Governor of Abia State Dr. Alex Otti has reaffirmed the government’s commitment to giving the state’s health and education systems top priority.
When Otti hosted the Board of Trustees of Lux Mundi University in Umuahia, he 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.
The Board of Trustees’ alternative chair, Prof. Ahmed Abubakar Audi, led the group.
The board had told the governor about a collaboration with the United States of America (USA) Home Health Aid Training Institute.
The board also 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 depart for the United States next month as part of an exchange program with the institute.
Education and health are vital to the state, according to Otti, who was thrilled to hear the positive news.
Since we arrived in 2023, the two main items you placed on the table—health and education—have been on our agenda for the state. We’ve set aside 15% of our budget for health care and 20% for education over the past 24 months,” he said.
Governor Otti clarified that he made the decision to address the underlying causes of the issues his administration picked up in the health and education sectors.
“In fact, we discovered that the number of children who were not attending school was rising,” he said. When we examined the entire issue, we found that school-age children were hawking items like groundnuts and akara on Mondays and Tuesdays.
We looked into it and discovered that many of them were unable to pay for their education because of the school costs.
As a result, we eliminated school fees at the start of this year, making basic education free and required,” the governor said to cheers.
He said that his government’s free education program increased school enrollment, creating a significant labor shortage in addition to the need to renovate the deteriorating schools because the learning environment is crucial.
He stated, “First and foremost, we attempted to make teaching more appealing by raising their pay and making the entire compensation package more alluring than even the Civil Service.”
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The governor went on to clarify 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 workers who are motivated and well-trained.
“Your parents’ lack of wealth shouldn’t make it impossible for you to attend school,” he said.
Regarding health, Otti stated that none of the 948 primary healthcare centers (PHCs) were operational, revealing that his government inherited a broken primary healthcare system that was unmaintained and manpower-scarce.
The first thing we did, he said, was create a basic blueprint for primary healthcare centers.
The governor stated that 200 PHCs are currently undergoing refurbishment, remodeling, and retrofitting: “At the last count, 138 have been completely retrofitted with the remaining 62, making it 200 to be completed soon.”
“Those that we correctly installed have been put into use. Bende was where the previous one was. Renewable energy, specifically solar power, is installed in the primary health centers.
Audi thanked the governor for receiving them during the forum, stating that his performance in Abia State is unmatched.
