“The most important thing for me is education.” Ogun State Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, stated this on Wednesday when he received a delegation from the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) on a courtesy visit to his Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta, office.

Explaining the reason for placing education on top of his administration’s priorities, the Ogun State Governor told the delegation led by Alhaji Dr. Dikko Sulaiman, Executive Secretary, UBEC, that “when you develop the lives of others, it is a huge thing you are doing.”

He added: “We are doing ourselves a favour by educating our people. This is why I take teachers salary as capital expenditure because it is money spent on developing the future of the country.”

Governor Amosun also informed the UBEC team of how public school enrolment figures have kept rising in Ogun State and explained that this is because people now realise the quality of teaching and learning that currently goes on in Ogun State public schools.

“The ever increasing enrolment figures show that people now know that we are giving quality education in our schools,” the governor said.

On his part, the UBEC Executive Secretary praised Governor Amosun and Ogun State government for what he described as “his contribution to the education sector in Nigeria.”

Alhaji Sulaiman also seized the opportunity to intimate the Ogun State Governor about the availability of a N74m Special Education Fund which he said the state government could access through UBEC.

While explaining that the Special Education Fund comes free of any conditions, Alhaji Sulaiman added that the Ogun State government can access another N440m Teachers Professional Development Fund, which he said, also comes without any conditions.

Governor Amosun promised to look into modalities for accessing these funds adding that “whatever fund is accessed by Ogun State will be judiciously utilised.”

•Photo shows Governor Amosun.

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