AWKA— ANAMBRA State governor, Mr. Peter Obi, Monday handed over a total of 1, 040 primary schools back to their original owners, the churches, and gave them N6 billion to maintain the schools.
The amount will be distributed to the affected churches over the next 15 months, based on the number of schools owned by each group.
Addressing education stakeholders, elders of the state and the general public on the occasion which held at the Women’s Development Centre, Awka, Obi said the handover was necessitated by the level of moral decadence in society owing to what he described as the forceful takeover of mission schools by the defunct East Central State Government at the end of the Nigerian civil war in 1970.
The N6 billion will be shared among the Catholic Church, Anglican Church and remaining government schools in four installments.
In the first installment, the Catholic Church, which owns a lion’s share of 453 schools, will receive over N762 milion, while its Anglican counterpart will get over N498 million. The remaining public schools not taken from the churches will share over N489 million out of a total of N1.75 billion.
The second and third installments will gulp N1.25 billion each, while the fourth and last installment will cost the government N1.75 billion.
Governor Obi said: “The collapse of education in Anambra State is directly connected with the takeover of schools owned by the missionaries, churches and voluntary organizations in 1970.”
That singular exercise signaled the disappearance of morality and the building of character from our school system. This can no longer be allowed.
“Any society that deliberately allows its educational institutions to fall into stupor has already arranged the burial ceremony of the leaders of tomorrow. A progressive leader who sees danger for his people must take serious, radical actions, even if they are unpopular, in order to bring renewal and re-birth.
“Having the foregoing in mind, and after due consultations, we have decided to return all schools, primary and secondary, taken from the missionaries, with the exception of those in dispute. This exercise is continuous, hence those who still have genuine cases of schools yet to be returned are advised to write to the Ministry of Education. In returning these schools, Government is expecting the type of dramatic improvement in discipline and academic performance that used to be associated with these schools.
“We are not abandoning theses schools, in the name of handing them over, because the State Government will continue to pay the salaries of all their academic and non-academic staff; while the Missions will be in charge of the day-to-day running and general administration of the schools. This is the subsisting practice in the schools already taken over by the Government.
“I want to be on record to have said, again and again, that we are handing over these school because we want to see them return to what they used to be, as centres of academic excellence; as well as strongholds for character and citizenship development.
“Being mindful of the urgent need to turn around the education sector, and in line with our commitment to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, the State Government has made special financial provisions to ensure that the churches do not have any initial problems in managing the schools.
We have made available the sum of Six Billion Naira (6,000,000,000.00), which shall be distributed to the new owners of these schools over the next 15 months, based on the number of schools each group owns
He said that after consulting with stakeholders he had decided to return all primary and secondary schools taken from the missionaries back to them and expressed the hope that government’s gesture would be reciprocated by the churches so that the school system would be returned to its glorious days.
According to the governor who assured them that the money was already available and in the bank, the money would be released to the churches after they must have submitted their work plans within 30 days.
“Let us all resolve today to be positive change agents especially now that we have a government that is ready and willing to work with individuals that can complement the efforts of government for the good of society. What we have done today may not be popular but it is the right decision and we will continue to take the right decisions,” Obi further said.
In his speech, the minister of state for education, Ezenwo Onyeso Wike, praised the action of Mr. Peter Obi, describing it as capable of turning around education in the state and bringing back lost moral values.
He urged other states to emulate the Anambra State example. “The handover of schools by the Anambra State government is a step in the right direction and one that will boost education in the state,” Wike said.
Responding on behalf of Catholic bishops, the Arch bishop of Onitsha Metropolitan Province, Valerian Okeke, in an emotion laden voice, assured Obi that his action of handing back schools to their owners was one of the most popular decisions ever taken in the state.
”You have written your name in gold and you have wiped the tears of our people. You have rectified the anomalies of the civil war and rectified the fault of past leaders. With this action the church has forgiven them for forcefully taking our schools,” Okeke said.
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