“That money you are investing in a big Federal Government project, you should have used it to employ more teachers, build more schools, pay teachers salary arrears, and create more jobs for our people. Rivers State has the highest number of unemployment”
The immediate past Minister for Transportation, Chibuike Amaechi, has slammed the Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, for wasting Rivers State money to build a campus of the Nigerian Law School in Porthacourt.
Amaechi said it made no sense for the Governor to spend that money in building the Law School, a Federal project, when many Primary and Secondary Schools in Rivers State are in a terrible State, when there is shortage of teachers, and when teachers are owed months in salary arrears.
Amaechi, who was a two-term Governor of Rivers State, and who was succeeded by Wike, spoke to Vanguard Newspaper on why he refused to build the Law School during his tenure as Governor when he was approached to do so.
The former Governor said he was approached with the proposal, but when he asked them where the funds would come from, and he was told Rivers State Government’s treasury, he declined. He explained that he gave them land to build the Law School if they desired to do so, but at their own expense. He said Wike should have used the homogeneous amount of money he used to build the Law School to refurbish Rivers State’s Schools, hired more teachers, trained more teachers and paid salary arrears.
Amaechi: “Yes, it’s true (refusing to build the Law School). I asked them, when they brought the proposal, would the Federal Government fund it? And they said no. I’m not a Father Christmas. I said Primary Schools in Rivers State are not functioning. Secondary Schools are not functioning. And, I would go and build a Law school for a Government as big as the Federal Government?
“I told them that I have a land, and here’s the land, and they said no. So, I don’t know why that is an achievement for a man whose Primary and Secondary Schools are not functioning, and whose teachers are not paid.
“By the time I did an audit of Education in Rivers State, we trained 90,000 teachers, and I employed 13,200. So, that money that he used in building Law School, could have been used in employing more teachers.
“It’s a Federal Government responsibility. I told them I was not interested, but I would give them the land. So, the money used there could have been used in building more schools, employing more teachers and training them.
“Like, out of the 13,200 teachers we employed, only 3,000 were teachers, the other 13,200 were people who were just looking for jobs, and we employed them and took them to Rivers State University of Education to train them for six months.
“So that money you are investing in a big Federal Government project, you should have used it to employ more teachers, build more schools, and create more jobs for our people. Rivers State has the highest number of unemployment.”
However, some people argue that the project is located in the State, and would employ Rivers State indigenes and put food on the table of the people around its location directly and indirectly.
The Law School built by Wike for the Federal Government was commissioned a few days ago by President Muhammadu Buhari who was represented by the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister for Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN.
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