Abia State Governor, Dr. Alex Otti, on Wednesday, said his administration is open to robust partnerships that would lead to the growth of the various sectors of the state’s economy.
Governor Otti stated this when he received the Polish Ambassador to Nigeria, Her Excellency, Mrs. Joana Tarnawska, who paid him an official visit.
The Governor expressed happiness that the Polish Government was willing to partner with Abia State and assured the Ambassador that there cannot be a better State to partner with than Abia.
“There can’t be a better State to partner with than Abia, and I say that for a lot of reasons. In terms of agriculture, we are very big. In terms of education, our dreams are very big, and we believe that by the time we are done, we will actually be exporting education, if there is something like that, as an industry to the world,” he said.
Governor Otti disclosed that there are close to 1,000 public schools in the State, explaining that government is looking at standardizing the entire education spectrum, from primary to secondary through tertiary levels.
He further announced that his government had set minimum standard to be adhered to by all the public and private schools in the State, stressing that his administration is very passionate about education.
“We are very passionate about education. We are doing the same for healthcare, security; those are very critical. Those are the areas where people may be tempted to ignore but they are so important to every other thing we are discussing with respect to development,” he stated.
The Governor equally informed that Aba is an industrial hub for the entire South East, with creative potentials and maintained that with more support from the government entrepreneurs will do more and even produce products that can compete favourably in the international market.
He further requested Mrs Tarnawska to visit Aba to see for herself the ingenuity of Aba artisans, saying, “Our people are very creative, very innovative, very focused. They produce virtually everything; they may not be as sophisticated as those in Europe but they work”.
Earlier, the Polish Ambassador, who disclosed that the visit was her first to the South East, said that there was a lot that can be done together between Nigeria and Poland.
“Nigeria is a country of great opportunities and potentials. We would like to tap into that potential and look for new avenues of cooperation between Poland and Nigeria ,and in particular your state.
“Last year, the President of Poland visited Nigeria, we signed an MoU on Cooperation, Agriculture and I hope that we can on this basis develop even closer ties with Nigeria and with Abia State.
“We would like to cooperate in Agriculture, Mining, Education and Culture, and I believe that this would be to the benefit of both our great nations.
The Ambassador of Poland was accompanied by an Abia born former member of Polish Parliament, Hon. John Abraham Godson and Uchechi Dakoru, her personal Assistant.
The commissioners for Education and Trade, Commerce and Industry, Prof Uche Eme-Uche and Dr. Chimezie Ukaegbu, respectively, as well as the Principal Secretary to the Governor and Chief Strategy Officer, Mr Chinenye Mba-Uzoukwu joined the Governor during the meeting.
