Former governor of Enugu state, Senator Chimaroke Nnamani, has described the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the most successful governor amongst the class of 1999 – 2007 set. Nnamani who represents Enugu East in the upper legislative chamber, made this assertion while answering questions from reporters in Abuja.
He insisted that governors from the class of 1999 which Tinubu was a prominent member may still be the nation’s top system builders and political reformers. He noted that the class of 1999 Governors had it rough in the beginning because “most of us inherited states that had all of their sectors in poor conditions as a result of several years of military rule.
“All we had was pure joy in our electorate’s hearts because they had democratically elected governors. From health to education to the economy and security, Lagos state and many other states were in turmoil as a result of years of military rule but Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu made the most progress out of all of us in reforms of various sectors, with Enugu State coming in second.
“These large progresses came as a result of assembling 23 best brains in Lagos state to examine each sector of Lagos economy and provide a workable solution to its unique challenges. On the education sector under Tinubu, they discovered that out of the 7,877 classrooms that were available, 5,908 needed renovations with 682,000 students, the 7,877 classrooms were insufficient due to the UNESCO standard of 1:25 students per classroom.
“The Asiwaju-led administration was tasked with figuring out how to add 5,768 more classrooms to the existing ones and he rose to the challenge by erecting new elementary, junior and senior secondary schools in Lagos between 1999 and 2007 to address this issue. He consequently embarked on human capital development to guarantee that pupils received the finest education possible with series of staff training and development programmes in various courses, seminars, and workshops.
“Numerous school principals were sponsored to travel to Cape Town, Nairobi, and Auckland between 1999 and 2007. In total, more than 100 instructors received training in Nigeria and other French-speaking African nations. He also ensured the provision of computer systems to the education ministry, State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Teachers Establishment and Pension Office (TEPO), and six school districts.”
“In order to keep up with the most recent global educational trends, Lagos State under Tinubu funded the training of 1,400 teachers to teach the recently introduced family life health education by the National Council on Education and in doing so, Lagos State became the first to adopt and execute the National Family Life and HIV Education (FLHE) programme. He also had an effect on the tertiary institutions as a backlog of more than 25,000 diploma, degree, and postgraduate certificates were cleared and the Lagos State University also implemented online course registration, fee processing, and result checking.
“The Lagos State University College of Medicine was founded by Tinubu to provide top-notch medical training and facilitated the accreditation in 2005, which enabled the first class of medical doctors graduating in 2006. Tinubu will replicate the successes in Lagos across the country and has the capacity to revamp the economy and make Nigeria to work for all,” he said.