N’Delta Got N700bn In 9 Months – Dr Ezekwesili

The six Niger Delta states have so far received about N700billion in the past nine months according to Former World Bank Vice President for Africa, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili.

She made the disclosure while delivering a keynote address tagged, “From Dependence on Oil to Knowledge Based Economy in the BRACED States” at the BRACED Commission maiden education summit in Port Harcourt at the weekend.

Dr Ezekwesili said the amount is accruable from the federal allocation, since the region has an oil output of N99.4 billion dollars annually and is ranked the 61st in the world and 7th in Africa.

However, she lamented that despite this enormous resource the region is still backward as a result of corruption and bad leadership.

The former Minister of Education argued that research has shown the effects of oil wealth in encouraging corruption and lack of resourcefulness, “it is a deep distortion and attracts localised misnomer.”

Ezekwesili emphasised that over-reliance on oil leads to complacency, which often gives birth to poor accountablility by the leaders, and warned that if nothing is done the society will collapse.

Calling for the establishment of reliable institutions, the former World Bank Chief challenged policy makers in the region to be more proactive by pursuing objectives that will tackle poverty, ” economic growth increases as citizens are offered opportunities to education”, she stressed, ” no industrialized country achieves that without offering on education to majority of its citizens”.

Meanwhile, education experts at the BRACED Education Summit have called for the adoption of an educational policy by the South-South States that will reflect their unique needs.

Speaking on the topic, ” Private Sector and Education: FillingNigeria’s Dearth of Leaders and Managers”, Prof .Pat Utomi of the Lagos Business School argued that the major challenge in the education sector is the poor standards at the primary school level, and urged parents to contribute more to support government.

He advocated for partnerships between government agencies and the private sector.”