By Jonathan Ugbal; Government House Correspondent
Cross River Governor, Ben Ayade Wednesday, in Calabar expressed angst against the politicking involved in the dissemination and utilization of funds in the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC).
The Governor expressed his dissatisfaction when the Minister for State Education, Professor Anthony Anwuka led a team from UBEC and the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) on a courtesy visit to his office as part of their itinerary for the 15th quarterly meeting of the Commission which held in the state.
Slamming the situation where UBEC funds are allegedly “reduced to political patronage and basic day to day survival,” Ayade said “any accumulation of materialism that has no perfection of moral integrity of such is failed”.
Continuing, he urged “whoever sits and superintend over UBEC funds should add value to the basic education of the country, embrace the training and retraining of teachers while reconstructing the value of UBEC for the good of the citizenry”.
According to the governor, “this partnership we are having today is to create a new vista of opportunity where people will look beyond the political contracts that come with UBEC funds, to actually design an academic program that would create a new direction, future and prosperity of the nation”.
Also, Ayade encouraged the Minister and his team to proffer solutions plaguing the education sector during the summit and set “a new agenda and drive that would reconstruct the concept of basic education”.
Earlier, Professor Anwuka commended the Cross River state government for keying into the vision and aspirations of UBEC and thanked the state for hosting their meeting when the one which was supposed to have done so defaulted.
Anwuka said Cross River “is very much keyed into our force in this direction, your vision to basic education in this country is wonderful and we are going to task you on that as I have immediately drafted the Executive Secretary of UBEC to be part of your vision and direction.”
He affirmed their resolve to fashion out ways aimed at boosting operations of UBEC and SUBEB in the various states, as well as offering a new lease of life to basic education in the country.
However, he admitted that the Commission has had problems in the past, explaining that “the agencies of UBEC have accepted the challenge to put in the right direction our basic education endeavors in this country”.