EDUCATION is obviously the most powerful weapon that can be use to change the world, so says the great freedom fighter and legend, Dr. Nelson Mandela.

But how far have we as a people and a nation strived to promote quality and affordable education as a means of changing our great country Nigeria for better? Before now, Nigeria’s education system was ranked among the best in the continent of Africa.

Then the few public or government schools lived up to expectation in the funding and promotion of good and qualitative education. The country was the better for it and many Nigerians benefitted from it.

But since the inception of private ownership of schools, proliferation has become the order of the day, even though these schools which are purely set up for commercial purposes are often not affordable and fail to offer sound education.

Unfortunately, many beneficiaries of public schools who are in positions of authority today delight in looting public treasury,  refuse to fund public schools and at the same time use the looted funds to establish their own private schools which they hand over to their stooges  to run as proxies.

In the event, the education sector has continued to dwindle with shocking performance year in, year out. That is where we are today as a country.

But happily the AbiaState government has taken the bull by the horn in addressing the age-long rot and challenges that have bedevilled the education sector in the state.

Before the present government came into office, the state of educational infrastructures, condition of service for workers and learning environment for students in all the state owned schools were pathetic and appalling.

The governor, Chief Theodore Orji, who is also a product and beneficiary of public school leaves no one in doubt of his government’s commitment to see that education is prioritised.

That is why on coming on board in 2007, the government increased the monthly subvention of all the tertiary institutions in the state.

The State Scholarship Board that has been moribund was reactivated. With the reactivation of the Scholarship Board, the regular bursary disbursement to indigent Abia students was resurrected and beneficiaries have continued to enjoy it till date.

The Board has also reactivated the Overseas Scholarship Scheme through which it has granted bursaries to over 40 students of AbiaState origin studying in the United States of America, the United Kingdom, South Africa and Asia.

Not resting on his oars in providing education for the children of the state, the Governor has instituted a private scholarship scheme known as Ochendo Scholarship Scheme which took off with 25 undergraduates in various disciplines within the country as beneficiaries.

The project which is strictly private has the respected Catholic Bishop of Umuahia, Most Rev. Lucius Iwejuru Ugorji as Board Chairman. One of the beneficiaries of the scheme, Mr Solomon Odochi Chibuzo of the Department of Animal and Environmental Biology, AbiaStateUniversity, Uturu emerged the overall best graduating student of the university during her last convocation with CGPA 4.8.

He was rewarded with automatic employment by the university authorities. That is how the poor boy through the Ochendo Scholarship Scheme became empowered.

The government has also increased the fleet of buses in its Free-School-Bus Scheme for students in secondary and primary schools and had also repackaged the scheme to ensure effective and efficient service delivery. Teachers salaries and allowances are being paid regularly.

The same goes with their promotions and entitlements which hitherto were stunted by past governments. That is why as teachers were on strike in some states over the non-payment of 27.5% “teachers peculiar allowance” by their state governments, teachers in AbiaState are presently doing their work happily and wholeheartedly.

Besides, all the state-owned tertiary institutions have remained citadels of academic excellence with full accreditation and excellent student performances.

Similarly, approximately N2 billion has been expended in massive renovation works in primary and secondary schools to ensure their suitability for learning with the project spread across the three senatorial zones in AbiaState. Recently, foundation was laid for the construction of modern schools in three senatorial zones of the state.

The state government had released the sum of N5.4 billion to the management of the state university, ABSU, to tackle infrastructure projects in the school. The government had also restored peace and harmony between the university and its host community, completed liquidation of the arrears of six month salaries of staff which gulped a whopping sum of N960 million.

The government had also redeemed her promise to implement the 2009 FGN/University Staff Union’s package in the university from January 2011 which cost the government an additional N528 million.

Before now, the University Surgery and Medicine programme was facing the threat of de-accreditation by the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria. Government promptly rescued the university by providing all the requirement for the full accreditation of the programme.

The Governor approved and awarded contracts for two major projects for the school, namely: Medical Complex and an Auditorium for Abia State University Teaching Hospital located in Aba. The projects are going on rapidly.

The interventions in the education sector have already started bearing fruits as can be seen from the plethora of laurels and awards garnered by the state at various national and zonal competitions.

Not quite long ago, the state took the overall best position in the Universal Basic Education Commission Good Performance rating for the entire South-East Zone; the state also came second in the South-East Zone, and was rewarded with a plaque and cash prize of seventy million naira. Indeed, the state is now a pacesetter in educational development in the country.

*Mrs MERCY OZUOBI , a teacher, wrote from Umuahia, Abia State.