The chairman of Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC), Sir Precious Barido has commended the Rivers State governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike for the introduction of Free Education in Rivers State, adding that the gesture will relieve most parent who had long withdraw their children/wards from school out of poverty.
He stated this over the weekend at Government House, Port Harcourt shortly after the inauguration of the board members.
“I feel so excited about the free education because a lot of families are wallowing in poverty and unable to feed themselves, let alone sending their children to schools but with this opportunity, they will now happily go back to school”, he noted.
He also stated that those families who out of one reason or the other were forced to the private schools with their exhaubitant fees will now heave a sigh of relieve.
On whether the gesture and free education policy will be sustained by subsequent administration, Barido said under normal circumstance, there are supposed to be sustained as good things need not be discarded because of change of government.
According to him, “any reasonable leader would definitely follow the Wike footsteps of constituting a unity government and as well as the free education policy because these are people oriented welfare packages that absolve tension in the land and needed to be emulated even in other states of the federation”.
He made it clear that if political parties know that there will be part of the emerging government even if they loose the election, the tension and violence characterized by elections in Nigeria will be reduced or discarded.
Barido who is one of the board members of the reconstituted Basic Education Board (UBEB), expressed his gratitude to governor Nyesom Ezenwo Wike for not only making his promises of Unity Government real but for appointing him into the board in his first appointment.
“I give glory to God for the privilege to serve. I thank Gov Wike for finding me worthy to serve at this level out of 2 million people in Rivers State and over (100,000) one hundred thousand well educated people in the state”, he stated.
He equally used the opportunity to thank the PDP state chairman, Bro Felix Obuah, his fellow IPAC members and his colleagues at the board for the opportunity given him, a non-PDP member to contribute his quota in the state building.
Sir Barido who is the Accord Party State Chairman as well as IPAC Chairman in the state urged his IPAC members and indeed Rivers people to remain calm and supportive to the Wike administration, assuring that their own time will eventually come.
He disclosed that they were given the mandate to work in synergy with governor Wike to revamp the UBEB Schools that they are going to make sure that the state free education projects works.
The “Rivers Project” chairman also disclosed that the public schools built by the immediate past Amaechi administration, will be looked into with a view to properly equipping them and making functional for use, adding that all these are geared towards making sure that the infrastructure’s built with public money are not allowed to waste.
