..as Gov Alia’s transformation drive gets ovation

By Peter Duru, Makurdi

The Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC, has commended the Benue State Universal Basic Education Board, SUBEB, for putting together a debate and quiz competition for basic schools across the state to mark one year of uncommon transformation of the Basic Education sector under the Governor Hyacinth Alia-led administration.

The Benue State UBEC Coordinator, Emmanuel Idzi who gave the commendation in Makurdi at the grand finale of the Basic School Inter Local Government Debate with the topic “Public Basic Schools Are Better Academically and Morally than Private Basic Schools” and Science Quiz Competition to mark Dr. Adagba’s one year in office as the Benue SUBEB Executive Chairman, noted that the competition was put together to help the students build their confidence and develop their critical reasoning.

He urged students to inculcate the habit of always reading to develop their intelect noting that “when you read it is very easy just the way you eat your food. I want you all to start from today, mark a target to read a literature in few days. Cultivate the habit of reading and reading and it will help you in future. Our hope is on you. We call you the Gen-Z generation. We do not want you to derail.

“You are young and I urge the teachers not to relent in impacting sound knowledge in our children. We commend you the teachers. It is our duty to be their role models according to the national and international conventions regarding children.”

The Executive Chairman of Nasarawa SUBEB, Mohammed Dan’Azumi who lauded his Benue counterpart for the transformation of basic education in the state in the last one year commended Governor Hyacinth Alia for appointing a hardworking visionary woman to help him in his transformation drive and repositioning of the Basic Education sector.

He advised Dr. Adagba to remain focused and not be distracted as well as continue to work hard to support the Governor’s reform agenda noting “you are hardworking and it is yielding results and you cannot relent because the reward of hardwork is more hardwork.”

The Acting Executive Chairman of FCTUBEB, Dr. Alhassan Sule who commended Dr. Adagba for her resounding accomplishments in the last one year praised Governor Alia for according top most priority to Basic Education in the state which accounted for the projects and the transformation of the sector.

While urging parents to ensure that their children were availed education he said “we must all ensure that we educate our children, failing we will murder sleep. Let us embrace education because it is the only solution to our challenges.”

The Benue State Commissioner for Energy, Science, Technology and Innovation, Mr. Nick Eworo said Benue was proud to have a daughter like the SUBEB Chairman “because in her we have a good product and we are proud of this product. And a good product deserves promotion. We will keep promote her because she is doing very well for the state and deserves every support and we are here to give her that support because we are proud of her.”

The Commissioner commended the participating students for performing exceptionally well in the competitions saying “you are truly the leaders of tomorrow.”

In her remarks, Dr. Adagba attributed the successes recorded by the Board in the last one year to Governor Alia’s purposeful and visionary leadership which she said had completely transformed Basic Education in the state.

She said: “Without him you would not be hearing of the achievements we are talking about, and that is why we captioned them in our brochure as achievements of the Governor because he indeed did all these things and not the Chairman. He came with a vision for education and that is what he is executing.

“This is the first time since I was born in Benue that I have seen that the minimum wage is pronounced at the Federal level and it is being implemented in the State without strike. It is being paid and not paper pronouncement. He deserves commendation.

“This is also the first time that a sitting Governor has released consecutively three years of matching-grants. And it will also interest you to know that it is the first time we are seeing storey buildings being built in public schools.”

Dr. Adagba who thanked the Governor for breathing life into Basic Education in the state lauded the management and staff of the board for their contribution to the success story at the board hinting that the board was introducing a suggestion box that would also enable people offer constructive criticism and suggestions to enable the management do better.

“And I also want to reaffirm the commitment of the Executive Governor of Benue State and the commitment of the board to you to ensure that we are not going to relent in our efforts, that we will ensure that Basic Education is completely and efficiently transformed.”

The highpoint of the event was the Inter Local Government Debate and Science Quiz Competition where Makurdi and Tarka LGAs representing Benue Zone B, emerged victorious in both Debate and Quiz for Lower and Upper Basic. Tarka LGA won the quiz in Lower Basic, while Makurdi clinched victory in both Lower and Upper Basic dedate as well as the Upper Basic quiz.