The Rivers State All Progressives Congress (APC) has described Governor Nyesom Wike, of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), as a calamity and failure in governance.
It accused Wike of lying against the Transportation Minister, Rotimi Amaechi, a former Rivers governor.
APC, yesterday in Port Harcourt, through Chief Eze Chukwuemeka Eze, Senior Special Assistant (SSA) on Media and Public Affairs Consultant to Rivers Chairman of the party, Chief Davies Ikanya, declared that the collapse of the education sector under the watch of Wike was unacceptable, unfortunate, condemnable, wicked and unjust.
The Rivers governor on Saturday, while addressing reporters, after inspecting projects, alleged that Amaechiโs spirit of demolition destroyed the basic and secondary education sub-sector, claiming that his administration inherited a rot of unimaginable proportion in the sector.
Rivers APC said: โThe total collapse of the education sector of Rivers State was further showcased and buttressed by the Rivers State students of secondary school cadre in the very heart of Port Harcourt, when they decided last week to take their destiny in their own hands by taking to the streets to protest lack of teachers and classroom blocks in their schools, insisting that they be relocated to the model secondary schools built by the administration of Amaechi, which Wike has kept under lock and key, as they would no longer be able to continue to study in unfavourable environment.
โWike, who has abandoned education in Rivers State, on February 10, 2018 in Port Harcourt, donated a whopping sum of ?500 million to a university owned by a former Rivers governor, Dr. Peter Odili, thereby continuing to squander Rivers Stateโs money, through disbursement of public funds to his party chieftains and cohorts, while the future of our children remains bleak and mortgaged.
โRivers APC notes with great sadness that the rot in our educational system could get to this disgraceful level that secondary school students in Rivers State had to embark on public protest, while Wike continues to demonstrate his hatred for Amaechi by keeping the model secondary schools built by Amaechi under lock and key, thereby jeopardising the future of our dear children.
โWe have not forgotten how Wike wickedly stopped the overseas scholarship scheme instituted by Amaechi to assist indigent and bright children of Rivers State to have a better future, thereby forcing most of these students studying abroad into prostitution and other criminal acts in foreign countries. The protests and pleas by some of the students in the streets of London fell on deaf ears.โ
The main opposition party reiterated that Amaechi, within the first three years as governor, set the state on the path that made it a world-acknowledged state in education by declaring an emergency in the sector and completely took over the payment of salaries of primary school and junior secondary school teachers, from the councils.
It noted that Amaechiโs government initiated and targeted 700 model primary schools and within four years, about 250 were completed and inaugurated.
Rivers APC added that Amaechiโs government, within the first three years, also built 24 model secondary schools across 23 lcouncils, which were well structured and equipped with modern educational, recreation and boarding facilities, with standard accommodation for teachers, with one of them inaugurated by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, while 13,200 teachers were employed for primary and secondary schools.
