Poland To Assist Abia Govt Develop Agric, Education, Other Sectors

Abia State Governor, Dr. Alex Otti has assured that his administration is open to robust partnerships that would lead to the transformation and growth of the various sectors of the state’s economy.

Governor Otti stated this on Wednesday when he met with the Polish Ambassador to Nigeria, Her Excellency, Mrs. Joana Tarnawska, who paid him an official visit.

The governor expressed his gladness that the Polish government was willing to partner with Abia State and assured the Ambassador that there could not be a better state to partner with than Abia.

He said, “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”.

Governor Otti further disclosed that there are close to 1,000 public schools in the state, explaining that the government is looking at standardising the entire education spectrum, from primary to secondary through tertiary levels.

Otti revealed 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 and 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 further told his guests 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 therefore 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”

Speaking during the visit, the Polish Ambassador disclosed that the visit was her first to the South East, noting that there was a lot that could 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.