By EMMA AMAIZE and SAM OYADONGHA
Pa Allen says you are the one paying his school fees?

It is indeed not only a surprise, but also an inspiration to all of us here in the local government and I believe by extension humanity, as a whole that at 90 Papa Allen is starting school. And that is why we decided to give him scholarship and N15, 000 monthly for his upkeep so that that can further motivate him to continue the programme.

How did you come to know about the man?

We decided to embark on literacy campaign, emphasizing the need for our youths and young ones to embrace education. But it actually came as a surprise because through that campaign, Pa Allen who is 90 years keyed into that message.

Have you met him? How do you see his zeal?

Pa Allen has 360 degrees zeal to be literate or educated. In primary one now, I have monitored the progress of his learning; he is able to read the alphabets and even doing some bit of arithmetic. I was told that he is even the class representative (class monitor) right now. I see that this is a man that has the zeal to be educated and enlightened, that is what encouraged me to even offer him scholarship too.

What is your plan for the possible explosion in adult literacy request because most of the people we met are advocating adult education?

I have discussed with the community leaders, the CDC, chiefs and youth groups, and they have told me the need for the local government to open an Adult Literacy Centre and so we are now collaborating with other stakeholders to make sure that we get a very befitting state of the art literacy centre at Ologoama. About 21 of such people have decided to go to back to school.

Is the Ministry of Education, Bayelsa state aware of this man in your local government area and has it done anything?

Not yet, but they are aware. They have also told me that it is better that we open an Adult Literacy Centre and that for such an old man to mix up with smaller children,  who are like his grand children may have effect on the psychology of the children (pupils).

But even his classmates say they are very happy to have him as their classmate. That is why the ministry is now serious and they want to collaborate with us to make sure that we open an adult education centre. But for now, they have not visited him, but several other persons have come, we are even expecting the Minister of Education and Guinness Book of Record to come in soon.    Before now, we understand that militants were operating in your area, (Nembe), how safe is the area now?

Right now,  the waterways of Nembe are safe, actually militants were operating before I came on board, but now, it has minimized greatly, though not fully. We actually achieved this through attitude modification campaigns and also engaging the people in meaningful jobs, providing short term jobs for them

What is your position on the issue of joint account between the state and local government councils, some local government chairman have been calling for the separation of this account? What is your position?

There is a disadvantage in the joint account of a thing. When you look at the cost and benefits of it, you see that the cost outweighs the benefits. Just as in joint venture, there is always a superior partner and one is always lower in the relationship and so since it is a joint account, we as chairmen, do not have much say on how the resources are being distributed in the final analysis. So, I want to say that the joint account should no longer hold.