It is an agelong reference among rational minds that “whoever thinks that education is costly should try illiteracy” and most people would agree that one of the most convenient means of closing the gate of the prisons is to open the doors of the classrooms and the recent and bold steps of Ugwuanyi’s administration in Enugu state is a clear indication that the man saddled with the leadership of Coal City is a soul who is abreast of the positive implications of educational development in our society. From all perspectives, it can easily be deducted and concluded that Gburu Gburu is poised on yielding to the submission that the growth of any society is directly proportional to the growth of education in such society.
Without beating about the bush, it will be focal to point out the far-reaching attention received by two major state-owned higher education institutions during Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi’s government. The institutions in focus include the Institute of Management and Technology, Enugu and the Enugu State Polytechnic,Iwollo, Ezagu. While the governor without any form of delay released the sum of eight hundred and ten million naira for massive infrastructural upliftment in IMT in addition to another two hundred and eighty-two million naira for the accreditation of about fourty-one disciplines in the same institution. It is noteworthy to reinstate that all these concerted efforts by the government are geared towards ensuring that the institution transits to a degree-awarding institution and enjoys a quality and recognised standard in the comity of higher citadels of learning and surely those efforts are bound to pay off sooner than later. As if that is not enough, Ugwuanyi pursuing his excellence in education also in a swift move decided to transform Enugu State College of Agriculture and Agro-Entrepreneurship to Enugu State Polytechnic in order to boost its viability and recognition and right now, the much needed transformation of the institution resulted in among other things the improvement of the quality of education in the institution, impressive improvement in the school’s facilities, and generated much employment opportunities for our teeming unemployed graduates in addition to the urbanisation of the area of its location and the betterment of the commercial activities in the zone. It is quite central to entertain the fact that the two institutions that have enjoyed an immense support from the governor are mostly vocational and technical in nature and certainly would add more values to our society in this age of paper education as the products of such institutions would tend to be more of self-employed than white-colar-jobs seeking graduates.
In a similar vein, the Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi led Enugu state has undertaken to renovate so many secondary schools across the state from Enugu Ezike to Oji-River, from Awgu to Nike, from Isi-Uzo to Uzo-Uwani and barely every community in the state has benefitted from the government’s education policy.
CETERIS PARIBUS, it is very lucid that the body language of Ifeanyi Lawrence Ugwuanyi towards education in the state since his assumption of office as the state governor shows that he is aware of popular Chinese adage which stipulates that ” if you are planning for a year, sow some rice; if you are planning for a decade,plant some trees; but if you are planning for a lifetime, educate the people” and Gburu Gburu must have been much conscious of the Bill Beattie’s quotation that ” The aim of education should be to teach us rather how to think, and not what to think- rather to improve our minds so as to enable us think for ourselves than to load the memory with the thoughts of others.” My people, I hope we might not be seen as being too sentimental if we appreciate his excellency, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi for all his genuine concern and support in fixing the education sector while fantastically managing the state resources. Thanks*
HON.MRS. BIBIAN ANEKWE.
ENUGU DI N’AKA CHUKWU MOVEMENT (DG.)
