Date Published: 03/31/11

Governor Ohakim's 'Let's Do More' Appeal: A case study of the collpase of education sector (1) by John Mgbe

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) electioneering for the forthcoming election is anchored on the message: “Let’s Do More”. It has been the trend for politicians to run their campaigns on the crest of snappy phrases which represent the embodiment of what they hope to achieve if they are voted into power. Bill Clinton ran his first campaign on the crest of: “Who Do You Trust?” President Barack Obama of United States ran his campaign on the message: “Yes, we can”. Our President, Dr Jonathan Ebele Goodluck powers his campaign on the message: “I am one of you; I went to school without shoes. If I can make it, you also can make it”. It sounds like an adaptation of President Obama’s message of: Yes, we can”. Such snappy messages enliven the political ambience as it serves as a rallying call for all the party faithful to fight for a common cause.

In our teenage years in Aba, Enyimba city of ABIA State of Nigeria, the clarion call, to rally everybody to a common agenda was: “Enyi Mba Enyi, Nzogbu, Enyi Mba Enyi,    Nzogbu Nzogbu, Enyi Mba Enyi. ----“Once the shrill, call of Enyi Mba---” rent the air, we would scamper out of our hideouts to the public square to answer the call to duty. Those were the days when Aba had its pristine values intact. It is sad that today, Aba, the land of my birth, has been taken over by vagrants, deviants, kidnappers and all manner of people who consume mind bending drugs. However, it is a thing of joy that Governor Theodore Orji of Abia State is living up to the task of repositioning Aba to its lost glory.

I was actually discussing Governor Ohakim’s campaign motto of “Let’s do more”. I am unable to understand what the PDP, Imo State, has in mind in asking for: “Let’s do more”. I have subjected this message to research and academic scrutiny and am afraid that if this request is granted Imo State will be a wasteland of unfulfilled promises, infrastructural dilapidation, abandonment of projects and, above all, the education sector will be totally destroyed.In order to buttress the point that this government has performed below average in the past four years, I now flash the searchlight on the education sector. I have chosen the education sector because it is an area that has an impact on every family and, above all, there is a consensus that education is the greatest industry in Imo State.

I wish to start this analysis by focusing on the travails/abandonment of Imo State University since this government was inaugurated on 29 th May, 2007. Imo State University (now called Evan Enwerem University) Owerri was founded by Governor Evan Enwerem who was the governor of Imo State from January2, 1992-Dcember 1993. Governor Evan Enwerem who later emerged the Senate President in 1999 became Governor of Imo State as a result of the election which took place in Imo State on December 14, 1991. Although he was in office for less than two years, he achieved so much in the education sector. In less than one year of his Administration, he used his knowledge as a barrister of about 30 years standing to establish the present IMO State University, Owerri. When Abia State was carved out of the old Imo State, the present Imo State no longer had a university. Instead of taking the tortuous and Herculean path of applying for a fresh licence to establish a university, he simply used the Instrument 0f Authority which was used to establish the IMSU at Uturu to mount the present Imo State University. He did this because he did not want to waste valuable time applying for a fresh licence.To Governor Evan Enwerem, the establishment of a university was a do or die affair. This feat was achieved within the first ten months of his tenure. Within the brief tenure, he also founded the continuing Education Centre M.C.C Road, OWERRI, an institution which he had planned to replicate throughout the State. It is pertinent to recall that his brief tenure was also marked by litigations from his political opponents: Engineer Ezekiel Izuogu and Dr. Alex Obi, both of Social Democratic Party (SDP). Senator Evan Enwerem was of the National Republican Convention (NRC). In spite of the fact that he was bogged down by these litigations, his agenda on the education sector as well the other sectors were not derailed.

It is provocative that after four years in office, Governor Ohakim has totally abandoned the education sector. About a few weeks from now, Governor Ohakim will go back to seek re-election; his first term expires on 29 th May, 2011. After four years in office, this Administration has not built even one room apartment in IMSU. This is the first time in the history of politics that any governor would complete a whole term without commissioning any project in his State University. No other governor has this ignoble record. If Governor Evan Enwerem could build a University within 10 months, one is unable to fathom why Governor Ohakim has performed so abysmally in the education sector, more so, considering that Chief Ohakim was a commissioner in the government of Evan Enwerem.

Perhaps, the most provocative aspect is that after four years, Governor Ohakim does not have the political courage to even announce the permanent site of the University. This is in spite of the fact that a Visitation Panel which was set up by the Governor had recommended thus: “The panel recommends Ogbaku in Mbaitoli LGA as presenting the best potentials for the relocation of the university”.

One of the terms of reference of the Visitation Panel was to “make recommendations as to the suitability of the present site of the university to continuous academic learning or alternative site conducive to academic learning”. The Visitation Panel was inaugurated on 18 th April, 2008 and the Government White Paper was released on June 2009. After about two years of releasing the White Paper, nothing has been heard about the permanent site of IMSU. There is no other university in Nigeria that has operated from a temporary campus for this long (1992 to date).The relocation of this university has featured in all the fiscal budgets since this government was inaugurated on May 29, 2007.

On a related note, the Visitation Panel recommended the removal of the site for college of Engineering, Okigwe to another site. As we speak, the College of Engineering, Okigwe is in the doldrums, in a state of stagnation and abandonment. Like the travails of the temporary centre at Owerri, not even a batcher has been built there by this administration in its 4-year tenure. Similarly, the Imo State University Teaching Hospital (IMSUTH) at Orlu has been totally abandoned by the government. IMSUTH was built by the immediate past Governor, Chief Achike Udenwa. Since his ascendancy to power on May 29 th 2007, no new project has been flagged off or commissioned there. All the projects which were in progress before Chief Udenwa left are simply left to waste away. The state – of – the art equipment which was imported by Chief Achike Udenwa cannot be mounted on account of lack of befitting structures to accommodate them.It is pertinent to state that the pioneer medical doctors of IMSU emerged after ten years of academic work. Even now, there are fears that the full accreditation of IMSUTH which was facilitated by Professor I.C Okonkwo, the suspended Vice Chancellor, stands the risk of being truncated as a result of declining infrastructure as well as numerous consultants/medical experts who often transfer their services to greener pastures. The experts there are leaving in droves in search of greener pastures. In 2010, the Resident Doctors were on strike for over five months and even now both the Resident Doctors and the ancillary staff are on strike. As at today, 24/3/11, IMSUTH is under lock and key. All the staff (doctors and the others) is on strike and the political leaders are not losing sleep about that. It is deplorable that a governor whose subjects are dying in droves as a result of lack of medical care could tell an audience, a few days ago, that: “IMSUTH is not on strike. They did operation (surgery) there yesterday”. Too Bad! Rather than reacting to the question with arrogant indifference, a humane and compassionate governor would have been more diplomatic in answering such a question. As we speak, all the heavy medical equipment for cancer scanning, laboratory tests and miscellaneous technology rot away as they are exposed to inclement weather and the vagaries of the elements. The internet facility which was attached to IMSUTH library has  been epileptic and now it has finally  closed down because of lack of funds to subscribe to the Internet Service Provider (ISP). How can medical students operate in an environment that has no internet platforms? How can they search for knowledge? Can doctors trained under such a condition compete with their colleagues from other institutions?

Although the government abandoned the  IMSU, IMSUTH and College of Engineering,Okigwe and even Polytechnic, Umuagwo, the fiscal budgets for 2007-2011  made huge appropriations for these institutions. Please study  the budgets stated below.

Year 2008 budget for Education sector :

In the 2008 budget, a total of N3,771,225,598 was allocated to the education sector. This represents 47% of the total budget for the social sector which is composed of Education, Health, Women Affairs, Youths/Sports, Culture and Tourism. The social sector was allocated a budget of N8,023,865,598. The 2008 budget stated thus: “the government intends to complete construction works already going on at the IMSU College of Engineering, Okigwe. The government will construct 3 No Model Secondary Schools with boarding and modern educational facilities. The Administration is going ahead with the plan to establish rural libraries in the 27 LG As of Imo State”. The above are some of the proposals for the Education sector in 2008. But not even one was actualized.Present realities show nothing was done on College of Engineering, Okigwe; the 3 model schools were never built and the 27 libraries projected in each of the 27 LGAs was a sham. Even now after four years, neither the government nor any of the LGAs has built any library anywhere or added even one room to the State Library which was built in 1976 by Navy Commander Ndubuisi Kanu (retd). So, what happened to the huge budgets for these projects? The only valid explanation is that our politicians simply diverted the appropriated moneys to their private pockets. Please note once again that the social service sector is made up of Education, Health, Women Affairs and Sports.

2009 BUDGET(EDUCATION sector) :”The administration will undertake the establishment of Agro-Arc welding trade at the Government Technical College, Owerri to boost industrialization; renovation of 12 no classroom blocks in the Technical colleges in the State; Establishment of three model secondary schools in Owerri,Orlu, and Okigwe; construction of 4 no classroom blocks for out of school boys at Orlu, Okigwe, Owerri and at Afor Ajalla slaughter market, Mbaise; completion of the structures at both The College of Medicine and Engineering of the State University; continuation of the renovation and rehabilitation of the facilities at  the Imo State Library Board”. The social service sector was allocated a total of N12,921634,I31 or 14% of the total capital budget. This is an increase of N4,887,258,533 or 61% over THE 2008 allocation. In spite of the huge budget allocations earmarked, none of the projects can be eyemarked.Budget implication of the 2000 budget must have fallen below 30%.

2010 BUDGET (EDUCATION) :”The process of relocating the State University (The Evan Enwerem University) from its current temporary site to a new permanent site will commence. The School of Engineering(Okigwe) will be completed in 2010”. The allocation to the social services sector was N9,729,745,266 representing 13.75 of the capital budget. It is also true that the 2010 budget was perfunctory and a sham.

2011 Budget (Education): “Completion of the College of Engineering,Okigwe; Construction of 3 model secondary schools; relocation of Evan Enwerem University to a permanent site will commence in earnest”. Records show that in the 2011 budget, a total budget allocation of N6,381,180,000 or about 10% of the total capital budget was budgeted to the Social Service Sector where the education sector falls. Like the previous budgets, an objective analyst knows full well that the implementation of this budget was an abysmal failure.

We are fond of claiming that education is the biggest industry in Imo State; yet, we don’t satisfy the 26.5 per cent budget recommendation by UNESCO on education. In the past four years, there have been no capital or research grants to IMSU. The recommendation of the Visitation Panel that quota admission should be banished was rejected by the government. Consequent upon this aberration, admission into IMSU is mainly reserved for the wards of political cronies and the well placed in the society. A governor who really desires to “stop the rot in IMSU”( apology to Gov Ohakim) would not have rejected the Visitation Panel’s recommendation for a ban on quota admission. When academic mediocrities are offered admission because of quota formula, they go to any length to pass their examinations. They will sort; they will walk naked on campus; they will belong to secret cults. These factors are caused by the government who approve the admission of all manner of people into IMSU through the quota system. Everybody does not have the intellectual endowment to pursue university education. Most of the students admitted through the quota system should have been selling crayfish in Eke Onunwa market. Such graduates cannot compete favourably on the global scene. In spite of real or perceived shortcomings, the poor quality of graduates of IMSU is not caused by the dons. IMSU parades a rugged squad of brilliant academics who can compare with the best in the world. Those who are not confident of their academic integrity do not seek employment as academics; they go into politics, 419 activities, kidnapping, and related ventures.

A short while ago, the Head of the department of Building of IMSU was complaining to the world that he was graduating students who had no requisite practical exposure because of the lack of requisite equipment for practical training. In fact, he even asked the students to go and demand their rights. Is the School of Nursing now accredited? During my last encounter with some of these students, they were visibly disturbed as to what would befall them since, according to them, their programme was not yet accredited. They wore long faces and wondered what the future held in stock for them. It is dangerous for any government to graduate nurses/doctors who do not have the requisite practical exposure. People who do this should be tried for pogrom and mass murder. How can a government that has not even commissioned one room in the State University demand to be allowed to “Let do more” damage?

On Friday June 27, 2008 Governor Ohakim inaugurated a State Education Fund Committee to tackle the decay in the education sector. The chairman of the committee was Owelle Rochas Okorocha and seven others. However, the Committee could not actualize their mandate because they discovered that Governor Ohakim had no plans for the education sector. Not even a kobo was raised before Owelle Rochas opted out of the committee. Some members of the Committee include Festus Odimegwu, Chief Innocent Oparadike, Reginald Ihejiahi, Prof Dan Anyanwu Emma Agu and Dr (Mrs) Gloria Chukwukere. They could not collect even a kobo out of the targeted N50bn before they dumped the project because it became glaring that Governor Ohakim was not committed to the programme: The ongoing allegation that OWELLE Rochas Okorocha who was the Chairman of the Committee embezzled N50bn is an unfortunate distortion of facts. Does anybody really think that the like of Owelle Rochas Okorocha, EZE Festus Odimegwu and Professor Dan Anyanwu can ever be associated with embezzlement? Such people are the best in the society; they are not usually picked from the shelf. Like diamonds the deeper they are hidden, the more incandescent they become. In spite of what I feel, Ndi Imo have an opportunity to troop out on the 16 TH ,April to decide on whether to accept or reject the request of PDP to be allowed to “Let Do More.”

(To be continued).