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Sylvanus Viashima, Jalingo
The member representing Donga, Takum, Ussa and Yangtu federal constituency of Taraba State in the House of Representatives, Hon. Rima Kwewum Shawulu on Friday lamented the federal governments’ lack of priority for education which he said was key to the nation’s development.
In an interview with our correspondent in Jalingo, Kwewum said there was no justification why the Buhari led government would donate $1Million to Afghanistan at a time the Academic Staff Union of Universities ASUU is on strike over poor welfare and poor funding of the university system, describing the action as a misplaced priority.
He said that Afghanistan is under the rule of the Talibans that is recognized as a terrorist group and donating money to the government would only encourage other groups to follow the example.
“Our problem is that we export what we don’t have and import what we already have. For instance, we don’t have money and we have numerous problems. So, the question of giving $1million to Afghanistan is a misplaced priority.
“It beats everyone’s imagination, except perhaps, for the president. It may please you to know that the money was not even budgeted for and I can’t remember the National Assembly approving that sum for the purpose.
“We need to fund our education system. Imagine that just in Ghana here, Nigerians were paying over a N5billion as school fees annually. At some point, Nigerians were paying $300 million as school fees to the UK government. We can rebuild our system and make it work for us, but the elites we have in our country is bereft of productive ideas.
“Our problems are so many. Unfortunately, we have made ourselves very vulnerable and so weak that if we are threatened by any external force, you can be sure that we would go down. Talking about security, how much have we used to train our security? How much weapons have we bought? These are issues we need to look at holistically,” he said.
On the issue of the zoning of the governorship in the State, the lawmaker said it will be better for the PDP to make some compromises in the interest of the party rather than scatter the party because of the zoning issue.
“There is no indication that if the governor is from your place, you will be better off than others, for me we should look at competence and capacity, but let’s just see how it all plays out.”
