By Abu Michael.
The Kogi state governorship election , has kick-started with the final display of legible standard bearers. The candidate of the All Progressive Congress, APC, Hon. Ahmed Usman Ododo has duely complied with the provisions of law and have been granted certificate by INEC to fly the flag of his party on the November, 11,2023.
Although, the election, may be fought on the ethnic or regional colourations, the performance of the incumbent Governor, Yahaya Bello in the education section for the purpose of hindsight, would be the selling proposition to garner votes across the State for his party APC.
Kogi State, is a lover of education, as it prides itself as the lion of the North, whose citizenry would stop at nothing to ensure that their children and Wards get qualitative education.
The present administration has as its thematic area of concentration made education, and technology education a bride.
The Governor who is obsessed with quality, moved into action by first of all ensuring that the first rung of education, the primary education are given necessary impetus, being it infrastructure and human capital development should be enhanced to improve the standard of learning and teaching.
To achieve his aim, the universal basic education board which hitherto had been comatose, was given matching order to build, reconstruct and re-equip public primary schools across the state.
Infrastructures, such as befitting classrooms, desks and lockers, books were provided at no cost to parents. Governor Bello, moved a step further by establishing iconic and special primary schools across the three senatorial Districts.
According to survey conducted on parents in the state, revealed that many private primary schools are finding it difficult to get enough enrolment.
Drunken with nothing less than excellence, Bello moved on to establish a first university across the Niger to have been dedicated to science and technology in the whole of North Central zone, christened Confluence University of Science and Technology, Osara. The university in its infancy, has in both infrastructures and contents became the darling of admission seekers, the status it earned, ranked her higher than most of her older generations across the country.
The university conceived to produce mobile manpower that will usher the state to an innovative and technologically driven economy, a paradigm shift from consumption to production economy. The secondary school leavers of Kogi origin , who yearn for admission to faraway states in search of admission albeit without success, even with attendant risk on the roads have had a solution as hundreds of students are being admitted.
To shock readers, the confluence University has the lowest fees charged by any university of her status across the federation. The university as conceived by the Gov. Yahaya Bello is to be accessed by the citizens of the state irrespective of his or her financial standing, no wonder, that the university has provided and accommodated tens of hundreds of Kogi state students, those who may not have been able to access other universities across the shores of Kogi for want of resources.
Although not a tuition free university, but his excellency, has continued to subsidize fees and other sundry requirements which would have been a yoke for parents and guardians, if left to the vagaries of market forces.
Kogi State under Yahaya Bello was the first to tag on to the 65 years mark for teachers in Primary and secondary schools, the domestication, that has kept the best brains in the education sector translating to greater productivities.
His penchant for the best in all sectors informed the establishment, construction of new technical colleges across the Senatorial Districts and the reconstruction and rehabilitation of existing ones. He has promised to establish one in all the 21 local Government areas before the expiration of his tenure as feedstock for the Confluence University.
To keep to his promise of changing and turning the education sector into a goldmine, he recently recruited almost 4,000, digital teachers. His GYB model schools located at Adankolo, Ajiyolo, felele, Oke- Ibukun and Ogaminana, etc have taken patronage from the private schools in the state.
No wonder, his knack for sustainable development in education which is the bedrock of any economy, was the motivation for the nomination of a primary school teacher- Comrade Joel Salifu, the current state Chairman of NUT to run with Ododo, who is also, a man given to affecting lives of the rural workers.
The governor, when he was asked recently, what sector will occupy the remaining months of his administration -guess what -, even to the amazement of the interlocutor, said it is education, education and education.
His humongous investment in Education has catapulted the state from the rear to the front seat of states with highest pass rates in WAEC results.
According to report, the state in 2021 scored 82.34% in WAEC and other public examinations conducted for secondary school students. What this means is that more money will stay in the pockets of the parents who will not have to pay to rewrite the exams.
The parents and some of these students which the upliftment of education by this administration has enabled them to pass the almighty WASSSE at first sittings would have entered adulthood and qualified to vote in the forthcoming election. The choice of them voting for the APC will be incontrovertible, ditto their parents who constitute the chunk of qualified voters in the state.
As it is with the elementary and secondary class of education, so it is with the tertiary institutions funded by the state. The stable academic calender has made the state polytechnic, colleges of education and universities the darling of parents and students. The stability of academic calender had put more money in the parents’ pockets , who will not bother with endless stay of their children in campuses owing to relentless closure of other universities to ASUU and other allied unions.
No wonder, that Governor Yahaya Bello was so optimistic and confident to have unveiled Joel Salifu, the current state chapter of Nigerian Union of Teachers as running mate to Ododo.
According to the ebullient Governor, the Choice of Comr. Joel Salifu, a class teacher and a unionist as the Deputy Governorship candidate of the party was borne out of the desire of APC to carry every body along in its quest for the development of the State.
The governor urged the party members and supporters to go back to their wards and local government areas to mobilize support for the APC candidate ahead of the November election
At the nick of time when, INEC will blow the whistle for campaigns, Comrade Salifu who has done so much for the teachers through lobbying and constructive engagement with the government for his members welfare packages would combine forces with the standard bearer, Ahmed Usman Ododo , OAU, who equally has done so much for workers at the Local Government, and with Governor Yahaya Bello’s tractable records in all sectors of the state, APC is already a bride to electorate across the state.