By Anayo Okoli Umuahia—ABIA State House of Assembly yesterday screened 15 of the 18 Commissioner nominees sent to them by Governor Theodore Orji. Those screened included Mr. John Nwokocha, an  Assistant Editor with Vanguard Newspapers.

The government has also agreed to fully liberalise the country’s Railway transport sub-sector by allowing private business concerns to build operate and own (BOO) their own railway system on designated routes, especially the Lagos-Benin-Calabar axis where railway transport does not exist.

The conduct of the old boys of the two West African Secondary Schools is, indeed, a lesson to alumni of Nigerian universities, many of whom are not keen at lending support to their alma mater which are today in very bad shape arising from inadequate funding.

According to him the local government area has been affected by the dwindling fortune of education both in infrastructure and otherwise, hence ‘we have decided that we should create a competition that will expose the children to quality academic challenges that will contribute to the overall development of their minds.

“One may well venture to ask: What has happened to the famed legacy of our graduates from Ibadan, Lagos, Nsukka, Ife, Zaria, Benin and other universities? What has happened to the innovative spirit of our university system and the search for excellence for which it attained international acclaim? How should the nation, at this critical juncture of its development, take a lacklustre attitude towards sustaining the quality of its premier resource?,” he asked.