Mr. Abraham Ovie, founder of Abraham Ovie foundation Sapele has expressed his disappointment and concerns over the recent Bill that was proposed at the Federal house of representative by Hon. Chief Efe Afe.
The Bill talks about bringing a tertiary institution known as Federal university of Agriculture Orerokpe to Orerokpe in Delta State.
In a press statement made available to RERO TV, Mr Abraham Ovie said, Hon Afe talks about the importance of Agriculture and how necessary it is to bring a higher institution of learning where students from all over the country can attend in order to gain the knowledge of modernized systems of agriculture and the use of technology in farming.
As incredible as it sounds, Mr. Abraham Ovie completely disagrees with this plan of bringing such a higher institution of learning to our community because it is only going to create more problems in addition to the existing problems of unemployment ravaging and destroying our communities.
Abraham Ovie called this Bill proposed by Hon. Afe, a misplaced priority which has been a consistent problem from previous leaders who have failed in consulting and addressing the main issues facing the Okpe communities.
Mr. Abraham Ovie Stressed out that the reason why our communities continue to remain underdeveloped and remain in darkness is because many of our leaders do not consult with the people that they are representing.
Leaders can not just assume what is good for the people and then impose it on the people without consulting them first. This is the kind of leadership style that continues to bring our communities backward instead of moving forward.
This agenda of bringing a university of Agriculture to Orerokpe is only going to benefit a few rich individuals who have a self-fish mindset and only care about themselves and their rich friends and brothers.
Mr. Ovie stated that one of the major issues facing our communities right now is that of unemployment and lack of youth empowerment. What we need right now is not a higher educational system which has failed us in the past. What we need right now in Orerokpe is manufacturing and production companies, we need to be known as one of the largest producers of any crop, for example groundnut or even cocoa beans or any crop of that nature in the whole of west Africa region.
With the 5,000 acres of land that Hon Afe proposes to use for the creation of higher institutions where graduates will not have jobs after spending four or more years in the university can be used for the production and cultivation of crops which will immediately start to yield results in about four years time.
We have too many graduates today that are running around with no jobs, we need to empower them, give them equipment and the training that is needed to start farming.
Training can start immediately while production is on-going, people learn while production is going on. In many developed countries like the USA, Japan, India and China today, that is how they grow and have developed quickly. We have skilled people in our communities, who are willing and ready to work but do not have the tools or equipment and resources to start, This is where the government and leaders like Hon Afe need to step in and help in bringing the resources that our people need to move our communities forward.
Mr. Ovie agrees that the role of agriculture is important in our communities and hence, can not be over emphasized but we do not need to send our children to 4 years in the university to learn how to farm where we already have the human resources and skills needed to start farming.
Many people have argued that if the university is created, it will bring jobs to our communities and open our communities like other areas with higher institutions, the main question that they fail to answer is that once the students graduate from the university of Agriculture, where are they going to work? Or do we just expect that they should run around the street like many others who are currently unemployed and engaging in so many various criminal activities?
Many student who graduate from the Nigeria system of education today can not even comprehend their purpose of going to school in the first place neither can they defend their course of study because of the weak system of education where lecturers are corrupt, they collect bribes from students, selling handouts and sleeping with females to pass them during exams. These types of students can not be productive in the workforce that is why many graduates are not hire-able.
If we need to fix our immediate problem in the Okpe communities we must first be willing to identify our challenges and address how we can fix the problems. Our leaders can not just be assuming that they know how to fix the problems without first consulting with the people who choose them to go and represent us.
Mr. Abraham Ovie is calling on all Okpe sons and daughters who have the best interest of the Okpe people and the Okpe communities at heart to stand up against this agenda by Hon. Efe Afe who is representing the good people of Okpe, Sapele and Uvwie federal constituency. Let us call him in order to use the resources that will be allocated to start a university of Agriculture in Orerokpe to start a production or Agricultural company where our unemployed youths can become fully employed and become productive members of our society so that development can spread quickly in Okpe kingdom.
