30% Budget Allocation: Commissioner Commends Bello for Investing in Education

Ibrahim Oyewale in Lokoja

The Kogi State Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Hon. Wemi Jones, has commended the state Governor, Yahaya Bello, for allocating 30 per cent of the 2022 budget to the state education sector, describing it as ”a massive investment.”

The commissioner made the commendation in an interview with journalists in his office yesterday in Lokoja, the state capital.

Bello had last Thursday presented a budget estimation of N145,896,072,913 to the state House of Assembly.

The 2022 budget, tagged: ‘Budget of Accelerated Result’, was designed to achieve important macroeconomic goals while ensuring effective delivery of good governance.

According to Jones, “This is the first time in the history of Kogi State that a governor is genuinely interested in building the future of the state especially in the area of education.”

He noted that the governor’s massive investments in the education sector had resulted in the corresponding growth in students’ population and quality of education in the state.

The commissioner commended the governor for ensuring that the new Confluence University of Science and Technology (CUSTECH) Osara, went from concept to confirmation to construction, and curriculum activities in one year.

He stressed that CUSTECH was designed and built to provide first-class training in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines for the youths.

Jones added that Bello’s plans for the institution in 2022 budget would greatly move it forward towards the aim of ensuring that it quickly becomes comparable to any similar school anywhere in the world by leveraging on ICT and artificial intelligence (AI).

According to him, “What the governor is doing is monumental, and I will continue to say it that hardly would you find a regular politician that would want to invest so massively in education.

“When you invest in education, there is no immediate political benefit you get from such investment.

”I see that the governor is investing in an enduring legacy that would outlive him, which the people would continue to talk about for many years.

”I doubt if there is any state in Nigeria that has devoted as much as 20 per cent to the education sector, but Bello said 20 percent is even too low, and made it 30 per cent. The governor deserves the praise of everybody because he is not looking at the present, but the future.”