Opinion
By POEM
DAVID Hundeyin needs no introduction. As much as the guilty may wish to malign and attack him, most times very bitterly, the young man has continued to nail any topic he is interested in with the hammer of impeccable facts. Based on his thoroughness in carrying out deep and sometimes tedious investigations, his conclusions are mostly topnotch. Recently, he offered a deep insight into President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s signing of Students Loan into law.
While analyzing the cost of quality education as available in progressive countries, the founder of West Africa Weekly added, _*”making said education more expensive under the guise of ‘student loans’ changes nothing.”*
At this juncture, POEM takes a trip back in history to Anambra State. Senator Chris Nwabueze Ngige inherited a terrible education situation in Anambra on being sworn in on a stolen mandate. He did well to return teachers to schools by clearing their backlog of salaries and hence, students and pupils went back to school.
Having witnessed the preceding government where schools were shut for over a year by striking teachers, Ngige’s immediate action of re-opening Anambra schools was hugely welcomed by the good people of the state. But the new governor was not all about re-opening schools. He declared emergency on roads and embarked on very commendable construction of roads. He was clearing salaries, paying gratuities and generally showing people-oriented signs in governance. For the 33 months he was on the saddle, the state never had it so good. Many, in fact most, people in Anambra were so happy with the governor that they did not mind how he came in. They clearly told HE Peter Obi to forget about his mandate since the man who stole it was doing excellently with the loot.
Obi recovered his mandate after 33 months. Most people of Anambra State were disappointed that he did. But when Obi settled down to work, the difference became very clear. First, he followed his promises to the people and having studied Millennium Development Goals, MDGs very critically, decided to follow it religiously.
On education, Obi knew that returning teachers, students and pupils back to school as well as paying teachers’ salaries regularly were not enough. Quality of learning was most vital. To get quality, environment and conditions of teaching and learning were critical. So, he embarked on building and renovating school blocks in all primary, secondary and tertiary schools in the state. But it was not just about buildings; he equiped all schools with comfortable chairs/tables and all necessary equipment of learning, laboratory equipment, computers and internet facilities, generating sets and construction of boreholes in most schools. Then school buses were bought brand new and distributed to all tertiary, secondary and some primary institutions.
When management of schools generally did not deliver the results the new governor desired, he decided and handed schools back to the original owners – the missions. But he didn’t just hand over, he continued to pump appropriate funds into this sector as well as providing more infrastructure. The missions, via their strict and prudent management, instantly provided morals, which was the bedrock of discipline and accountability that utilised huge funds provided by government effectively. The result was that Anambra State moved from number 26 in the country’s education standing he met it on assumption of office to number 1 (one) after five years of consistent funding and equipment. Anambra State remained in that position till he ended his second tenure.
It was not just about education. Obi once said that if you gave him an axe to cut down a tree in one hour, that he would spend 55 minutes sharpening the axe and just five minutes to cut down the tree.
In poverty alleviation, he first made a poverty mapping of the state by local government areas. Having determined the LGAs that were mostly poor, he started attacking poverty from there. In road construction, he was more interested in rural roads that helped rural development as a means of enhancing potentials in Agriculture and eradicating poverty.
Once he had linked all roads leading to food production areas, he went boom with networking the whole state with construction of link roads. From his sixth year in office, Anambra State was adjudged by the Federal Ministry of Works as the state with the best network of roads in the entire country.
The same methodical approach he extended to Health, Agriculture, Commerce and Industry, Civil Service including the Judiciary, Housing, Environment and all over through the Anambra Integrated Development Strategy, ANIDS which developed all sectors simultaneously. His achievement in Anambra was unprecedented, including saving and leaving behind N75 billion. The people saw real people-oriented governance and appropriately confined the Ngige days to the history of second best.
When the same people give him over 95 % of their votes despite all combined official forces to bring him down, the people are only paying back for his excellence in public service. Once he is in the ballot that percentage will not decrease provided people who witnessed his stewardship as governor are still around.
Today, just like Ngige, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is living on a very contentious mandate…and just like Ngige also, Tinubu is rushing to implement many of PO’s campaign promises as follows.
*Petroleum Subsidy Removal:* This was so hastily done that it is the masses who are paying the price of subsidy fraud instead of the cabals. There is nothing on ground to cushion this sudden jump to more suffering and subsidy which was paid till end of June in the 2023 budget was yanked off on May 29. Who will benefit from the one month shortchange if not the same cabal who have been benefitting? The Labour Party presidential candidate would have done it quite very differently, as he promised, that it must benefit the Nigerian people.
*Signing of Students Loan:* What does this change without improving infrastructure, appropriately equip our schools and install instruments of transparency and accountability? How will this loan be distributed to ensure the poor who truly need the loan get it? With the Senate President just installed, who will checkmate this government to ensure such loan will get to the masses? PO has handled quality and affordable education effectively in Anambra State before and if his government operates a Bank for Students Loan, it will be strictly for those students who need the loan. When he talked about removing subsidy, Education was one of the major targeted beneficiaries.
*Signing Electricity Bill into Law:* When PO returned from his trip from Egypt to study the efficiency of their power generation and distribution, he hinted on setting up a policy to empower individuals and private establishments to generate power like also done in South Africa. What measures has this government put in place before signing this into law? Are the players in this sector adequately protected with guaranteed assistance from government for effective productivity?
*Unifying the Exchange Rate:* Of course, PO made it very clear during campaigns, as a seasoned businessman and banker, how a unified exchange rate is the way forward. But is it by hurriedly arresting the CBN governor without thorough investigation and structuring the most effective mode of operation that will not only stabilise the naira but also attract foreign investments? How would this Tinubu’s haphazard and superfluous approach in a very critical sector usher in lasting stability? This is a sector that needs, more than any sector, the axe to cut down its tree of corruption and instability thoroughly sharpened for 55 minutes before the five-minute cutting down.
POEM believes that as much as the process of electing the present president is being challenged in Court, the nation should not stand still. Whether it is on a stolen mandate or not, we will support any government that is making the right moves but caution, (as we are doing right now), that a government that is hurriedly arresting, suspending, appointing and signing policies into law just to give the impression that they are pro-people must be viewed for what it actually is. Whatever policy or decision President Tinubu and his team are embarking on now for the nation must be firmly rooted. The masses have suffered so much that this diabolic strategy to push the Judiciary into endorsing an illegally declared president should be nipped in the bud.
Let them do it right. It will not stop justice from prevailing during ruling of the petitions in court. Ngige did far better but had to bow to justice. It will certainly happen in this case and PO, with Senator Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, is far more prepared and more experienced now to do much more for Nigeria than he did for Anambra nearly over a decade ago.
The beginning of repentance of a thief is returning the loot to the owner. Nobody should benefit from his wrongs.
TS
Tags: David Hundeyin Peter Obi President Bola Ahmed Tinubu Senator Chris Nwabueze Ngige
