By Emmanuel Enebeli
ASABA/Nigeria: The Delta State Governor, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa, Delta state governor, had called on the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), a Non-Governmental Organisation, to focus on the objective of encouraging talent development as exemplified in the case of Miss Success Idohor, as her intelligent shows the abundant of talents in the state, than engage in the issuing of threat to the state government.
The state governor, who spoke through his Chief Press Secretary, (CPS), Charles Aniagwu, who spoke to group of Journalists recently in his office, said the recent ultimatum by the group to the state government to furnish the public with its total investment on education since 2015, said such call is nothing, but act of blackmail.
The governor’s spokesman, wondered aloud while, the group should focus on Delta state, using the story of the Primary School girl to measure educational development in the state.
“There are 36 states of the federation. In these 36 states, the governors of these states and indeed the federal government budget for education of their different states and ministries of education. If SERAP want to know what anybody is spending with respect to education. Why are you going to move the story of Success to begin to make such demands? Why don’t you ask every state?
“Let people ask of things for the purpose of developing Nigeria and we will move with them. We encourage anybody who is interested in what we are doing here. We don’t have anything to hide. Senator Dr Ifeanyi Okowa runs a very transparent government and the businesses we do here is on the basis of the transparency and if SERAP wants to know how transparency exist in the system, let them come to Delta but giving ultimatum as if they are the owners of the government in Delta state is not something that we are going to fall into. Nobody is going to blackmail us for cheap popularity.
“Why didn’t they give ultimatum to many other states where people are learning under the trees? Why don’t they give ultimatum to other places where they are not able to pay their teachers? In Delta, we not only pay our workers we also assist local governments to ensure that the teachers are well paid as at when due. There are states in the federation where teachers are even paid half salaries. In some other states, they are owed more than six months. I expect SERAP to go there and begin to demand for ultimatum so that we know that in deed they are very much interested in the development of this country and not playing to the gallery.”
When asked if the state government will respond to SERAP demands, the governor’s spokesman responded angrily by asking “Respond to what? Our business is to govern our people in Delta state with the highest sense of accountability. I have not seen anywhere it is written in the oath of office that there must be one body that will come and harass us and make us abandon what we are doing. There is nothing we are hiding, our budget is very clear; we put it on the website. Let them go there they will see it we don’t have anything that we are hiding.
“We have a house of Assembly. Those are the ones that should be giving governor ultimatum in the first place because the house of Assembly represents the people but when somebody else comes from somewhere, we don’t even know those who constitute them. Have they spoken to anybody? Have they come here to talk to us? Before you give ultimatum, you must first of all shown what effort you have made to say I went to this man he didn’t answer me. How do you just go to the media and give us ultimatum in the media? And you expect us to jump? We don’t even know who is giving the ultimatum.
“Why are people not even looking at the intelligence of Success? How many children in Nigeria have that kind of intelligence? That is the stuff we are made of in Delta. Producing bright brains; Success is a very good example of the kind of children that we produce in Delta. So, they should come and first ask us how do we produce such intelligent children and not begin to look at the fact that her intelligence is able to expose one thing or the other. Do they have children in other states who can even afford to say they have problem in school? Are they not supposed to thank us that in Delta we produce very bright children? Just as we also do in sports?
“I can tell you that on the priority needs of our budgeting since 2015, when we had a supplementary budget after we have been able to have a review of the existing budget that we met in 2015, Senator Dr Ifeanyi Okowa has continue to give prime and priority attention to the education sector. I think usually, after our budget in the works sector where you have a lot of infrastructures and roads, education takes a very prime position. Do you know the first thing we did when we came in? we ensured that we paid our counterpart fund to UBEC so that our SUBEB is able to access the funds available and then give a new lease of life to our primary schools and of course a number of other institutions”, Aniagwu added.
