Gov Bala Did Not Discredit Western Education – Bauchi Govt

The Bauchi State Government has refuted what it described as deliberate distortion of a recent statement by Governor Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed on education.

According to a press release signed by the state commissioner for information and communication, Hon. Usman Shehu Usman yesterday, some media reports deliberately distorted their report on the recent hosting of some youth by the governor.

Governor Bala Mohammed had while addressing the youths, admonished them to possess skills, and urged them to identify problems in their society and proffer meaningful solutions, saying that by doing these, they stand a chance to fight poverty, unemployment and restiveness.

The commissioner denied that the governor rubbished Western education while encouraging the youth to enter the driving profession.

Usman queried, “From the common sense, this is evidence that it is a calculated attempt to pitch Governor Bala Mohammed against the good people of Bauchi state and project him in a bad light in the minds of reasonable minds.“For the clearance of doubt, His Excellency, the Governor has never rubbished Western education. For the fact that himself comes from a family that not only appreciated western education but also took an interest in promoting it, looking at the background of his father as a famous headmaster during his time.”

Hon. Usman Usman explained that the governor was passionate about education. He said his huge investment in the sector is convincing, as education is among his transformative agenda.

“The key message as emphasized by His Excellency at that occasion was encouragement to the youth not only to fold arms while pursuing education as that is not enough in today’s world, instead, they should strive to learn various skills to augment their education,” he said.

On his inauguration day in 2019, he recalled that the governor deeply emphasized his administration’s desire to accord deserving priority to educating the state’s children, as he instantly declared a state of emergency in three key sectors, including education.

“Bauchi state consistently voted the lion share of the state budget to education above the UNESCO benchmark. Not only that, his administration has constructed, reconstructed and rehabilitated over 5,000 blocks of classrooms.

“We shouldn’t have stooped so low to respond to these inconsequential and baseless claims against the governor who has spent over N17 billion in the sector. A governor, whose administration has consistently been shouldering the payment of WAEC, NECO and JAMB,” he said.