By Eze Basil Chinwendu Oluo D'Oracle

The past few days have been bad days for me, because of so much cold I got exposed to, but it got worse when my radio airwaves was hijacked by a very embarrassing situation; FG announces intention to reconstruct 14 secondary schools in Rivers State, Rivers State Government asks FG to stay off secondary schools under Rivers State and focus on the two Federal Government Colleges in the state.

 
The above is a perfect dramatisation of the level of 'jam-body' pedestrian politics being played today. Issues that are sorted on the roundtable and over the phone have now become the unchallenged residents of headline news and cover pages of print media.

While the Rivers State Government may be right in their suspicion of politics behind the FG decision, we should be reminded that if we had done what we should have done, FG would not have come with the 'politics' of secondary schools reconstruction- if our secondary schools were alive, FG would not be talking of resurrection.

WHAT IS THE STATE OF OUR SECONDARY SCHOOLS?

There are over 250 secondary schools run by the Rivers State Government. Of these, only the Ambassador Ine Kurubo Model secondary School built by the current government and the County Grammar School Ikwerre Etche remodeled by the Omehia led government can be called SCHOOLS in the proper sense. All others are more like the typical Nigerian mechanic garages. It is the same story from the city centre and to the rural areas.

In 2011, I did a tour of our secondary schools and came back with stories of fallen walls, roofless blocks, empty classrooms, and worse of all 'forested schools' (schools overtaken by bushes and this includes both the famous and not too famous schools. IT WILL NOT BE TOTALLY WRONG TO SAY THAT SECONDARY SCHOOLS BUILDINGS IN RIVERS STATE IS DEAD.

The most populous secondary school in Rivers State is the Girls Secondary School, Oromineke, fondly called Oromineke girls. As I write, its roof continues to fall off and the state government has not cared. In the same 2011, I called the attention of the State to the decadence in our secondary schools and made particular mention of Oromineke Girls, but nothing was done. Note, it was even students of that school that built that massive storey building in that premises. Students contributed to build that structure and not even that act of sacrifice has been able to remind the state government of its duties. See attached photo for evidence of the state of this school.

There is no man up to 40 years of age who grew up in Rivers State who doesn't know or who hasn't heard of Etche Girls Secondary School, Obibi. This is one of the most popular and famous Girls school in Rivers State. It was so popular that Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe as a head of government visited it. That school like CGS Ikwerre-Etche has contributed women of stature to this society. Etche Girls was also seen as the wife of CGS Ikwerre-Etche, but today, the husband and wife are miles apart in terms of infrastructure and quality of learning. There is no building, not even one, in the whole premises of Etche Girls Secondary School that is fit for human habitation. I made a case for this school which served as a centre of unity for River women but no response came. Today, the school has become a haven for criminals and criminal activities; rape, occult initiation, robbery, kidnapping, just name it. I kept praying and hoping that the tears I cried whenever I remembered this school would melt the heart of the Rivers State Government, but as I write, my tears haven't found its way anywhere near the heart of the Government. See pictorial evidence of the state of the school attached.

Government Secondary School, Okehi is completely gone, too. How about Government Girls Secondary School, Rumuokwuta? In 2014, this school still has wooden classrooms (batcha classrooms). This is another very big girls school in the city of Port Harcourt. There is a stench of a decay in this premises. The school is as porous as anything and its land is continuously being encroached upon. Its structures like the rest of the other 250 plus schools is gone. It is now known more for the sporting activities organised by locals there, than it is for academics.

Move to the Old Port Harcourt Town axis, Baptist High School, Comprehensive Secondary School, Enitonia High School, and the rest, the story is the same- ALARMING DECAY!

This is not to mention the many who have never qualified for the appellation of a Secondar School- those ones with 'I' structures built by communities as a means of self help. I mean the Community Secondary Schools, they too have all decayed, without government attention, the communities got tired and the schools are crying for help.

A few years ago, I got to know that the proposed model secondary schools of which only seven were started and only one functional, each is costing the State a whooping N4.5 billion and another N800million per annum to maintain. I shook my head in disbelief. We had gotten our policies and priorities wrong from the onset. Expending N4.5 billion naira on one school with a capacity of just a thousand students, and with a further burden of N800 million per annum, where the same amount can renovate more than 70% of the existing 250 plus schools has until today defied economic reason, to me. That was pure VOODPONOMICS; a combination of voodoo and political economics.

I did a write up on this some years ago and called on the state government to revisit its secondary school policy as the current one was and is still doing more harm than good. But they didn't listen.

I am shouting it again in this write up and maybe the Government will hear my voice this time. DON'T KEEP SPENDING N4.5 BILLION ON A SCHOOL THAT WILL ACCOMODATE JUST 1,000 STUDENTS WHEN THE SAME AMOUNT CAN TURN AROUND ALMOST ALL OF OUR 250 PLUS EXISTING SECONDARY SCHOOLS.

We as Rivers people and our Government should hide our faces in shame; for our actions and inactions, that from Abuja, a city 479.01 KM away from us, the smelly state of our secondary schools have been noticed.

Our State Government has been accusing the Federal Government of neglect, now we are rejecting Federal projects?

Rivers people must stop the State Government from rejecting the FG intervention, if we are renovating ourselves, which is what we shoul do, we have to liaise and rechannel what the FG is proposing.

The energy the Rivers State Government is dissipating, saying no to the FG intervention, she should immediately rechannel into the renovation of our schools immediately. The Ministry of Information of Rivers State must save us further embarrassment by stopping this radio rejection of FG projects in a state that is still within the Federation. It should instead, join forces with the Education Ministry in the next EXCO and, or InterGovernmental meeting, to make a case for the immediate start of renovation works on our secondary schools. The Council should, if they are renovating, write the FG, suggesting other areas where they would prefer the intervention to be redirected to.

We should either begin renovation works, or shut up, hide our face in shame and gratefully accept the intervention of the Federal Government of Nigeria.

If you must write,don't smoke weed. Watch your BACK for NDLEA.