The modern schools built in his state used to be the envy of all other states. I passed by a secondary school in Saro Wiwa territory and stopped.
That school could easily house a university. It cost billions. It had everything.
It was a public school.
That school had better physical structures than all the multibillion naira private schools I had been to in Lagos. I walked around the school. And it dawned on me that that was one way of bridging the gap between the poor and the rich.
Getting the poor to have facilities that can't match what the rich can buy anywhere. First class primary and secondary schools, first class hospitals. Then the poor can regain human dignity.
The state then was littered with primary schools that looked like American schools. everyone marveled at the sight of those schools. The schools had massive air-conditioned libraries, computer rooms, good toilet facilities and lush pitches. The poor had the facilities monopolized by the rich everywhere else.
How many of such schools have been built in that state in the last 3 years? And how many of the ones bequeathed to the new governor have been well maintained?
One day on the East West road, I stopped to look at the plantain plantation. I inquired about their methods. I resolved to own a similar farm someday. That farm was huge.
You would think that his successor would build more of such schools and establish more plantations. But its all been noise. Everyone is staring at Abuja. If you think the monorail is too short, extend it.
Or start yours!
One day we will ask what happened to the special police squad that was trained by foreigners that protected that state, and kept cultism at bay for so long.
The day will come.
We are still possessed by ethnic passions. One day we will regain sobriety. We will find out why the schools were literally allowed to rot. We will find out what happened to that plantation.
Today, we are still hating the other people. So we are told the plantation is dead. And we shout - this Buhari sef!
- Ugo Egbujo
