawmakers have their children in private schools, rather than because of procedural error on the part of the Speaker.

Source: National Mirror