I have observed the politicization of the issue of free education of governorship aspirants for Imo state April 2011 guber polls. I am however no surprised by the outpour of emotions by the challengers of the incumbent governor His Excellency Chief Ikedi Ohakim because it is common for aspirants to political office to promise free education to the citizenry, probably to confuse the feeble minded among us. In reality however only few give a deep thought to know indeed if the promise to give free education to the citizens at all level is realizable.
Those I have in mind in this essay are Chief Rochas Okorocha and Senator Ifeanyi Araraume. These men have been quoted in different fora boasting to make education free at all level of education for the people of the state if they were made governor. The case of Chief Rochas is worthy of special note here. He has failed to research or make a finding or know the required statistics that ought to inform his view in this regard. In other to arrive at an articulate program for the education sector a serious aspirant to the office of governor ought to inquire into the monthly revenue income of Imo state before announcing to make free education free at the primary and secondary levels. Chief Okorocha did not also stop there, he went ahead yet again without statistics to promise that Imo State University would pay a quarter of what they are are paying presently. I must state at this juncture that I am not surprised that the challengers are the ones making this spurious claim. There is a popular saying that what an old man sees while sitting down, the young man cannot see even if he climbs to the highest point of the mountain. This saying aptly describes the proposal of Governor Ohakim for the education sector when compared, that of his challengers.
In the 21st century Imo, the middle class is growing hence the demand for qualitative education. Does it baffle the Ohakim traducers that even at the current fee being paid by pupils in our public secondary schools the school enrolment have continued to drop, whereas the situation is completely different in the private schools.
I am witness to the burden Governor Ikedi Ohakim had for Imo prior to his enthronement as Governor in 2007.
Like everybody is feeling about him today, he firmly believed he could do more magic when he was aspiring and yearning for an opportunity to serve as Governor of Imo state. Upon assumption in 2007, Governor Ohakim no doubt learnt that you may want to change everything in a second; your vision gets limited or hindered by paucity of funds. The funds are scarce while the needs are enormous.
To make an impact therefore demands consistent planning with the expectation that a sound educational policy will yield great dividend at the ripeness of time.
It will be foolhardy for any person to ever contemplate that free education in our secondary school system will be to the benefit of Imo people. I finished Senior Secondary School without being an economics teacher. No thanks to free education. Because it goes for a fee close to free education government has the trouble trying to balance the demand for tutorial staff to the high wage bill and its attendant burden to the income of the state. Education is just one sector of the state’s economy. There are capital projects to attend to.