Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike has called on the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government to “devolve power to states”, if it can’t fund its agencies across the country.
Wike described as unfortunate the situation where Federal Agencies relied on State Governments for survival.
The governor spoke during a courtesy visit by the Management of National Examination Council (NEC0) at the state’s Government House in Port Harcourt, the state capital, on Friday and was contained in a statement signed and sent to DAILY POST by his spokesperson, Simeon Nwakaudu.
According to Wike: “The Federal Government should be able to cater for Federal Agencies . The Federal Government should take care of their responsibilities.
“If they cannot fund these agencies, they should devolve power to the states and also allocate more revenue to the states.”
He noted that if the Federal Government was serious about education, the agencies should get adequate funding.
The Governor said that the reliance on states for funding is not restricted to Federal Agencies in the Education Sector.
“The Police, Army, Navy, Civil Defence, all agencies rely on the states for logistics and financial support “, he said.
Governor Wike informed that the Rivers State Government will pay for Rivers children writing NECO Examinations. He directed NECO Officials to liaise with the Rivers State Ministry of Education to determine the number of students who will the writing the forthcoming examinations.
The Rivers State Governor donated two official vehicles to the Rivers State Office of NECO. He also donated an office space to the Examination Body.
Earlier, the Acting Registrar of NECO, Abubakar Gana commended the Rivers State Governor for his immense contributions to the development of Education in the country.
He urged the Rivers State Government to finance the registration of Rivers children in the forthcoming NECO examinations.
Gana also thanked the Rivers State Governor for his outstanding projects delivery since he became the Governor of the State.
