By Abu Michael.
Activities leading to the Kogi state governorship election is gathering momentum with the standard bearers of political parties criss crossing the length and breadth of the state trying to woo the electorate.
The candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Hon. Ahmed Usman Ododo has not left anyone in doubt that he has all it takes to fly the flag of his party in the November, 11, 2023 contest.
Although, the election, may be fought with ethnic or regional colourations, the performance of the incumbent Governor, Yahaya Bello in the education sector for the purpose of hindsight, would be the selling proposition to garner votes across the State for his party APC.
Talking about performance in other sectors, it would be right to say Gov. Bello’s administration has left indelible marks in the road subsector within and outside the state capital, constructing several kilometers of roads. The transformation in the health sector, with the reference hospital Okene, standing as a signature project in the sector for the present administration aside from other health institutions spread across the State remains unprecedented. The building of a flyover bridge, Muhammadu Buhari Civic Centre, Omi Rice, just a mention of a few projects by Gov. Bello marks him out as a performer.
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 had since inception set its thematic area of concentration, which include education, and technology education as brides.
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 in infrastructure and human capital development, to improve the standard of teaching and learning.
To achieve his aim, the Universal Basic Education Board, UBEB, 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.
A 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 become the darling of admission seekers. The status it earned, ranked her higher than most of her older generations across the country.
The university was 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 in faraway states, albeit without success, even with attendant risk on the roads, have had a solution. Hundreds of students are today being admitted at home.
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 their financial standing. Little wonder, CUSTECH has provided and accommodated tens of hundreds of Kogi state students, those who may not have been able to access other universities for want of resources.
Although not a tuition free university, the governor 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.
When many thought they had seen the peak of Gov. Bello’s achievements in the CUSTECH, his latest establishment of the Kogi State University Kabba, another icing on the cake, has kept tongues wagging. The people marvel as to the depth of his love for his people, particularly the leaders of tomorrow.
The KSU Kabba made a record as the fastest University ever to be registered by the National University Commission, NUC, and listed by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB. It would matriculate its first set of students in October.
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.
The recent policy of free education at the primary and secondary school level of education, with the payment of BECE, WAEC, NECO, and JAMB for students in public schools in the State, underscores Gov. Bello’s commitment to the education sector.
The establishment of the GYB Model Science Secondary Schools spread across the State has made Kogi State a positive reference in the encouragement of study of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics in the country.
His penchant for the best in all sectors informed the establishment and construction of new technical colleges across the Senatorial Districts. He also has embarked on the reconstruction and rehabilitation of existing ones. He has promised to establish one in every of 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 with about 1500 already on the State government payroll. His GYB model schools located at Adankolo, Ajiyolo, felele, Oke- Ibukun, and Ogaminana, 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 the highest pass rates in West African Examination Council, WAEC results.
According to a 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 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 calendar 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, as they will not bother with endless stay of their children in campuses owing to relentless closure of other universities through ASUU strikes and other allied unions.
No wonder that Gov. Bello was so optimistic and confident to have unveiled Joel Salifu, the current state chapter of Nigerian Union of Teachers, NUT, 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
With the campaigns reaching its crescendo, 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.