Asaba-The Governor of Delta State, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa has called the Delta State Polytechnic as a project of the Future. The governor made this assertion recently in a live phone in programme, on Delta Broadcasting Service, Asaba to mark his one year in office.
While reacting to a question by one of the Journalists anchoring the programme on the statue of the proposed polytechnic, the governor said, he never made any promise about establishing any polytechnic to any community as one of his campaign promises. He maintained that Delta has over twelve tertiary institutions, even more than Lagos State which makes the costs of managing them a herculean task.
Governor Okowa maintained that with paucity of funds occasioned by the fall in crude oil price at the international oil market and the attacks on oil facilities in the state by the Niger Delta militants, the revenue to the state, from the Federation Account monthly has reduced to N3billion. According to him, the government has to source for additional funds through internally generated revenue, (IGR) among others to be able to meet up the recurrent expenditure.
He stressed further that with attacks on the oil facilities own by the multinational oil companies by the Niger Militants, most of the oil companies has ceased operations in many areas which also affects the monthly allocation to the state, and the internally generated revenue from such companies.
The governor said that bloated payrolls of the state work force as a result of ghost workers and pensioners has been impacting negatively on the financial status of the state.
Speaking further on the state of learning institutions in the state, he said the government has to contend with the financial requirements of institution like the Delta State University, the state polytechnics, colleges of Education and others, saying that it is not possible to site tertiary institutions in every local government in the state.
He however concluded, that the proposed Delta State Polytechnic, will be revisited when the revenue of the state improves.
