By Ohanele Casca
In what appears to be total dismantling the legacies of the immediate past administration, led by former Governor Ikedi Ohakim by Governor Rochas Okorocha, the Imo State government has finally demolished the “New face” multi million naira school block at Town Ship Primary School Owerri. The school block was erected by former Governor Ohakim.
Reacting to the demolition, a teacher at the school who spoke on the condition of anonymity condemned the government’s action, stressing that Governor Okorocha is taking governance in Imo personal. The teacher questioned why the government should embark on the demolition knowing that Imo people are at the loosing end of the exercise.
A cross section of Imo people has been condemning the action saying that only continuity can improve the life of Imolites and infrastructural development of the state. A shop owner along Wetheral road described the act as wastage of resources by Owelle’s government. He queried why Governor Okorocha should be wasting tax payers’ money for the past one and half years reconstructing only Wetheral road and breaking fences and reconstructing same? “Why demolish the school block in an attempt to distort facts and records” he said. The shop owner said that no matter what Governor Okorocha’s intentions are, he cannot delete the fact that Ohakim was a governor of Imo State who touched the life of Imolites in many positive ways. He cautioned government to see the projects and programmes of Governor Ikedi Ohakim as the property of Imo people and not a personal thing.
When the Commissioner for Education, Dr (Mrs) Adaora Ijezie was contacted, his phone was switched off. Outside the recent demolition which has been receiving negative reaction across the state, many have frowned at the distortion of the daily school curriculum and activities by the present Administration in the name of free education. Many have queried why teachers are being treated as Zombies on daily basis by asking them to appear at either Heroes Square or Secretariat for one flimsy excuse or the other thereby closing classes and rendering students helpless.
A parent whose child is a student at Emmanuel College lamented that education is being murdered in Imo. He blamed the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) for turning themselves into slaves of government and not allowing the school pupils have the benefit of going to school. The parent who spoke on the condition of anonymity also queried the authenticity of free education in Imo State when parents of students of SS 3 classes in Imo school system are being forced to register WAEC/NECO at very high cost.
