Tension In Federal College Of Education (Technical), Umunze, Eziagu Demonstration college

 

Confusion best described the mood at Federal Government College (Technical), Umunze in Anambra state yesterday when thousands of  placard carrying people from the sleepy community of Eziagu in Orumba South local government area also in Anambra State forced the closure of the Demonstration Secondary School of the College at Eziagu.

They were protesting over alleged non recognition by government as originally agreed before handing over the structures and school they built and handed over. .

Waving placards, some of which read “We want to know the status of our school”, “Give us our land back”, “We say no to cheating”, “The labour of our forefathers shall not be in vain” and “It is time we took our destiny in our hands”, the protesters also carried green leaves which they heaped at the gate of the school after chanting war songs round the community.

The protest took the Provost Prof Josephat Ogbuagu by surprise and he complained of not been informed about their grievances adding that the issues they raised preceded him as Provost of the college. Ogbuagu presented documents attesting that the 15 hectares of land was handed over to the Federal Government by the community as acknowledged by Prof Ben Nwabueze then Secretary for Education and Youth Development in 1993.

Some of the students returning to the school after the Christmas and New Year celebration had to turn back as authorities shifted re-opening to Wednesday next week.

Before embarking on the protest, the people assembled as early as 5 am where they were addressed by community leaders who briefed the youths and women on the history of the school and why there was need for the community to repossess the property it donated to the old Anambra State government 23 years ago.

President General of Eziagu Improvement Union, Dr. John Ofobike, who addressed the people, recalled that the community donated 29 hectares of land on which they built a fully furnished teacher training college which was handed over to the state government.

According to him, with the phasing out of the teacher training college, the Anambra State government, in 1993, handed over all the structures and equipment, including 180kva generating set, belonging to the community to the Federal Ministry of Education which, in turn, handed it over to the Federal College of Education (Technical), Umunze as Demonstration Secondary School.

Ofobike said: “In May 2013, the MDG monitoring and evaluation team came to the school during a census to ascertain the number of secondary and primary schools in the state and to our surprise, there was no record of Demonstration Secondary School, Eziagu which was an indication that it is being run as a private institution by some officials of Federal College of Education, Umunze.

“Besides, the school management has continuously marginalized the Eziagu indigenes in the area of employment and school enrolment despite preponderance of eligible candidates from the community.

“In addition, no indigene of the community is a member of the governing council of the school or in the executive of the Parents Teachers Association.

“For peace to reign in the school the principal of the school must be removed and 60 percent of the non –academic workforce must be Eziagu indigenes. The authorities of the school should also rehabilitate two major roads in the community and provide water to the people from the existing pipe borne water from the school.”