Obaseki: I won’t share govt money

Edo State Governor Godwin Obaseki has vowed not to share funds meant for development to greedy individuals trying to blackmail the government.

Obaseki spoke at the graduation of teachers under the Edo Supporting Teachers to Achieve Results (Edo STAR), an arm of the Edo Basic Education Sector Transformation (Edo-BEST) programme.

The graduation held at the Samuel Ogbemudia Model College, Benin City.

The governor stressed that his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), was fully in support of his administration, and he was not standing alone in his decision to pursue sustainable development.

He said: “I assure you that my party is behind me; I am not standing on my own. So ignore and forget reports by people who want me to give them money that should be used to train our teachers, provide for our children and develop the state. I will never give our people’s money to them.

“We do not have all the money in Edo, but whatever we have – no matter how little – we will prioritise education and healthcare. What is important to us are things that affect the ordinary Edo citizen. Those are the things the APC and I stand for.

“The College of Education in Abudu will have laboratories and other expert facilities for training of primary school teachers; the College in Igueben will train secondary school and technical education teachers, while the one in Afuze will train teachers for physical education and children with special needs.”

Obaseki added that the digital teaching and learning process deployed in public primary schools would be replicated in private primary schools to ensure that no child is left behind.

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He praised the teachers for successfully completing the programme, and assured them that their training would improve learning outcomes.

Executive Chairman of the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) Dr Joan Oviawe said the training was one of the pillars of the Edo State Basic Education Sector Transformation (Edo-BEST) initiative, adding that “teachers who participated in the 27-day training on digital teaching and learning process were presented with certificates, smart phones and tablets to improve learning outcomes in primary schools”.