FRSC Boss Faults Uncommon Transformation in AKS -Says AKS Gov’t Pays Lip Service to Education -Ogun State Better Than A’Ibom -Statistics Reveal High Poverty in A’Ibom -It is a Lie- AK Govt. BY Ndon Asian/EDIDIONG UDOBIA The Corps Marshal and Chief Executive, Federal Road Safety, Mr. Osita Chidoka, has faulted the much touted uncommon transformation in Akwa Ibom State, saying that the state has under achieved despite its wealth and sufficient resources. Mr. Chidoka gave the hint during a keynote address at 6th Teachers’ Award for Excellence, organized by the Inoyo Toro Foundation and held last weekend in Uyo. He said “I want to bring the setback in education down to the Akwa Ibom State. I will plead for your understanding that all the data I have used here are publicly available data that I got from the Bureau of Statistics (NBS). Akwa Ibom State by the 2006 census has the population of about 3.92 million and I want to compare with the state that comes immediately after Akwa Ibom in the ranking of states by population and that is Ogun state, which has 3.7 million people. “There are some similarities between Ogun and Akwa Ibom. Both of them are states in Nigeria. Both of them have governors. Both them have speakers in their State Houses of Assembly. But that is where the similarities end. There are major divergence if when we go further. The first one, Akwa Ibom State is almost 100% times richer than Ogun state. In terms of budgeting, in 2012, Akwa Ibom State budgeted N533.13billion. Ogun state budgeted N200billion. That is about 91%, almost a difference of 100%. “Akwa Ibom State has an estimated GDP of 11billion dollars as at 2010 and I want to put this GDP of Akwa Ibom in context. By that GDP size of 11billion, Akwa Ibom State is larger than at least 30 African countries which include the Gambia, Mali, Chad, Burkina Faso and Sierra Leon. In fact, if you take the bottom six countries in Africa and add them together, their GDP is not equal the size of Akwa Ibom State. There is a major difference if you look at monies that were allocated to states, Akwa Ibom State between January and December 2012, received N317.7 billion including VATs while Ogun state had received about N68billion. So Akwa Ibom State had received about four times what Ogun state had received in terms of federal receipts. But then, the good news ends here for Akwa Ibom State because things change significantly. “By the Bureau of Statistics in 2000, when we look at the number of primary schools, we thought being more in number, Akwa Ibom was going to have more number of primary schools, and of course, being richer but we found out that Ogun state had 1921 schools servicing 338,000 pupils while Akwa Ibom State 1,146 servicing 243,000 pupils. Meaning that, with Akwa Ibom higher than Ogun state in population, Akwa Ibom has less number of students in primary schools almost by hundred thousand and has less number of primary schools than Ogun state which has less money, less population and less resources to play with. “The fact is even more interesting when we get to secondary schools. Akwa Ibom has 608 secondary schools and these 608 secondary schools in Akwa Ibom enrolled 110,000 students while, in Ogun state 151,000 students entered secondary schools in 2010. So we had more students enrolled in secondary schools in Ogun state than we had in Akwa Ibom State, despite the fact that Akwa Ibom State has more secondary schools than Ogun state. If you look closely, of the universities in Nigeria, one could have assumed that with the amount of resources in Akwa Ibom and with closeness to Oil and Gas industry, Akwa Ibom will have more tertiary institutions but the case is not so. There 11 universities in Ogun state while there are only four universities in Akwa Ibom State. Going by the ranking of universities in Nigeria, between these two states, none of them have universities among the top ten but number 11 on the ranking, is University of Agriculture in Ogun and University of Uyo is number 21. “If we look at the difference in number of people enrolled in the universities, higher institutions in Akwa Ibom were only able to absorb 1,469 applicants while higher institutions in Ogun state offered admission to 3,132 applicants. The difference is hundred percent. So if you look at the difference between the educational institutions in Akwa Ibom and Ogun states, we are going to have something more interesting. If we look at unemployment, according to NBS in 2012, unemployment stood at 8.5% in Ogun state and stood at 34% in Akwa Ibom. 34% of those who passed out of schools in Akwa Ibom are unemployed. “According to survey by UNDP in 2012, they adjudged Akwa Ibom as having the third highest poverty rate of 37.1%. Danger here is that even though Akwa Ibom is financially more sufficient than Ogun State, if urgent steps are not taken to up the educational sector in Akwa Ibom, it will not be well positioned to compete favorably, not only in Nigeria but globally. So there is a wide gap between promise and performance in Akwa Ibom State.” The FRSC boss further disclosed that Akwa Ibom is ranked second in HIV/AIDS prevalence in the country, attributing it high poverty and illiteracy rate in the state. But in a swift reaction, the commissioner for education in the state, Prof. Atim Antai, took a swipe at Mr. Chidoka’s statistics, nothing that the state ministry of education has the most accurate statistics in education of the state and not the Bureau of Statistics, urging the public to verify if in doubt. Prof. Atim, who was represented at the occasion by the permanent secretary, Ministry of Education, Mr. Chrysanctus Asuka, while faulting Mr. Chidoka’s report, said that Akwa Ibom state currently has 1,157 primary schools and 240 secondary schools, adding that students from Akwa Ibom state had represented the country in international competitions on two occasions and emerged first and third. Also speaking, the speaker of Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, Elder Sam Ikon, said that although the educational sector of the state was bad in the past, kudos should be given to Governor Akpabio for transforming the fortunes of the system through the free and compulsory education, massive renovation of schools, recruitment of more teachers, and called on all those involved in the system to be alive to their duties. While refuting the report that the state is ranked among the highest with HIV/AIDS epidemic, Mr. Ikon said that the statistics which were gathered from hospitals indicated that Akwa Ibom have more people patronizing the hospitals, adding that there are states in the country without good hospitals and accurate statistics.
Posted on: Thu, 14 Nov 2013 11:35:13 +0000
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