The Enugu State governor, Dr. Peter Mbah, has said his administration would earmark high allocation to the education sector in the state even as he assured support for the Nigerian Law School in the areas of new infrastructure and rehabilitation of the existing dilapidated structures in the school.
Governor Mbah gave the assurances, Monday, when the senior management staff of the Enugu Campus of the Nigerian Law School led by the Deputy Director General (DDG), Mrs. Maureen Stanley-Idum, paid a courtesy visit in his office at the Government House, Enugu, to solicit the state’s support to upgrade the institution.
The governor, who further said his government was keen on providing the right infrastructure and conducive learning environment for students in the state, said education was key to achieving and sustaining the legacy projects the administration had rolled out.
According to him, plans had already been activated to review the state’s academic curriculum targeted at providing independent, well-equipped and adequately trained students with modern skills irrespective of areas of specialization.
Promising that the education sector would be one of the major beneficiaries of next year’s allocations in the budget, Mbah said the administration had picked special interest in primary school, through the tertiary education system, pointing at the cut off programme that was designed to encourage early child learning.
“We have a programmme we refer to as Cut-Off Point which identifies the young ones at age three and instills in them the right civic habits and moral values. We are changing the way they learn. We are also interested in our students in the university,” the governor said.
He also noted that before vying for the governorship office, he had interacted with the former Deputy Director General of the campus where he promised to build a state-of-the-art moot court for them, as part of Pinnacle Oil and Gas Ltd’s Corporate Social Responsibility, saying the plan had not been abandoned as he would reach out to the management of the company to remind them of the pledge.
Mbah, who said he would direct his Special Adviser on Project Development and Implementation to inspect the conditions of the institution and activate the process of rehabilitation, added that the state government would not abandon the school especially now that it was in dire needs of intervention.
“I noticed you outlined a good number of pressing needs. You talked about vehicles, the auditorium, and renovation of dilapidated academic building for lecturers, ICT, and library, among others. So, we are going to partner with the Nigerian Law School to see how we can support you on those items you listed. Be assured of our support and commitment,” the governor added.
Speaking earlier, the DDG, who expressed support and solidarity for the governor, said they had visited to identify with him as both a lawyer and a governor who understood the task of leading the state to greater heights.
“It is our earnest prayer that the Lord will increase your capacity as an instrument of peace and social transformation in a way that your administration will be characterized by remarkably improved good governance with attendant positive fruits seen in interpersonal harmony among the people, infrastructural development, social cohesion and security,” she noted.
While underscoring the challenges of the campus and the need to expand its capacity from its current 750 to 1500 capacity, the DDG stated that the institution was battling with the problems of inadequate facilities and infrastructural development, urging the government for immediate intervention.
“The campus faces challenges and lags behind other campuses in terms of inadequate facilities and infrastructural development. Given the vast expanse of land available, coupled with the huge backlog of law graduates who cannot be admitted, it is imperative to develop as quickly as possible, the Augustine Nnamani Campus so as to reap the maximum advantage and benefits from the decentralization of the Nigerian Law School and the citing of the campus in this part of the country,” she added.
While listing some of the challenges facing the campus to include logistics, infrastructure and expansion, Mrs. Stanley-Idum said the “citing of the Campus in Enugu was meant to ameliorate the suffering of our students, especially those from this part of the country who had to travel all the way to Lagos or Abuja for their one-year vocational training in law”.
