I have tried very hard to mentally and empirically search which of the life’s phenomenon and basic needs of man is more important than education, I could not find. Feeding and sheltering are more instinctive. Clothing, also a basic need, is a product of education.
Education is so important that it nourishes the instinctive needs of man. Knowledge which is transmitted through education is power, and it advances the total development of the individual. According to a British writer and poet, G.K Chesterton (1874 – 1936), “Education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another.”
Two out of the seven habits of highly effective leaders are, to seek first to understand, then to be understood, and to put first thing first. Governor Idris Wada of Kogi State has done exactly this. He understands that education is key to the development of the people and this made him to execute several projects in the subsector.
Coupled with this, the speed with which the governor took over projects in this sector upon assumption of the mantle of leadership in year 2012 underscored these philosophical conclusions.
The governor constructed hostel accommodations in both the state university, Anyigba and the state polytechnic, Lokoja to ameliorate the hardship faced by students of these tertiary institutions due to shortage of hostel accommodation. On the whole, two blocks of 30 rooms hostel accommodation, one for boys and the other for girls, with a capacity to accommodate 200 students each, was constructed at the university and two blocks of 32 rooms hostel accommodation that can comfortably house 210 male students and an equal number of female students were also constructed for Kogi State Polytechnic in Lokoja.
At the newly established Kogi State College of Education (Technical) Kabba, massive construction work is still ongoing, apart from block of lecture rooms, and an office block which are already completed. Infact, this was what made it possible for the school to admit the first set of students for the 2012/2013 academic session. It will also interest the public to note that accreditation has also been secured by the government for this institution to run full fledge NCE (Technical) programme.
In order to pre-empt the man-power needs in the health sub-sector due to the envisaged wide scope of activities arising from Governor Wada’s health policy, the government has facilitated the establishment of the College of Medical Sciences at the Kogi State University, Anyigba. This action of the governor will also take care of admission needs of Kogi indigenes willing to read medicine. Because of fierce competition, a lot of interested and brilliant students have for some times had their dreams truncated as they could not secure admission.
To address the issue of quality and the ever increasing need for well trained teachers, the university has equally been assisted by Governor Wada to secure the approval of the National University Commission to start courses in the Faculty of Education.
Governor Wada also provided the entire academic facilities for the successful take-off of engineering courses at the Kogi State Polytechnic. The Aeronautic Engineering Course that is taking off in the polytechnic is one of such engineering courses.
As part of Governor Wada’s humane disposition, he sustained the payment of bursary to all students of Kogi State origin in higher institutions in the country. He has also effected the payment of the WAEC fee of Senior Secondary School (SSS III) students numbering 42,558 candidates.
Furthermore, the governor sponsored over 200 teachers in the state on the implementation of the new senior secondary school curriculum in collaboration with the Nigeria Educational Research and Development Council, Abuja.
As part of the government’s contribution to the newly established Federal University in Lokoja, the existing Government Science Secondary School, Lokoja was relocated to pave way for the university. On this, reasonable sums of money were also expended to settle the displaced secondary school students in their new abode.
On Primary Education, Governor Wada has put several measures in place to resolve the crisis he met on ground. He has settled some arrears of salaries and allowances. His sincerity and commitment to the payment of all outstanding ones is unwavering. For this and other challenges at this level of education, the governor sets up an interim management committee who has embarked on on-the-spot verification of headmasters’ lists of their workers.
This exercise is not meant to witch hunt anybody, but to bring solace to them at the end. A striking feature of the Wada-led administration is the uncommon subscription to continuity which is a departure from what has become orthodox practice
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