Daily Trust: What is the thrust of Governor Wike’s educational policy?
Tamunosisi Gogo Jaja: First is to eradicate illiteracy in Rivers State and use education to address the agitation in the Niger Delta region by taking schools to the creeks.
DT: How would you describe the education sector in Rivers State before the Wike administration?
Jaja: Before Governor Wike took over the government of Rivers State, the sector was already destroyed. Nothing was happening. We met a sector that was comatose, that was bedeviled with political influence in terms of postings and appointments. Principals and zonal directors were appointed without regard to seniority in service. We met a backlog of unpaid teachers’ salaries, a sector where school buildings were demolished without being rebuilt like the GSS Ogu in Ogu-Bolo Local Government Area. The past administration promised that they were going to build a new one and relocated the children, they didn’t do that. The Community Secondary School Nkpogu in Port Harcourt City Local Government Area was also destroyed and the children were relocated to Elekahia community. Till they left, they didn’t build it. There are many others too numerous to mention. That is the situation we met and a lot of uncompleted and abandoned school projects. Our tertiary institutions were also abandoned and facilities were left to decay.
DT: But we read that former Governor Rotimi Amaechi built and equipped numerous schools, how do we reconcile this?
Jaja: It is not true. What members of the public read was mere propaganda. What Governor Amaechi did was to either renovate or rebuild schools on major streets in Port Harcourt and furnish and equip them for the purpose of propaganda. Before the expiration of the tenure of that government, they constituted an advisory committee headed by a former Vice Chancellor of the University of Port Harcourt, Professor Nimi Briggs, whose committee report faulted the claims of Amaechi. Amaechi had earlier told Rivers people and Nigerians that he built over 400 schools. But his advisory committee after an inspection tour and site visits, submitted that they built and completed less than 177 schools without furnishing them. It was that government that destroyed the boarding system in our public schools and claimed to have built mega schools with N4 billion. Considering the exchange rate then, N4 billion would have renovated all schools in Port Harcourt, therefore, all you read about the building and equipment of schools were mere propaganda. Governor Wike met a dead education sector.
DT: How could this be possible?
Jaja: It is very possible! You may recall that on 27th May, 2015, Amaechi told Nigerians on national television that he would see where Governor Wike would get money to pay salaries and embark on projects. That literarily means that he was handing over a dead, collapsed and empty government.
DT: What has the government done since the assumption of office to improve the sector?
Jaja: Don’t forget that Governor Wike was a minister of state and coordinating minister of education. Therefore, when he took over in Rivers State, he was prepared to face the challenges. Since he stepped in, a lot of innovations, developments and progress have taken place in the sector. Governor Wike has re-modeled, upgraded and reconstructed Government Girls’ Secondary School Rumuokwuta with the introduction of boarding system. GGSS Rumuokwuta is fully equipped with modern learning and sports facilities. That school was built 40 years ago and since then, no renovation had been done there. What we have in GGSS Rumuokwuta is replicated in Government Secondary School, Ogu, in Ogu-Bolo Local Government Area, Government Secondary School Abua, Western Ahoada County High School Ahoada, a school that was built by the Eastern Nigerian Government in 1957. Before the intervention of Governor Wike, that school was completely dead. We have also reconstructed, re-modeled and upgraded Birabi Memorial Grammar School Bori, which is the traditional headquarters of Ogoni land. Government Secondary School, Onne, has been re-modeled and reconstructed with state-of-the-art laboratories and ICT equipment. We are also upgrading, re-modeling and reconstructing Bonny National Grammar School with the reintroduction of boarding facilities and Government Secondary School, Okarki. For want of space, I want to say that within three years, Governor Wike has re-modeled and renovated over 200 schools across the 23 local government areas of the state.
DT: But Amaechi said he revolutionised education in Rivers State, so, how do react to that?
Jaja: Recently, Governor Wike went to Ubima, the home of Rotimi Amaechi. That is his village. I am not talking about local government, I mean his village. For eight years, there was no school there. The children went to school in Igwuruta or Elele, the neighbouring communities. In the course of doing so, some of them faced some hazards on the road. When Governor Wike came, the only community school they had in Ubima was overtaken by weeds. No roof, nothing. It was Governor Wike who went to Ubima to reconstruct and remodel the school. As I speak with you, life has returned to that school. But this is a man who said he revolutionised schools or education in Rivers. You don’t carry propaganda, you don’t play politics with the future of our children. Governor Wike has told Rivers children that their future is his priority and he is doing everything humanly possible to ensure that he keeps his word. I would urge members of the public to believe Governor Nyesom Wike rather than the propaganda of the last administration.
DT: A book fair was instituted by Amaechi which he said would be an annual event, why was it stopped?
Jaja: How many times did Amaechi carry on that project? There are certain things you don’t talk about. How many times did he carry out that book fair?
DT: What reforms were carried out in the Rivers State University of Science and Technology?
Jaja: First is that there are faculties that were started when that university was known as College of Science and Technology that were not completed such as the Faculty of Law, Faculty of Technical Education, Faculty of Environmental Sciences and the library. For you to have a university there must be research in the institution. Before the arrival of Governor Wike, they couldn’t talk about research in that university. But Wike has encouraged research in the institution. We have a federal university in Port Harcourt, the University of Port Harcourt that has a college of medical sciences.
We discovered that Governor Wike has been building, renovating and upgrading general hospitals. We have need for doctors. Our children are not given admission because of quota system in the University of Port Harcourt. Governor Wike said we need a college of medical Sciences in our state university. And when we approached the National Universities Commission (NUC), they said our university is a science and technology university, therefore, we can’t have a college of medical sciences here. In order to accommodate that, Governor Wike championed the move to change the university from University of Science and Technology to Rivers State University to enable us introduce the college of medical sciences, and that was done. Today, that college has been completed and commissioned and students have been admitted. Governor Wike finished and commissioned the Faculty of Technical Education in the university in June.
On the Captain Elechi Amadi Polytechnic, like I said, we met just one accredited course. It took the intervention of Governor Wike to send in funds to upgrade facilities there. Today, we have additional 19 courses in that polytechnic.
