Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State at the weekend commended the Usagbe Club of Nigeria which has sons of Weppa, Uwanno and Uzanu Clans as members with the socio-economic development of the communities, Edo North and Edo state in general, as the primary focus, for their steadfastness and commitment.
The Governor who was invited as the Special Guest of honour to the annual convention which held at the Sandralin Hotel in the Jabi District of the FCT spoke of his admiration for the Usagbe club, its ability to bond the people of its member communities and commitment to ensuring the development of not only infrastructure but also human capacity up-liftment which ultimately benefits the state.
His words, “Before declaring this convention open, I want to say this is one club I envy, in the sense that part of the place I come from, I’m still to see a body that is organized like this. And to imagine that it’s just a sub-set of a larger ethnic group! I want to commend you for the effort you’ve taken to organize yourself.
“One reason I’ve always associated with you as a group is because I’ve identified this club as a veritable partner of our government in development. Because you represent the elite group of Weppa Wanno clan and part of the reason is that when people who have been prepared for leadership, that is the elite, whose investment have been put into their training and upbringing, step back and do not take that primordial role which god has give them for granted. That is why we have the kind of problems we face in the country today.
“So I’m not surprised that as individuals or as a community, you have done well for yourselves and are striving to do well for your people. And I assure you that Edo state government under my leadership will partner and work for you closely to Achieve your goals.
“Now, about Usagbe club and Weppa Wannu area; what is the plan? Like I told you, the first thing I’ve learnt, the key to development is infrastructure. we have to open up the place. If people cannot get in and out, nobody will go. So I believe that the first key infrastructure development is to open the Agenebode road. And I am pleased to inform you that of last Friday the design has been completed.
“It is not going to be cheap. I will start it. I hope you give me a second term to complete it. And for me that road is first priority because Etsako East, aside of Benin has the largest concentration of investments in Edo state. You have 2 Cement companies; lots of mining activities going on there and at the end of the day how is the local government benefiting.
Dangote started construction of another N3billion naira factory; we have fertilizer companies, and a lot of activities going on there. So we can’t rely on just the Benin/Auchi road for access.
“Let’s see how we can move into Agenebode and then develop import facilities, so that we can send products from Agenebode to the Eastern market and the Middle Belt. What I’m talking about is not new. In the 40s, 50s and to the 60s, ships used to come from Liverpool into Nigeria.
“Once I have completed that, connecting the communities wont be a problem.
I also want to inform you that as we speak, we have prepared a thousand hectares of land around the leventis farm. We’ve gone into partnership with them under the — program and we are cultivating grains.
We are working with quite a lot of young people and giving them the opportunity to participate in agriculture. By the grace of god with what I know the president is planning, we will be able to expand the opportunities.
Continuing Governor Obaseki saluted the Usagbe club of Nigeria for its dedication to development of Weppa/Uwanno and Edo state in general, noting, “One reason I’ve always associated with you as a group is because I’ve identified this club as a veritable partner of our government in development.
“Your topic for this year’s retreat is very seminal and timely. You talked about the youth because we have a youth crisis in our state and country. it is particularly serious. I’m not sure a lot of us sit back and reflect the extent of the youth challenge we have in Nigeria.
On how his administration was tackling the challenge of the youth crisis through education, Governor Obaseki said, ” For us a government, we have tried not to be pretentious about any issues. Because the first step to solving a problem is admitting that y0u have a problem, so rather than talking only about the big issues, lets focus first on the fundamentals.
“And for me the fundamental is basic education. Because if you were not taught to spell and do your sums properly, you will not be able to do your sums or to read and understand.
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“So for our government. we have to return to the basics. The crisis we have in education, particularly basic education is quite deep but at the core of it all is governance. Who is responsible for basic education? Is it federal, is it state or local govt. And what do we do to ensure that people are held accountable to take care of this children?
“But the good news is, in Edo state there are educational reforms. And it’s simple, first, the teachers must be in class for the students to learn. We are paying teachers.
“Over the years God knows what happened, where most of the teachers had shops in the market so they are barely there, but with technology today, with gaps located in our basic schools have been closed.
“We know when our teachers are not in class because they have a hand held device which is synchronized with the head teacher when they come to school every morning and the lesson note for that day downloaded in that device and we can tell from our portal whether the teacher is in class, whether the attendance of the children have been taken and also tell if the teacher delivered his or her lesson note for that day.
“So the net effect today from the report you read is that our children are now learning in one term what they used to learn in one year and I’m pleased to inform you that in those schools we rolled out about 900 basic schools today in Edo state and in those schools, the results are beginning to reflect the investment we’re making.
“It cost us about N16,000 a child per year and today I have almost 300,000 children enrolled in that program. Those 300,000 children have about 1.2 million books in their classrooms. It’s not cheap, it’s expensive but it’s worth every expense.
“And I would rather die than to drop any child out of that system so that some people can benefit. Because I feel that once we fix the basic educational system and this children receive the quality education we are offering them, by the time they finish their first five years of schooling they would have been set for life because this country wasn’t built by all graduates.
“In those days by the time people finish standard six they were ready for life. So if we give these kids quality education, we will not have the kind of crisis we are having today. So that is why we have a government that has decided that this is the way to go”.
Earlier, the President Usagbe Club of Nigeria, Mr. Tony Akiotu disclosed that the theme of the convention ‘Guiding the Youth Towards Positive Impact of the Community’ because the role of youths in a society cannot be over emphasized even ad he told the governor that “Your administration’s dealing with youth recalcitrance in Edo state is a case study to many other state governors”
Akiotu added, “We thank your excellency for the positive development the state has witnessed since his tenure. I will not end this address without reminding your excellency that the school of Aqua Culture and Marine Technology which you promised to establish in Agenebode is yet to take off. We plead with Mr. Governor to make the school operational as it will become one of the focal points of harnessing the youths for positive impacts on our communities.
“The governor had also promised to actualize the decision to construct the already advertised road project from Ivioghe-Iviankpodi-Iviukhua-Iviegbepui-Iviukwe-Ekwosor; as this road will help to network Weppa anf Uwanno Communities, and provide comfort for the people with attendant economic benefits.
” So also was the Governor’s promise to construct a link road between Okpella and Agenebode, the two major towns of Etsako East LGA. This will lessen the plight of the people of Okpella having to first travel to Auchi before connecting Agenebode, their local government headquarters.
Furthermore, the Usagbe President reminded the governor of the fact that there are no sufficient teachers in schools in Weppa, Uwanno and Uzanu clans adding, “We urge your excellency to take urgent steps to provide the school, the much needed schools in our clans. We also appeal to your excellency to plead with Dangote Group of Companies to come back to Agenebode and utilize the land which had already been given to the company for Agriculture since the fertilizer blending plant was moved to another part of the country”.
Akiotu also drew Governor Obaseki’s attention to “The spate of kidnapping, armed robbery and the general state of insecurity along the old Auchi to Agenebode road which has become a source of worry to the club as indeed our people” saying “The spate of kidnapping and armed robbery on the road is becoming very worrisome”.
Among prominent sons of Weppa, Uwanno, past presidents and members of the club from across the country that participated in the convention were Chief Egbert Imomoh, Senator Francis Alimikhena, Chief Mike Ozekhome SAN, Ambassador Peter Anegbeh, High Chief Kennedy Izusgbe, High Chief Alaba Oshogwomeh, High Chief Francis Eshiebor, Mr Emmanuel Dakpokpo (former Perm Sec), Alhaji Ahmed Dakpokpo, Mr. Osi Imomoh, Mr. Emmanuel (Congo) Imoagene, Chief Usman Idodo, Mr Christopher Esheku, Alhaji Ibrahim Izuagbe, Mr Jacob Idinye, Mr Joe Okolo and Arch. Francis Ebalu among many others.
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