Truly, politicians are selfish. Perhaps because they have erroneously entertained the none-existing fear that  once the down-trodden masses which make up a vast majority of any country’s population is rescued out of the cesspool of ignorance which their poor social status has uncharitably plunged them into, the positions of the former, and those of their  upcoming children will be in grave danger.

To these politicians, the only option open to them in securing their present social and political status is to ensure by any means, whether humanly or inhumanly possible, that the masses and their siblings remain perpetually clothed in the cassocks of ignorance.

But  there is one politician who is bracing up to break the jinx, and that politician is none but who has come to be known as the ‘Mother of employment,’ Irene Imilar, a member representing Warri North LGA in the Delta State House of Assembly.

Tellingly, Imilar may not cut the picture of a messiah that would in one piece provide  solutions to all the problems of the people of her constituency. But her projects since she was voted into office in 2007 speak eloquently of a genuine love for her people and the desire to elevate the masses from their present sorry state to somewhere better.

Previously, she has been involved in people-oriented projects. But her efforts of late, to ensure that the newly established Koko Campus of the College of Education, Warri remains afloat, and even going a step further to ensure that 30 of such students remain on scholarship for the entire four years the NCE programme would last, courtesy of the Irene Imilar Foundation, to say the least is mind blowing.

One attractive facet of her goodwill is the profound display of equity. This evidence of fairness has ensured that nobody duly eligible for the scholarship was schemed out.

Fifty persons got the entry forms into the institution free, and the paradigm was five candidates per ward, bringing the number to 50, being that the entire council is delimited into 10 original wards, which has remained a numerical and political equations of six Itsekiri to four ijaw.

The 50 students in turn sat for a written test on Mathematics and English language for a place in the 30 scholarship slots. It thus meant that an equal playing ground was offered all the applicants, and only the best won the scholarship.

What else would one say order than that Imilar, by her action, is saying no to continually giving fish to the people of her constituency. Her scholarship scheme is drumming sense as well as provoking debates in many quarters.  Besides Chief Nelson Utieyin, no other Itsekiri has a foundation that offers scholarship at the tertiary level. This explains why the news of her scholarship is raging like a Sahara fire.

Other than being a conjecture, it is feasible that if many as Irene would make bold to take the stride of setting up an educational foundation with a view to providing scholarship to the less-privileged or willing assist young Itsekiris to acquire knowledge, then in a question of time, the Itsekiri nation will be better for it.

It has often been said that it wasn’t for nothing that the Yorubas became the giants that they are today over the country’s economic sector. It was courtesy of the tertiary education they were exposed to early enough, and courtesy of the various education foundations ran by the successful and privileged ones in the race.

There are many forms of investment. The first, is to invest in oneself, and by extension the immediate family.

Mr Okofu Ubaka,  a social critic,  wrote from Koko in Warri North, Delta State.