Three Days to the 59TH Birthday Anniversary of Rt. Hon. Barr. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, CON., The Man Whose Administration Pioneered a Project to Eradicate Illiteracy and Make Rivers a State With the Highest Number of Lettered Citizens in Nigeria.
By
Eze Chukwuemeka Eze,
08022049770, ezemediaconcept2020@gmail.com
PREAMBLE
Highlight of His Feats in Education When He Held Sway as Rivers Governor as Captured in Chapter Five of the Historical Book Titled – “Amaechi: His Feats, Inspirational and Revolutionary Leadership Style”
CHAPTER FIVE
Amaechi’s educational revolution
On assumption of office in October 2007, the Chibuike Amaechi-led administration declared a state of emergency in the education sector and
took over the payment of salaries of primary school and junior secondary school teachers. It was the statuary function of local governments. This was to ensure that education took its rightful place in the scheme of things. This intervention cost the state government about Two Billion Naira, monthly. To further strengthen and ensure qualitative education in the state, Amaechi signed five bills passed by the Rivers State House of Assembly into law. Among them were the Rivers State Universal Basic Education Amendment Bill 2012 and the Rivers State Senior Secondary Schools’ Board Bill 2012.
The government targeted building 700 model primary schools with 350 completed, each with 20 classrooms and equipped with ICT facilities, modern libraries, science laboratories, football fields, basket and volleyball pitches and nursery playgrounds. A healthcare centre was built nearby each school for the benefit of pupils. These model primary schools were built to the standard of the United Nations as obtainable in developed parts of the world. The reason for the 750 world-class model primary schools to replace the decrepit 1,100 in the state was and many amenities for learning.
Another giant step taken by the Amaechi administration in the educational development of Rivers State was the construction of a new 20-classroom-block model primary school to commemorate the status of Port Harcourt as the World Book Capital. Known as World Capital City Model Primary School, the edifice is located in Port Harcourt Township and was already furnished and operational with commencement of classes for the 2014/2015 school year. In addition to classrooms and teachers’ offices, the model school was equipped with state-of-the-art facilities like demonstration science laboratory, library, ICT, sick-bay and reception class. The then former Commissioner of Education, Barr. Alice Lawrence-Nemi, stated that construction of the 20-classroom blocks was necessitated by the need to address the issue of out-of-school children in the state. The state government embarked on this project to ensure that every child in the state had easy access to the free education policy of the Amaechi-led administration.
The project was in line with the Education for All (EFA) and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) vision of providing access to education to all children of school age by the year 2015. Samples of the 20-classroom blocks were built in all the 23 local government areas of the state, which included demonstration science laboratories aimed at giving children the opportunity to visualise what they were being taught in class. The introduction of laboratories was in line with the New National Curriculum, which allows children from four years and above to be exposed to science education early so as to better understand science courses in the future. The demonstration class is where the teacher demonstrates for the pupils what they are learning. It makes teaching and learning easier for the teacher and the pupils.
Also, Home Economics was demonstrated in the Laboratory. The essence was to teach the pupils the basic ways of cooking, personal hygiene and general home-keeping. The schools were well equipped with hard copy and e-books. Amaechi promoted reading culture among pupils and students. Every school had reading period and pupils were made to pick a book. Each pupil was expected to summarise the book read during book reviews at the end of the period.
Throwing more light on his feats in the educational sector of the state, Amaechi stated, “Our educational system witnessed transformation in infrastructure and service delivery. Although constrained by the reduction of our revenue by more than half, our administration is proud of undeniable successes in our educational sector such as infrastructure revolution: Building and equipping over 311 world class primary schools and five model secondary schools; The retraining and recertification of teachers with the involvement of the British Council in Port Harcourt; Total elimination of strikes and disruptions by takeover of payment of salaries of primary school teachers amounting to about N2Bn per month; Recruitment of 13,210 teachers; Establishment of the Quality Assurance Agency; Introduction of Free Education up to secondary school level; Abolition of all fees in schools; Annual oversees scholarships in strategic branches of knowledge; Establishment of skills acquisition institutions to draw attention to self-employment and entrepreneurship; and above all, the outsourcing of management of schools in the state.
“The icing on the cake perhaps is the transformation of the UST from 79th to best state university in Nigeria and 12th over all best. There is also the establishment of a University of Education.
“As part of the Administration’s deliberate academic growth policy, we sent our children to schools overseas, while working on improving our facilities in the state. Back home, we sent others to rated secondary schools and universities. We are proud of our achievements in the education sector; and are equally proud of our children who proved that given conducive locale, they could compete with the best and brightest in the world. We have given over 3000 scholarships to our deserving children within and outside the country. Even with mounting pressure and competing interests we made the education of our children a priority as indeed it should be. Eight hundred million Naira (N800m) has been released to the Rivers State Sustainable Development Agency in this light to enable it pay down some of its obligations to our scholars (as at that initial time).”
(ii)
Amaechi’s scholarship programme
Jean Piaget, a Swiss cognitive psychologist on education, probably having Amaechi and his exemplary leadership in Rivers State in mind, stated and I quote, “The principal goal of education is to create men who are capable of doing new things, not simply of repeating what other generations have done.” In line with the stand of Piaget, the Government of Rt. Hon. Chibuike Amaechi not only offered free education to the people of Rivers State up to secondary school level, but scholarships in different universities in different parts of the world. They were as follows: Canada, 297; India, 202; Ireland, 30; Singapore, 136; United Kingdom, 384. There were over 1,049 students studying abroad under the Rivers State Sustainable Development Agency (RSSDA)
(iii)
Port Harcourt as UNESCO World Book Capital 2014
Port Harcourt, the capital of Rivers State of Nigeria, played a historic role when it hosted the US-Nigeria Bilateral Commission on October 16 and 17, 2012, thereby becoming the first city in Nigeria outside the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, to do so. This event is was a top bill in international rating and the strategic relevance of the Gulf of Guinea area made the meeting in Port Harcourt even more important. The United States Deputy Secretary of State and two Assistant Secretaries led the US delegation. On the side of Nigeria, the US-Nigeria Bilateral Commission was viewed with seriousness, especially by the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) led by Amaechi. It would be recalled that UNESCO, moved by the revolutionary feats of Amaechi in the education sector, crowned Port Harcourt the 2014 World Book Capital City in April 2014, beating ten other great cities that included Oxford in England and Moscow in Russia. Amechi achieved that against all odds. It demonstrated his visionary and focused leadership
His administration had, in addition, promoted overall United Nations activities in the South-South geo-political zone, through the provision of an outstanding facility that can house over 15 UN agencies in Port Harcourt. As a result, there are five UN agencies in Rivers State at the moment.
Port Harcourt’s reign as World Book Capital 2014 began with the handover by Bangkok at an impressive ceremony at Hotel Presidential in the Rivers State capital. Dignitaries at the event included former Governor Amaechi, former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar; Nobel Laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka; UNESCO Director-General, Ms Irina Bokova; former World Bank Vice-President (Africa), Dr Obiageli Ezekwesili; wife of the former Governor, Dame Judith Amaechi; Engr Tele Ikuru, then Deputy Governor of Rivers State; Rt Hon O.D Amaechree, then speaker of State House of Assembly, members of Rivers State Executive Council, senators and members of the House of Representatives from the state. This feat by Port Harcourt in becoming the very first African city south of the Sahara chosen as World Book Capital based on public voting, beating ten other great cities though commendable, marks Amaechi out as a hero of education in this generation.
(iv)
Special Awards
The Rivers State Government was adjudged the best performing state in the education sector within the South-South zone during this golden period of Amaechi. In recognition of this, the Federal Ministry of Education rewarded the state with the sum of N70 million for its performance.
The Rivers State Ministry of Education won the maiden edition of Babs Fafunwa Education Prize for Service Delivery. The award was in recognition of the massive deployment of infrastructure, effective management of human resources, and productive educational policies and programmes that have made a huge difference in the overall development of the education sector in the state and in the lives of target beneficiaries.
(v)
Global applause for Amaechi on education
The United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF) commended Amaechi on the strides recorded by his administration in the health and education sectors. Country Representative of UNICEF, Ibrahima Fall, who described as tremendous the progress made in thoese sectors, said, “This is the most exciting news for every mother, for every child and for every family in Rivers State.”
In appreciation of the feats achieved by the administration, the former Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, remarked, “The impression that I always get when I come to Africa is that these countries have enormous potential, and your country and your state (Rivers) have enormous potential and I think that you happen to have at this time in history also, a dynamic, energetic and capable leadership that can make the dreams of building up the state into a reality of life for the 5.1 million residents in Rivers State that want their lives to be of much higher and greater quality.”
In extolling this great revolutionist, United States’ Consul-General in Lagos, Mr. Jeffrey Hawkins, told journalists: “I must commend Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State for embarking on numerous people-oriented projects and showing enthusiasm on Niger Delta issues. We are very appreciative of all that Amaechi has done. We are quite clear that addressing the issues of the Niger Delta, the challenges require focusing on things like education development, agriculture, health, all sorts of issues. And the governor was kind enough to show us, on the ground, some of the projects the government of Rivers State is working on, so we are very deeply appreciative of his support.”
(vi)
Scholarship beneficiary writes Amaechi
One Dr. Samuel Jonah Abbey, one of the beneficiaries of Amaechi’s policy on education, wrote: “It is with a deep sense of gratitude and appreciation that I write to humbly say thank you for making me what I am today. The background story might be too long for you to read Sir, considering your busy schedule.
“Sir, I had lots of aspirations as a child but the demise of my parents almost crumbled the skyline of my world. As an orphan, I completed my first degree in Civil Engineering with upper class in 2010 at the University of Port Harcourt.
“My horizons were then broadened when I heard about your overseas scholarship scheme during your term as the executive governor of Rivers state. Sir, the transparency of your administration gave me the opportunity to be assessed and awarded the RSSDA scholarship on merit to pursue MSc Civil Engineering, in the UK.
“I successfully completed my MSc with Distinction in 2013 and today your Excellency Sir, I have completed my PhD in Civil Engineering, Coventry University, UK and now addressed as Dr. Samuel Jonah Abbey.
“Sir, I just want to say thank you so much for giving my life a meaning. Thank you so much. My entire family is ever grateful to you. May God bless you richly and protect you. May God shield you on every step and remain your pillar. May he protect your entire family in Jesus Name, Amen. I will keep praying for you. God bless you my hero.
(vii)
“Amaechi’s stellar leadership and the effect of the injection of N170bn into the LGAS”, by Achinike William-Wobodo
This article was written and published in July 2015. Some of the tenses will be in present, and might be awkward in the now. However, the message is an all-time recommendation for states grappling with primary education, even for the Federation.
Whereas in most states of Nigeria the Chief Executives (Governors) were accused of misappropriating Local Government Councils’ funds, the case was different for the former Governor of Rivers State, Rt. Hon Chibuke Rotimi Amaechi. Former Governor Amaechi bequeathed and injected into the local government councils’ administration over N170 billion in his eight years in office as the governor.
Under the present Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, primary school administration and management is placed under the authority of the local government. Reports had shown that this was one of the major factors that led to the very poor foundation in the Nigeria education system. This was so because most of the Councils did not have the financial capacity to handle the number of primary schools within their areas. For some, once salaries of primary school teachers were deducted, they were left with nothing for their operation, talk less of embarking on infrastructure development. For some others, they were not even able to pay teachers’ salaries. This was the situation popularly referred to as “Zero Allocation”.
This was the situation in Rivers State prior to the emergence of Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi as the Governor Teachers across the state were not motivated. They were not paid as and when due and the work environment was obviously not conducive. The most outstanding consequence of these was that the primary schools bequeathed to the secondary schools system students that were inadequately prepared. That accounted for the poor performance of students.
But for former Governor Amaechi, that was not good enough for his people, so he immediately declared a State of Emergency in the Education sector. He commenced with the rebuilding of over 750 primary schools in the state. Each of the schools had computer studio with not less the 30 computers; 14 classrooms with smart boards; each class had a teacher and a computer to teach with; the school had 16 toilets; a sickbay; a 700-capacity auditorium; internet wifi; headmaster’s office; a standby generator; open play area; a football field; a demonstration farm; etc. The Rivers School structure and policy received commendations both locally and internationally and then become the model for neigbouring states of Akwa Ibom, Delta, Bayelsa and Edo.
On account of the governor’s policies on Education, Rivers State Government, for four consecutive years, was adjudged the best state in education by the Federal Ministry of Education, and was rewarded with huge sums of money. Rivers State remained undisputed in that position for many years.
The same proactive policy on education took Rivers State from nowhere and made Port Harcourt City the UNESCO WORLD BOOK CAPITAL 2014, a feat that only a few cities in the world hadve enjoyed. The “state of emergency” also saw to the upward spring of the State University of Science and Technology from its number 76th rating in 2007 to 12th in 2014 in the rankings of universities in the country.
Well, this is not the focus of this article. The focus here is the complete takeover of the primary school system from the councils by the amaechi administration. Prior to the takeover, the salaries of primary school teachers paid by Councils was a little in excess of N2billion. Former Governor Amaechi pursuant to the State of Emergency convened a meeting of the stakeholders in the primary school sector and announced the policy of the State Government to takeover the administration and management of primary school education in Rivers State, which included payments of primary school teachers’ salaries.
Contrary to expectations of Council Chairmen, Governor Amaechi announced that the N2billion which was the monthly wage bill for primary school teachers, as at then, and which would have been the contribution of, or cost to, the Local Government Councils should be reverted and re-injected into the Local Government Council System. The implication of that was that the LGA council had additional N2billion, monthly in their purse. Subsequently, that wage bill increased following the employment of additional primary school teachers during the popular Rivers State engagement of 13,200 teachers in one single employment process.
The consequence of that policy was enormous, as it put more resources in the coffers of the LGAs, which enabled them to reach out to the local needs of the people, better. The implication of that decision and policy was that the Government of Rivers State under Rotimi Amaechi made a grant of more than N2billion monthly to the local government areas. This policy was initiated in the first quarter of 2008 and run consistently till the former Governor left office in May, 2015. A simple arithmetic puts that
amount in seven years at N168 billion.
Today, the Local Government Councils in Rivers State present a formidable tier. The takeover of the payment of primary school teachers’ salaries pulled some pressure off the wage bill of Councils and gave them a very robust capacity to address basic and local needs of the people. This is to the credit of former Governor Amaechi.
Although Wike had not taken any overt steps to reverse this particular gain, but indications from his public speeches about the policies of the former Governor of the state; his present attitude and policy of “operation reverse Amaechi legacies”, tend to suggest that he might do so. Some schools of thought hold the view that for Governor Wike reverting the primary school teachers’ salaries to the Councils was an option and a matter of time.
It is interesting to observe that from that singular policy of the state by former Governor Amaechi to takeover payment of salaries of primary school teachers, two gains emerged for the state. First was the fact that it had created a sustainable primary education system for Rivers State that was then the envy of all in the country, and gladly so. It became a model for many other states.
The second was that, it had put more resources in the coffers of the councils, which broadened their capacity to attend to the needs of the people. In all of these, Rivers people were the beneficiaries of this singular act of proactive good governance.
In conclusion, transferring primary education from the local government Councils to the state was a worthwhile policy of the State Government under Rotimi Amaechi and a way to go if we must revamp our comatose public primary school system in the country and I am proud to recommend the Amaechi Example.
(viii)
Roll-call of Amaechi’s feats in education
Employed over 13,000 teachers
Awarded over 3,000 foreign and local scholarships
Built about 10 world-class secondary schools with boarding facilities
Upgraded the status of Rivers State College of Education, RSCOE, to a university
Gave free school uniforms, bags, shoes, books and other writing materials to all primary school pupils
Made Port Harcourt the world book capital
Built modern primary
Built modern secondary schools
, Amaechi made school fees for undergraduate students in all Rivers State-owned higher institutions, uniform
Made free education from primary to secondary School level free.
Upgraded Rivers State School of Basic Studies to a ISBS to polytechnic
Automatic scholarship was given to all indigenous lectures in the Rivers State University of Science and Technology, RSUST, to upgrade their education to PhD level
Direct payment of bursary to Rivers State students in tertiary institutions
Supported the University of Port Harcourt, a federal institution, university with infrastructure and human capital development
Over 4 years backlog of unaccessed Universal Basic Education, UBE, and Eucaton Trust Funds, ETF, were accessed without his interference. This made the board win an award as the Best UBE state in Nigeria which attracted N500m to the financial strength of the state. The board is still the BEST in Nigeria
I have done my best to justify the choice of Amaechi as the winner of the Golden National Merit Award for transforming the education sector during his days as the Governor of Rivers State
Conclusion:
Safe and except that while as Governor, Nyesom Wike deployed and maintained a dangerously vengeful posture that demonstrated to be antithetical to development, Rivers State would have been a reference State in the area of education and a challenge to other States in Africa.
Hopes are high that the incumbent Governor of the State, Sir Siminalayi Fubara seems to be committed to reviving all sectors of the economy destroyed by his predecessor Nyesom Wike during the years of his locust administration as Governor of the oil-rich State.
Eze Chukwuemeka Eze is a Port Harcourt based Media Consultant & can be reached on: ezemediaconcept2020@gmail.com or 08022049770.