By Memoye Oghu (Port Harcourt)
The deputy governorship candidate of the Action Alliance Party (AA) in Rivers State, Barr (Rev) Tonnie Anoruewhom has assured that an AA government in the state come 2023 shall be technologically driven.
Barr Anoruewhom gave the assurance on Friday in Port Harcourt, the Rivers state capital while speaking at the annual Alumni Lecture and End of year dinner of the Rivers State chapter of the University of Port Harcourt Alumni Association.
The deputy governorship hopeful, who was a discussant during the annual Alumni association lecture also added that when his party takes over the reins of government in the state, university students in the state will have their school fees paid through a deliberate policy of the government.
Opening the discussion shortly after the keynote lecture delivered by Prof Nekabari Nna Johnson, Acting Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Port Harcourt, Barr Anoruewhom said his AA party was actually worried about the state of our educational standards and observed that, “university education in our country has never been able to deal with the peoples’ needs. We’ve never worked with the peoples vision,” pointing out that Vice Chancellorship of our tertiary institutions should be a career thing, rather than an all comer affair.
“We’re actually looking at the area where certificates have become the norm. Our government is going to look into it to ensure that our graduates are properly grounded. We shall be technologically driven such that Rivers state will be the hub of technology in Nigeria. Rivers State University has not been able to domesticate anything about our oil as headquarters of the hydrocarbon industry in Nigeria.
“University education in Nigeria has not impacted on the local economy. University students in Rivers State will have their fees paid through a deliberate policy of an AA government in the state.”
Speaking to newsmen shortly after the discussion session of the lecture, he dismissed the notion that our educational standards have fallen abysmally low due to the lack of political will, asking, “whose will is it? Is it the peoples will or . . .?”, stressing that, “where there is no will, other people’s will shall be forced on you, adding that the people’s vision shall be the centre piece of an AA government in the state.
Citing example of a particular candidate whose principal, the outgoing governor of the state is campaigning for as one that has no will of his own and therefore will implement the will of others rather than the peoples will, he lambasted the outgoing PDP government in the state as having failed Rivers people and urged the electorates to vote out PDP in the state.