In some areas, children learn under trees because there are no structures in place to accommodate them.”
“Abia State is one of the states with poor quality structures across public schools and to make matters worse, the teachers and other staff are owed several months of salary and welfare packages. “This is what you get when those who are responsible to fix these things (infrastructure) don’t care about the consequences on the students who are the supposed leaders of tomorrow,” Mr Okeh said. “If you take a tour around the state, especially in the rural areas, you will see what I’m talking about with the exception of a few schools.”Īccording to a development expert, Michael Okeh, the result of a lack of basic infrastructures in schools across the state is a “deficient system” where the pupils learn in an unconducive environment. “Even when the funds are released or accessed, they are not reflected in the quality of structures in schools in the state,” Elkanem Chukwu, a secondary school teacher in the state, said. In 2018, UBEC published a report titled “ Unaccessed Matching Grant” which showed that the state had not accessed the grant released by the Commission. People go to town or neighbouring villages for treatment or medical checkup.”Ĭompleted block of classrooms at Ekebedi Oboro Community SchoolĪbia State is one of the states in the country facing funding challenges across public schools. “The health centre is not functioning all the time,” said Ben Okorie, a resident of the community who led this reporter to the facility. On arrival, the health centre was padlocked as residents of the community said the nurses who work there do not come often. It had just rained when this reporter got to Ihechiowa community and the untarred road leading to Amafia/Amaetiti health centre, in Ihechiowa, Aro LGA was in a very bad condition. Completed but non-functioning Amafia/Amaetiti health centre Agencies executing the uncompleted and abandoned projects, including AIRBDA and NPHCDA, however, refused to disclose the exact amounts released for the projects. UDEME analysis of Zonal Intervention Projects in Abia state revealed that at least N7 billion has been allocated for project implementation in the state between 20. If it were a Zonal Intervention Project, then 70 per cent was released,” he said. We are just like vendors who do garbage in and garbage out. “You should meet the contractor so he can tell you why the project was stopped at that level. A staff of PRODA, Mr Ofili, said that lack of mobilisation fee prevented the work from progressing. When contacted, Mr Nkole claimed that no fund was released for the construction of the health centre. The project which was awarded in 2017 by the NPHCDA for N20 million, is presently in use as nurses were seen attending to patients in the building. Similarly, in Ubakala community in Umuahia, a new primary health care centre has been completed. Mr Onuigbo said equipment that will be used at the new health centre when completed have been procured and waiting for installation. I often meet with the contractors and they told me that everything is in place to meet the target deadline. “We are looking at the end of the year as a timeline for completing the project. “They will move from this one to the new one when it is completed,” Mr Onuigbo said. When this reporter arrived Ukwuano community, the Ward Development Committee Chairman, Ignatius Onuigbo, who supervises the project and interfaces with contractors, said it would be completed before the end of the year.
While the project is yet to be implemented, it has been inserted as a capital project in the 2019 budget of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) at a contract sum of N20 million. In 2016, the project for the construction of Primary Health Centre in Oloko Ikwuano LGA, under the supervision of Border Community Development Authority (BCDA), was nominated by the senator for the district, Theodore Orji, with an allocation of N25 million. But members of the community who use the small health centre will soon smile as a new and large health centre project is ongoing and is near completion. The centre shares the same building with the community town hall. The primary healthcare centre in Oloko, Ikwuano LGA is a two-bedroom apartment located at the village square of the community. The projects include hospitals, schools, community centres, erosion control/water projects, bridges and road.
Between 20, millions of naira were included in the federal budget for the execution of constituency projects in communities across the state. In this concluding part of the special report, Patrick Egwu, working with data sourced from UDEME, continues the tracking of projects in Abia State to verify their status.
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