AN OPEN LETTER TO THE EXECUTIVE GOVERNOR OF KOGI STATE- CAPTAIN IDRIS WADA

INCREMENT OF KOGI STATE TERTAIRY TUITION FEES.

Governor, Sir!

First, let me tender an apology for using this open medium to draw your attention to the rather pathetic and threatening rumors on the lips of both students, aspirants, parents and the very purported electorate in whom the trust given to you to carry their visions and the aspirations of the entire Kogi State citizen to the flyers came from, more worrisome is the cry of the flood victims.
I have decided on this approach because the issues involved are for the populace. The issue concerns you, me and the indigenous sons and daughters of Kogi State.
Kogi State is blessed with some Federal Educational Institutions both secondary and tertiary educations.
The State Pioneer leaders have also seen the need to encourage their indigenous state citizen to attend schools and become academics. Hence the establishment of schools and colleges in kogi state.
Kogi State University and Kogi State Polytechnic are examples of such crave. In the past our well-to-do parents travelled far for studies while the unfortunate ones dropped-out/stopped out at either primary seven OR FORM SIX.
I am Emmanuel Ogiri C. Hailed from Igalamela-Odolu Local Government Area of Kogi State. Omale Adejo Ogiri is my father. All my elementary studies through primary to secondary school was in Idah LGA of Kogi State and yet am studying law at the Kogi State University, established by Prince Abubakar Audu in 1999 to encourage full participation of Igala's and other tribes across Kogi in Academics. This is to say am not an outsider but a part-taker of this pathetic saga.
Governor, Sir! I want to formally bring to your notice that increasingly, there has been a global shift toward recognizing and understanding the need for education in all states. If a graduate could be celebrated in a family or just an admission letter or say access to education are seen and counted as an achievement to any family, then the provision of accessible education could also be listed among societal developments. Prince Abubakar Audu discovered this. Rochas Okorocha is practicing this. Hon. Friday Sanni (makama) knows this, thus his giving out scholarships to indigenous kogites of his constituency.
The only sustainable development is to develop a human being. The only way to develop a human is by developing and expatiating his intellectual mindset and that is what education does. A better society is that which has elites, people with educated mindset.



The increment of fees though may have its positive reasons (don't forget the removal of subsidy) will reduce the educational strength of our dear state, increase hawkers and armed robbers. It will dry up the established roots of our state in it's slow but steady crave to improve its educational standards. Two secondary students form Kogi State (st. peter's college idah) are currently representing the entire Nigeria at Russia, Moscow and Swiss in science competitions. At the National level kogites have represented the entire North Central. These were achievable because they had access to education. Because Formal Gov. Idris gave them the hope of education, he paid WAEC fees for all students (both non-indigene) for nine good years.

We all know you really want to boost Kogi State economy. You want to increase the internally generated revenue so as to meet up with developmental demand. But, Sir, don't forget so soon that we all experienced some set backs through last year's flood and since 2008 many workers were screened out of public service, yet they have been a lot of retrenchments in kogi state public service.

In your quest to improve kogi state, don't look unto Lagos State for parameters. We are rated among less developed states (educationally) while they are not. Their living standards are incomparable to Kogi State. They already have a hand-full of elites, we are still searching. Their local government workers, even bus drivers earn hundred times of the #4,759.56, Kogi State Local Government workers are earning.
What have you done to improve the standards of education in kogi State?
Has the living standards of kogite improved? Is it by building two mini-hostels for students? Why must fees be increased?

Painting the structures built by Prince Abubakar Audu in his single tenure with a lesser federal allocation (all 96% of the structures on campus was built by him) can not warrant the increment of fees. It will not justify the drop-outs and increase of hawkers and armed robbers.
How many Professors do you thing we have?
Have we gotten too much of them?

This purported increase is a price paid to send-out children of the unfortunate LGA workers, retrenched state workers, unemployed parents, okada riders, petty traders, flood victims to mention but a few.

Bear in mind, history have been made in the whole world of a Nigerian Governor who successfully increased the tuition fee at his first day in office from 15,300 to 35,500 and within the completion of his first year in office increased it again to 100,000.
100,000? Sir.

Here is the nature of your people. Sir, we are poor, we can't even buy textbooks, where is our bursary, a Governor like you have paid both bursary and WAEC fees for us for nine years. we are poor, we are flood victims, our parents are victims of retrenchments, mom has been spending all her half-paid salary on transport to Lokoja for an insatiable 'teachers screening', limited employment, our parents have three wives the least two with 5 children in the university, we sell petty things to pay our fees, we bake cakes to pay our fees, garri is our savior. Don't chase us out of school, we would want the repainting of buildings but we need qualified lecturers, professors per say.
Let me tell you what your predecessor said when he was first confronted with the issue of increasing the school fees, he said "tah, where do you think my people will get such money from" he knew 50,000 WAS TOO MUCH FOR his people, he was a carpenter, he was a taxi driver, he has been in their shoes before elected a Governor.

Governor, Sir! I wish to appeal to you to review either your decision or address this rumor. Consider the vast majority of students living off-campus, what will be their fate? They will need their parents three years salary for a single year at the university.
I hope, sir, that you will be as pleased as the parents seeing their children on kaki (corpers). I hope you will be happy to see more of Prof. Hassan Isah, Prof. Oyibo, Prof. Idachabe and the very son of the soil who taught the white men for 10 good years in the person of Dr. J.A.M Abonika. These men attained all they got because they had education.
Yours faithful.

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