By Abraham Olatunbosun
Former Governor of Enugu state and Senator representing Enugu East in the upper legislative chamber, Senator Chimaroke Nnamani has asserted that the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate Bola Ahmed Tinubu was the most successful Governor amongst the class of 1999–2007 set.
Answering questions from reporters in Abuja as the 2023 elections gather momentum, Senator Nnamani said Governors from the class of 1999 which Tinubu is a prominent member may still be the nation’s top system builders and political reformers.
He noted that the class of 1999 Governors had it rough in the beginning because “most of us inherited a state that had all of its sectors in poor conditions as a result of several years of military rule. All we had was pure joy in our electorate’s hearts because they had a democratically elected governor.
“From health to education to the economy and security, Lagos state and many other states were in turmoil as as results of years of military rule but Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu made the most progress out of all of us in reforms of various sectors, with Enugu State coming in second.
“These large progress came as a result of assembling 23 best brains in Lagos state to examine each sector of Lagos economy and provide a workable solution to its unique challenges”.
In the Education sector, under Tinubu, Nnamani pointed out that “they discovered that out of the 7,877 classrooms that were available, 5,908 needed renovation adding that “With 682,000 students, the 7,877 classrooms were insufficient due to the UNESCO standard of 1:25 students per classroom”.
“The Asiwaju-led administration was tasked with figuring out how to add 5,768 more classrooms to the existing ones saying that he rose to the challenges by erecting new elementary, junior secondary, and senior secondary schools in Lagos between 1999 and 2007 to address this issue.
Asiwaju-led government consequently embarked on human capital development to guarantee that pupils received the finest education possible with series of staff training and development programs in various courses, seminars, and workshops.
Numerous principals were sponsored to travel to Cape Town, Nairobi, and Auckland between 1999 and 2007 adding “ In total, more than 100 instructors received training in Nigeria and other French-speaking African nations.
“Provision of computer systems to the ministry, SUBEB, TEPO, and six school districts”.
In order to keep up with the most recent global educational trends, Lagos State under Tinubu funded the training of 1,400 teachers to teach the recently introduced family life health education by the national council on education stressing that in doing so, Lagos State became the first to adopt and execute FLHE program.
The Asiwaju-led government also had an effect on the tertiary institution as a backlog of more than 25,000 diploma, degree, and postgraduate certificates was cleared adding that Lagos State University also implemented online course registration, fee processing, and result checking.
The Lagos State University College of Medicine was founded by Tinubu to provide top-notch medical training and facilitated the accreditation in 2005, which enabled the first class of medical doctors graduating in 2006.
He maintained that Tinubu as the most Progressive Governor will replicate the successes in Lagos across the country and has the capacity to revamp the economy and make Nigeria to work for all.
