Peter Obi’s most annoying lie — by Michael Chibuzo

NDC Presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi has claimed several times that as Governor of Anambra State, he moved Anambra from No. 26 in Nigeria to the No. 1 position in education in Nigeria.

For me, this is Obi’s most annoying lie.

In 2022, many were too blinded by Obi’s packaging to really pause for a moment to interrogate most of his bogus claims. Obi mastered the art of bold misinformation. For example, he publicly claimed several times that he won the best Governor in health when in actual sense Anambra State was merely awarded the Bill and Melinda Gates prize for polio eradication in SOUTH EAST. Mind you, as at 2005 before Obi became Governor, Anambra had ZERO new case of polio. Yet Obi turned the award to mean he was the best Governor in health.

That is by the way. This article is about his education claims. And like I promised, I will use the last secondary school that I attended (Igwebuike Grammar School, Awka) to once again puncture Obi’s exaggerations.

In Awka the state capital, IGS is the most popular and prestigious public secondary school and I dare say, the oldest.

Below is the list of Public secondary schools in Awka before Obi came in:

1. Igwebuike Grammar School
2. Capital City Secondary School
3. St. John of God Secondary school
4. Amaenyi Girls
5. Agulu Awka (CSS, Umuike)
6. Ezioka (CSS, Ezioka)
7. Kenneth Dike Memorial Secondary School (Amikwo)
8. Government Technical College (which became FSTC in 2002)
9. Community Secondary School, Okpuno

When Obi left, GTC had become FSTC, St. John of God returned to the Catholic Church leaving behind only 7 government fully-owned secondary schools in Awka. No addition despite expansion in population. In fact in the whole of Ifite Awka, there was no public secondary school.

Back to my school IGS.

As at 2005, before Obi came my school was doing well academically (in every school you’ll always find the naturally brilliant and the not-so-brilliant). We consistently had one or two students getting 8As, 7As etc in their WAEC. I’m a semi-olodo, so I managed to have a clean A1 in Geography 😜.

Crucially, exam malpractice was not systematically condoned in my school, making some persons to enrol in private schools around once they get to SS3. So, it is insulting to me and my school for Obi to be telling the world that when he came in 2006, Anambra was ranked 26th in education in Nigeria.

Anambra has ALWAYS been among the best in terms of education with a lot of prestigious schools. We produced the likes of Chinua Achebe, the Okigbos, Professor Kenneth Dike, Nwafor Orizu, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Odumegwu Ojukwu, Cyprian Ekwensi, Emeka Anyaoku, Alex Ekwueme, Jerome Udogi, Chike Obi and many other illustrious intellectuals.

Now, in terms of transformation of the existing government schools, I can boldly tell anyone who cares to listen that Obi did not transform my school IGS unless the word “transform” is used in a minimalist context. Imagine if a whole IGS, Awka, which is the number one government-owned secondary school in the state capital wasn’t transformed the way Obi paints it, which government schools did he then transform?

Obi simply gave MISSION SCHOOLS grants through churches in his second term and they added their own money too! Of course they skyrocketted their school fees. If you watch closely, the schools Obidients often circulate to back Obi’s claims are ALL mission schools. You’ll never see a full government-owned secondary or primary school among those images. I have challenged them severally but they can’t show me any, rather they shower me with abuses.

Let’s move on, Peter Obi did not add any new classroom block in my school. By the time we were leaving in 2005, UBE had started renovation of two classroom blocks (JS2 and JS3). Our JSS 1 block (an old storey building) was literally shaking. Our admin block and staff room was laughable. We already had basketball and volleyball courts but no proper football field. Crucially, we had a good library, a good ICT center donated to us by MTN with Internet connectivity and a French center co-located in the school.

By the time Obi left, our school hall had collapsed and was abandoned. Our Staff room was still the way it was. UBE rehabilitated two blocks of classrooms. Towards the end of his administration Obi brought one generator, did borehole and gave a school bus to IGS (the Innoson school bus was mainly used by the principal by the way and not to ferry students to and fro school).

IGS in 2013/2014 was in fact more dilapidated than it was in 2005 when my set graduated. During a tour of the school by my fellow old boys and I during Obi’s tenure I wept internally for IGS. So, there is no way anyone can boldly claim that Obi transformed IGS, Awka.

When you watch this attached video, the current reasonable state of IGS was thanks to the unwavering efforts of our old boys, especially the older sets. They rebuilt the staff room, administrative block, added Corpers Lodge, a new library, a magnificent gate, rehabilitated many classroom blocks including ones previously done by UBE, changed our blackboards to white boards etc. Different sets of IGS old boys took up these projects.

But unfortunately you’ll see Obidients showing the new IGS school gate that Obi didn’t know how it came about as his achievements in education!

Mission schools is not a yardstick to gauge Obi’s performance in education. These mission schools have multiple sources of funding including from donation by its members and levies but the govt schools don’t especially those unfortunate not to have a vibrant alumni. Obi neglected them and was essentially doing tokenism for them. That’s not transformation.

Let us do a brief scientific review of Obi’s strides in education generally and then drop some posers for Obi. We will start by establishing the following facts (I challenge ANYONE to dispute anyone you think is incorrect):

1. The return of some schools back to their missionary owners, which is laudable, was an Ngige policy. Obi delayed the policy until between November 2011 and early 2012 when he eventually transferred the primary and secondary schools to the new owners where there was no dispute of ownership.
2. As at the time of hand over in late 2011 (Obi’s second term), Obi cannot point to any significant investment he made in education. He was so unpopular in his first term that he needed Ojukwu begging ndi Anambra to give him one last chance. Most people yearned for the return of Dr. Chris Ngige in 2010.
3. Obi himself said that a total of N6 billion was to be shared to the owners of the transferred schools as well as those not transfered. He said the money would be disbursed over a period of 15 months in four tranches. 1,040 primary and secondary schools were to share the N6 billion grant over the course of 15 months (i.e. N5.7 million per school).
4. For most of his 8 years, Obi did not employ new teachers for ASUBEB or SEC. PTAs of schools had to employ teachers for schools. These PTA teachers were poorly trained, some were not even graduates.
5. On October 10, 2013, five months to the end of his 2nd term as Governor, Peter Obi distributed 120 18-seater buses to 120 schools owned by the government and the missionaries. These buses were not for taking students to and fro schools. They were basically the official vehicle of the Principals/Headteachers. By December, 2013 he presented another 100 buses to 100 schools. By the time he left in March 2014, around 300 schools got buses, NONE of them use it to convey students to school.
6. Obi had earlier in September of 2013 (6 months to the end of his tenure) donated a total of N1.4 billion to all primary schools and N1 billion to secondary schools in Anambra State as grant for the provision of infrastructure.
7. On 13th November, 2013 (4 months to the end of Obi’s 2nd term), Peter Obi donated N2.65 billion for Microsoft Academy in schools. Up till this moment I have not seen any Microsoft Academy in hundreds of school in Anambra State. On that same Nov. 13, 2013, Peter Obi flagged off distribution of HP computers, printers and generator sets to some schools.

Many of these schools do not even have electrical connections to use the generators. Many of the schools simply packed the few sets of computers they received (some 1 set) in the Principal’s office. The generators were mostly used by the Principal’s office.

POSERS FOR OBI AND OBIDIENTS

From what I have listed so far, it is indisputable that Peter Obi handed over the schools to missionary owners in Nov. 2011 (close to 6 years into his administration) and as at that time he has not claimed to have invested in these schools. In fact, he described some of the schools as dilapidated and need urgent attention and pleaded with the new owners to help fix the school while promising a grant of N6 billion to 1,040 schools over a period of 15 months.

My question is, HOW DID OBI TRANSFORM SCHOOLS IN ANAMBRA STATE WITH ONLY N6B IN TWO YEARS?

Secondly, WHAT IS THE IMPACT OF GIVING SCHOOLS BUSES THAT STUDENTS DON’T USE, OR LAPTOPS THEY DON’T GET TO USE, OR GENERATORS THEY DON’T SEE THE ELECTRICITY, ON THE EDUCATIONAL PERFORMANCE OF THESE STUDENTS?

HOW DID THE RUSHED DISTRIBUTION OF BUSES, LAPTOPS, GENERATORS, FEW MONTHS TO THE END OF OBI’S 2ND TERM TAKE ANAMBRA STATE FROM 26TH TO 1ST IN WAEC OR NECO?

WAEC and NECO themselves have consistently said that they do not rank states’ performance in examinations. What they often do is simply to state the percentage of students that sat for the exams nationwide that got at least 5 credits including English and Mathematics.

I think it’s time to stop the excessive hyping. It is insulting to people’s sensibilities especially people like me that are not moved by lies and emotions. Those who were my classmates can attest that the quality of education back then was better than when we left. If you write WAEC in IGS then and make a C6 in English, be rest assured that it was merited C6.

In fact in 2004 under Dr. Chris Ngige, Anambra was recognised as No. 1 in examination ethics and 3rd nationally. I was selected to represent my school in the award ceremony that held at the Nicon Hilton (now Transcorp) hotel in Abuja. Prof. Fabian Osuji, the then Minister of Education, then FCT Minister Malam Nasir El-Rufai all attended the event, which was chaired by Senate President Adolphus Nwabara.

Sadly, under Obi, exam ethics in public schools deteriorated while special centres ballooned even in public secondary schools located in the hinterlands. Yet, this is the same Obi that boldly claims he transformed education in Anambra State.

The question he hasn’t answered empirically (apologies to Rufai Oseni) is, HOW?