NVOSI (Sundiata Scholar) – (Abia), Gov. Alex Otti says the State Government is putting measures in place to ensure that Abia children have equitable access to quality education, regardless of their financial background.
Otti said this on Monday in Nvosi, Isiala Ngwa South Local Government Area, when a delegation of the newly inaugurated Eighth Governing Council of the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike (MOUAU) visited him.
He said that government was determined to ensure that every Abia child was exposed to quality education, so as to be better equipped to compete with their contemporaries around the world.
He said: “For us, we want to give our children the opportunity to compete in the international arena.
“I tell you, our people are very blessed.
“And when they are properly resourced, they do better, even without anything they still do well not to talk of when you properly equip them.
“So, my promise to Abia people is that every child will have the opportunity to attend the kind of school we went to, whether they have the money or not, or whether they come from rich background or not.
“Today, we looked at all the issues, infrastructure is the major culprit but it is the easiest one to deal with.
“Then teaching staff is difficult but it can also be dealt with but the
most difficult one is the curricula.
“What are we teaching? How are we teaching what we are teaching?
“The world has become a global village where you are competing not with the child in Abia or Nigeria but with the one in China, India and California, amongst others.
“If you under resource your people, you have put them in a disadvantaged position,” the governor said.
He further said that the State Government considered education very critical to the socio-economic growth of the state as well as the individual’s development because without education he probably would not be the governor of Abia.
He disclosed that the government allocated 20 per cent of its 2024 budget to education and would diligently implement it for the transformation of the sector.
He commended the Federal Government for reconstituting the university’s Governing Council, describing the members as “people of integrity, committed to set goals.
He promised to support the council, saying that the institution could be described as an extension of the state’s property, given that it equally serves the interest of the state.
Earlier, the Pro-Chancellor of the university, Mr Fidelis Edeh, said that the council was in the state for its 87th meeting.
Edeh said that the institution speaks volume of the agricultural revolution of the Premier of the Eastern Nigeria, Late Dr Michael Okpara.
He thanked the government for putting processes in place to facilitate the issuance of Certificate of Occupancy to the university.
Edeh also said that the emergence of Otti as governor had rekindled the hope of the people of Abia and made Nigerians to understand the true meaning of democracy.
Also, a member of the Governing Council, Sen. Uche Ekwunife, described Otti as the new face of democracy, “which marks the begining of greater things for the state and ‘Ndigbo’ in general”.
Ekwunife said that the South-East governors were working with unity of purpose to develope the region.
She called for a uniform legislation by the five South-East states to facilitate the realisation of regional integration and development. (NAN)