By Ismail Azeez
The Osun State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has accused Governor Ademola Adeleke’s administration of a “shabby and nepotistic” approach to the recent recruitment of teachers into the state’s public primary and secondary schools.
In a statement issued on Sunday by the party’s Director of Media and Information, Kola Olabisi, the APC alleged that the exercise was heavily skewed to favor the Governor’s hometown of Ede at the expense of the other 28 local government areas in the state.
According to the party’s analysis of the recruitment list, Ede South and Ede North were allocated a combined 88 slots, while other local governments were reportedly left with significantly smaller portions.
The APC further alleged that the distribution of slots extended beyond geographical favoritism to political patronage.
The party claimed that high-ranking government officials, including the Deputy Governor, the Speaker of the House of Assembly, and chairmen of the PDP and Accord Party, were all granted personal “slots” for the recruitment.
”Like a leopard that can never change its spots, Governor Adeleke has continued with his usual game of nepotism,” Olabisi stated.
He described the modality of the exercise as a “millennium sham” designed to disenfranchise thousands of applicants who had purchased forms and waited over two years for the process to conclude.
The opposition also raised concerns about the transparency of the list, alleging that the local government origins of several successful candidates from Ede were deliberately changed to other areas to “avert misgivings” from the public.
In a swift reaction, the Osun State Government, through the Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Kolapo Alimi, dismissed the allegations as speculative and misleading.
The government maintained that the recruitment followed a structured, phased implementation plan designed to address the deep structural deficits in the education sector inherited from the previous administration.
Governor Adeleke, speaking through his spokesperson Olawale Rasheed, emphasized that the recruitment was based on merit and the urgent need to fill vacancies in public schools.
The administration noted that the first batch of successful applicants is expected to begin the collection of their appointment letters on Monday, March 9, 2026.
As the state prepares for the August 15 governorship election, the exchange underscores the intensifying political rivalry, with the APC framing the recruitment as a “daylight robbery” of the state’s youth, while the government defends it as a transparent effort to reposition Osun’s education system.