Dr. Alex Otti, the governor of Abia State, has reaffirmed the government’s commitment to giving the state’s health and education systems top priority.
Speaking to the Board of Trustees of Lux Mundi University in Umuahia, Otti highlighted that his government chose to address the issues it inherited in the health and education sectors from the ground up as soon as it took office.
Prof. Ahmed Abubakar Audi, the Board of Trustees’ alternative chair, led the group.
The governor was notified by the board of a collaboration with the United States of America (USA) Home Health Aid Training Institute.
The board used the occasion to invite the governor to the school’s second matriculation program, which will take place on July 18, 2025, and announced that 50 of its students will travel to the United States for an exchange program with the institute next month.
Otti, who was thrilled to hear the positive news, stated that the state greatly depends on health and education.
“The two main items you placed on the table—health and education—have been on our agenda since we arrived in the state in 2023. We have devoted 20% of our budget to education and 15% to health over the past 24 months,” he continued.
Governor Otti clarified that he made the decision to address the underlying causes of the issues his government inherited in the fields of health and education.
Read Also: ‘I Have Evidence’: Kingibe Alleges Wike Cut ₦200m Bill for His Son to ₦2m
“We discovered that the number of children who were not in school was actually rising,” he said. We examined the scenario in its entirety. On Mondays and Tuesdays, school-age youngsters are seen hawking items such as groundnuts and akara.
When we investigated, we discovered that many of them were unable to pay for their education because of the school costs.
The Governor said, to cheers, “Therefore, from the beginning of this year, we removed school fees and education became free and compulsory at the basic level.”
He said that his government’s free education program increased school enrollment, creating a significant labor shortage in addition to the necessity to renovate the deteriorating schools because the learning environment is crucial.
“First and foremost, we made teaching more appealing by increasing their pay and making the entire compensation package more alluring than even the Civil Service,” he said.
The governor also clarified that hiring 5,364 new teachers was insufficient to stop the ongoing increase in public school enrollment. Abia is currently hiring an extra 4,000 teachers to guarantee that every school has a sufficient number of motivated, well-trained, and qualified staff members.
“You shouldn’t be denied the chance to attend school because your parents are not wealthy,” he said.
Regarding health, Otti disclosed that none of the 948 primary healthcare centers (PHCs) were operational, indicating that his administration inherited a broken primary healthcare system that was in disrepair and short on staff.
“We started by creating a minimal standard template for primary healthcare centers,” he stated.
“At the last count, 138 have been completely retrofitted with the remaining 62, making it 200 to be completed soon,” the governor stated of the ongoing rehabilitation, upgrading, and retrofitting of 200 PHCs.
“Those that we have correctly installed have been put into service. Bende was where the last one was. Solar power, a renewable energy source, is installed in the basic health centers.
Using the platform, Audi expressed gratitude to the governor for accepting them and said that his work in Abia State is unmatched.
