God be with You Roch, Have always believed in you, God's Your Guide, Kip d gud works UP,

I think he should take it one step at a time and make it free up to primary 6, and then when the economy gets better, and more jobs are created, maybe he can extend it to JS3 or whatever.

Imo State has d highest yearly UTME enrolment. This policy will succeed but has to b well managed.

Iykolysis:

Imo State has d highest yearly UTME enrolment. This policy will succeed but has to b well managed.

yeah. . . i fear that future governors after him might not continue what he has started and run Imo State into the ground. all these projects sound great, but im always thinking of future occurrences.

the spiritual certification bit was retarded, but otherwise everything looked and sounded ok though 'spiritual certification' sounds like the words of a primitive thinker.

God will help u to keep to ur words, I believe u can do it and even surpass it, pls increase d quality of that education, d era of slate and chalk and blackboard are over. Pls add quality to it. Once again God will continue to enlarge u

If free education can be done then only God knows how much ohakim is worth considering
that he did nothing.

He did not say university education will be free. It is primary and secondary education. He has said it,he will do it. Just continue to pray for him.

nice motive! i pray things will change for better and forever in nigeria

YEAH, quality is very important. don't open a lot of free half baked schools, abeg! nicely built schools, comfortable desks (i think comfort is important, I've seen some of the desks these children sit on, AND I WONDER!), and PLEASE make sure all the teachers are qualified because some have no business teaching at all.

and i believe all children up to primary 4 should have leap frog laptops (like the kids in the international schools) so they can find more interactive ways of learning and become sort of technology savvy. but that one can come later. . .

Rochas should realize that he is now a governor and not just a philanthropist. It is one thing to declare free education for all. it is another to back it up with legislation, funding and implementation. I wish him all the best

my dear pple, enuff of criticisms. i saw thru this man and d passion to succeed. he said he made a promise to GOD that if delivering Imo State would make him poor, he declares himself a poor man. there is a new spirit in IMo, even if he does not deliver all these, the pple know his heart n r willig to support in no small way.

let's all lend him the support by praying n contributing any small amount where we can, it would go a long way.

Rochas has been running the business of free education since late 90's. I was in kano when he lunched free education. school uniforms, books etc where all free. He did it in Sokoto, Jos, Imo, Kano State etc. I know he 'll succeed by God's grace.

ypad:

Rochas has been running the business of free education since late 90's. I was in kano when he lunched free education. school uniforms, books etc where all free. He did it in Sokoto, Jos, Imo, Kano State etc. I know he 'll succeed by God's grace.

Amen.

"Ohakim said his name is Ikiri. But since I won the election he is my brother. I have separated my brother from Ikiri. Ikiri has gone to the bush and my brother has gone back to Isiala Mbano. From today, Ohakim is no longer Ikiri but former governor.

I beg my Igbo brethren, what is the meaning of 'Ikiri" in english?

Guys,
We should appreciate good things. Baba Owelle Rochas is the Obama of Imo. You are yet to see. He is just on rescue mission. Once he completes Imo restructuring project, he is going to take over from GEJ to finally finish his Divine agenda. Those who ar saying that free education up to Tertiary level is impossible are the same people who could not believe Fashola when he said that Lagos can be turned to a mega city. Today, nobody will doubt Fashola if he says he will give free house to every Lagosian.

We believe the spirit of Dey Sam Mbakwe will add more strenght even as God has strenghtened Rochas.
Long live Rochas!
Long live Imo state!!
Long live Nigeria[/color][font=Lucida Sans Unicode][/font][color=#000099][/color]

People should understand the politics of the free education programme before rushing to call it "sensationalism" or impossible.
Let me give us a brief history of the politics of Imo state, when Rochas was campaigning for the position of the governor of Imo State,most part of his campaign hovered around free education, that was the backbone of his campaign.
Ohakim who had earlier argued in a debate that it was impossible to give free education to Imo people, suddenly decided to anounce a free education program at all levels and even extended it to imo indegenes that are not resident is in the state just to pit Rochas against the people.
Rochas never claimed that he was going to give an absolutely free education at all levels-of course he knows that is impossible with the meager allocation and IGR from the state.
However, he still re-iterated his commitment to giving free education to Imolites and even said his government was going to send a bill to the state house of assembly to make it a punishable offence not to send a child to school.
The man is serious and should be given a chance, already there is a crisis in the state house as opposition members are set to upturn the very spiteful policies taken by the out-gone regime of Ohakim 2wks to his removal from power. Already the state house has been shut and the speaker under a lot of pressure to quit. I believe this government is going to be active and like I said before, I like Rochas' maturity in handling the calls for ohakim to be probed. He dos not have to show that Probing Ohakim is going to be his aim, let him do it fine but we are more interested in what he is going to do next to move us to the next level not make Ohakim another aimless obsession.

ypad:

Rochas has been running the business of free education since late 90's. I was in kano when he lunched free education. school uniforms, books etc where all free. He did it in Sokoto, Jos, Imo, Kano State etc. I know he 'll succeed by God's grace.

Free? The money to run it came from somewhere. Doesn't his org get $$ from Ford?

1025:

THIS IS A QUALITY/SWEET LIE. IMPO OOO - IMPOSSIBLE.
@POSTER, BE CAREFUL. WHERE WILL IMO STATE SEE MONEY TO DO FREE EDUCATION FROM PRIMARY TO SECONDARY TALK-LESS OF UNIVERSITY.

Imo state will soon offer u free and quality education so you stop speaking bad english

bababuff:

I beg my Igbo brethren, what is the meaning of 'Ikiri" in english?

Fox or a guileful person. "no dey shake when pushed", "back no dey touch ground" "Strong man"

It's an Owerri slang mainly reserved for a dubious persons.

@ Topic, we don't need completely free education in Imo state. What we need is affordable education as people are already going to school without much persuasion in Imo. Rochas should channel most of our money to capital projects and resuscitation of our moribund industries in Imo.

sometimes i wonder who are the people that advice these governors! instead of free education, why dont u make the flipping thing affordable ( say reduce current cost by 50-60%) and channel more money to pay teachers and improve infrastructure in schools and all its common sense and good economics! common sense is not so common i guess!

Good Move

To doubters, It is very possible to give free education in Imo state, at least to secondary school level. During his campaign when he was challenged by his opponents to tell them where he would get the money to run a free education program, he told them he was going to use the state's security votes-which hitherto has always been squandered-to fund it.
And who says imo state only needs to affordable schools? Free education as well will infact, yield better results than a subsidy which some may nor neccessarily see the effect.

With d level of education u people have, u guy still think like people who haven't see d 4wall of school, People say he use is private money 2give people free education not forgettin dat d money is from charity, pubic donation (new yahoo yahoo) usin it 4its own use, deceivin imo people with dat. They say "give a man power and u will know who he is" ohakim really try even more than some state gov did by doing clean n green which rochas is usin now, 10 thousand job 4 graduate which my own blood brother got and so many people who i know and heard of, etc. Go 2 US or UK n talk abt free education, people will start givin birth any how believin dat d government will train them, b4 this declaration of free education imo people are on it. Primary school pay only #50 for pta fee, jss1 -3 pays #700 for pta n other stuff. Its only ss1 -3 dat pays #2,800 as school fee so tell me is that not free. Wat people are sayin is just 2paints d guy black. The 10,000 letter you people said he gave 2days before leavin office are 4those who haven't been postered to their ministrys cos my brother got is own last year december n they put him in level 7 check out. 2me imo state is among 8 to 10 state top state in nigeria so why carrying false rumor for this man. Rochas will do this, rochas will do that lets watch n see how he will bring las vegas to imo state even river state, lagos state etc allocation and revenue is 1,000 more than imo state have not think of turning there state to las vegas, Peple who live by rumours!!!

Nothing you can do to satisfy human being, imo people are all rumours mogans. Because of high level of fools even duo they are in school, they read newspaper, watch tv, browse the net, see things he is doing with their eyez. None of them can prove the truth all they de do na "dem say dem say" them say he chop money, them say he do this. No actual truth or prove. Thats what makes him to lose the election. Imo are jobless people

FACE:

Fox or a guileful person. "no dey shake when pushed", "back no dey touch ground" "Strong man"

It's an Owerri slang mainly reserved for a dubious persons.

@ Topic, we don't need completely free education in Imo state. What we need is affordable education as people are already going to school without much persuasion in Imo. Rochas should channel most of our money to capital projects and resuscitation of our moribund industries in Imo.

Old boy, please don't spoil the Igbo language. If you do not know what Ikiri means you should just say so and not fabricate a response. Ikiri is not a slang!

Ikiri is the Igbo name for the small animal with big eyes popularly called 'Bush baby'. The animal is renowned for its ability to hold on to whatever it grips. Usually it stays on trees and grips the tree branches so tight that even when it is shot dead, it still holds on to the branch and the hunter will have to manually extricate the grip before it can detach the animal from the branch. The most difficult part is that if you catch Ikiri in a trap, it will grip the trap and you may be forced to cut off its fingers in order to detach it from the trap. That is why in Igbo we say "onya ji Ikiri, Ikiri ji kwa onya".

So Ohakim called himself Ikiri in order to show that he has a grip on the Govt house and only at death or by his own choice will he detach from it.

fnep2smooth:

With d level of education u people have, u guy still think like people who haven't see d 4wall of school, People say he use is private money 2give people free education not forgettin dat d money is from charity, pubic donation (new yahoo yahoo) usin it 4its own use, deceivin imo people with dat. They say "give a man power and u will know who he is" ohakim really try even more than some state gov did by doing clean n green which rochas is usin now, 10 thousand job 4 graduate which my own blood brother got and so many people who i know and heard of, etc. Go 2 US or UK n talk abt free education, people will start givin birth any how believin dat d government will train them, b4 this declaration of free education imo people are on it. Primary school pay only #50 for pta fee, jss1 -3 pays #700 for pta n other stuff. Its only ss1 -3 dat pays #2,800 as school fee so tell me is that not free. Wat people are sayin is just 2paints d guy black. The 10,000 letter you people said he gave 2days before leavin office are 4those who haven't been postered to their ministrys cos my brother got is own last year december n they put him in level 7 check out. 2me imo state is among 8 to 10 state top state in nigeria so why carrying false rumor for this man. Rochas will do this, rochas will do that lets watch n see how he will bring las vegas to imo state even river state, lagos state etc allocation and revenue is 1,000 more than imo state have not think of turning there state to las vegas, Peple who live by rumours!!!

Just shut up! Which 10,000 jobs did Ohakim give? Ohakim that duped job seekers by collecting N2,000 from each of them promising them jobs that did not exist only to suddenly churn out 10,000 employment letters on 23/05/2011, just 5 days to the end of his tenure? Do you really think we are so st.upid or what? Your brother got a job in December? So by giving letters to less than 2% of the promised 10,000, Ohakim has achieved his target? So you collect N2,000 from more than 500,000 people and you offer Level 7 jobs to about 150 of them and that means everything is okay? You must be a major fraud like your hero.

And what is Clean and Green? Planting flowers? Thats the achievement of a state gov in 4 years? Flowers!

lacidi:

Old boy, please don't spoil the Igbo language. If you do not know what Ikiri means you should just say so and not fabricate a response. Ikiri is not a slang!

Ikiri is the Igbo name for the small animal with big eyes popularly called 'Bush baby'. The animal is renowned for its ability to hold on to whatever it grips. Usually it stays on trees and grips the tree branches so tight that even when it is shot dead, it still holds on to the branch and the hunter will have to manually extricate the grip before it can detach the animal from the branch. The most difficult part is that if you catch Ikiri in a trap, it will grip the trap and you may be forced to cut off its fingers in order to detach it from the trap. That is why in Igbo we say "onya ji Ikiri, Ikiri ji kwa onya".

So Ohakim called himself Ikiri in order to show that he has a grip on the Govt house and only at death or by his own choice will he detach from it.

Bros take am easy, I be proper Owerri guy. What you said is not far from what I said "
Fox or a guileful person. "no dey shake when pushed", "back no dey touch ground" "Strong man".

You just defined the xters of Ikiri and called it bush baby, but I called it a fox for lack of word for the animal. Now in practical terms, when ikiri is applied to a human, it becomes a slang which refers to a strong man or guileful person depending on who is using it and when .

@face and lacidi

'anyi nile na ekwu ofu ihe'.

the same context and meaning but not same word.

jisinu ike umunne,

Da Doctor:

@face and lacidi

'anyi nile na ekwu ofu ihe'.

the same context and meaning but not same word.

jisinu ike umunne,

Nna no wahala. Whether Job was swallowed by a fish or Job swallowed a fish, the important thing is that there was swallow .

ezi uka nwanne

ndewo!!!!

fnep2smooth:

With d level of education u people have, u guy still think like people who haven't see d 4wall of school,  People say he use is private money 2give people free education not forgettin dat d money is from charity, pubic donation (new yahoo yahoo) usin it 4its own use, deceivin imo people with dat. They say "give a man power and u will know who he is" ohakim really try even more than some state gov did by doing clean n green which rochas is usin now, 10 thousand job 4 graduate which my own blood brother got and so many people who i know and heard of,  etc. Go 2 US or UK n talk abt free education, people will start givin birth any how believin dat d government will train them, b4 this declaration of free education imo people are on it. Primary school pay only #50 for pta fee, jss1 -3 pays #700 for pta n other stuff. Its only ss1 -3 dat pays #2,800 as school fee so tell me is that not free. Wat people are sayin is just 2paints d guy black. The 10,000 letter you people said he gave 2days before leavin office are 4those who haven't been postered to their ministrys cos my brother got is own last year december n they put him in level 7 check out. 2me imo state is among 8 to 10 state top state in nigeria so why carrying false rumor for this man. Rochas will do this, rochas will do that lets watch n see how he will bring las vegas to imo state even river state, lagos state etc allocation and revenue is 1,000 more than imo state have not think of turning there state to las vegas,  Peple who live by rumours!!!

who is this Mo'ron running wild because his brother got a phoney job from Ohakim.
On the other hand, my younger brother bought into that Ohakim 10,000 jobs and as I write, he is yet to get any job, so what the hell are you talking about with your misspellings and incoherent gibberish.
Why employ labour with no plans to make them productive, just pay people every month for being in the ministry even though their labour is not productive. Is that not a dumb populist policy that will only fatten the already over stretched budget of the state.
Even Rochas said it that most of the productive sector of the Imo state economy that would have gainfully employed people in a productive capacity and ensure the payment of their salaries are moribund and a lot of them are subjects of litigations, take for instance AdaPalm, Concord Hotel and so on, they are all struggling with one problem or the other.
Pushing people into the state civil service is an unproductive policy that will fatten the state's expenditure, monies that would have served better building facilities that should attract investment.
Before you open your filthy mouth and spew hokum make sure you understand what is it you are on about. How old did you say you were again? You swell with so much ignorance, go and read a book, get laid or sth, politics is not your thing.