OGULAGHA SECONDARY SCHOOL DECAY: BURUTU NORTH FAILED REPRESENTATIVES
BY GRADE ONE CLARK
I had embarked on a journey to Ogulagha town on the 18th Nov. 2020 to pay my last respect to Mrs. Orugbo Seimode, my auntie. Her mother, Titi and grand mother, Ugborhobare, are both of Dubeye, Kiagbodo, Ngbilebiri Kingdom. Auntie Orugbo’s burial rites had been fixed for 20th Nov. 2020. My option to arrive a day or two before the date was to enable me ease off the usual physical stress from the bumpy speedboat ride before the funeral. May her gentle soul rest in the Lord.
The Ogulagha I met on stepping ashore that fateful day is in degradation, it wasn’t the town I saw in 2004, when I last visited. My reportorial instincts honed over the years, had sharpened my skills of critical scrutiny of every situation. The Ogulagha Kingdom is the goose that lays the nation’s golden egg. The communities of the kingdom, Ogulagha town, Sokebolou, Obotobo 1, Obotobo 11 and Yokri, house the largest crude tank farm in Africa. Over 45% of oil export, which runs into billions of Naira, is pumped into waiting ocean tankers on a daily basis.
The irony is that Ogulagha is abandoned, and thus in complete neglect from Abuja. I, however, wish to limit the thrust of this writing to the wreck, rot and dilapidation of the Ogulagha secondary school. The school is the responsibility of the Delta state government to maintain and sustain through periodic repair of facilities. It is the only school that serves this clan of over 100,000 inhabitants. From interaction with a few persons, I was made to know the school has over 800 registered students, but has just 7 official teachers and a few adhoc ones. And, lest I forget, the students lack desks to sit on for learning convenience, they are all broken.
To large a extent, it isn’t out of place to say our representatives lack knowledge of their duties to the people. Despite this shortcoming and observed incompetence, some want to hang on to power perpetually, even if it requires the use of obnoxious tactics. People who don’t know how government works may choose to blame the state government for our schools neglect. The lapse should, however, be pinned squarely on political office holders, elected and appointed, from the constituency. They have failed to put the situation before appropriate authorities in Asaba, to prompt the required attention.
It is funny, our political office holders are products of public schools, which they deliberately turn their backs on today. Their kids attend elite private schools in townships, they therefore don’t care. As Christmas approaches, some representatives would soon go round the constituency to distribute a bucket of rice and bottle of oil to a handful of supporters for the year. It gladdens their heart if the people remain poor, and all they do is ensure poverty persists. It is shameful, they have failed to give the needed representation to our communities.
They are self serving, pecuniary motivated individuals, who never give a hoot over the well being of the people they claim to represent.
Grade one Clark
28/11/2020
Photos and article were posted on Facebook by Grade one Clark
