Soludo, Breaking Generational Poverty Transfer with Free Education and One Youth, Two Skills – Mefor
By Rose Oranye
Anambra State Commissioner for Information, Dr. Law Mefor, has described Governor Chukwuma Charles Soludo’s free education policy as a way of breaking generational poverty transfer among families where poverty has become a dynasty in the state.
Addressing journalists on Thursday, October 3, 2024, when he led a delegation of Governor Soludo’s media team to the October monthly meeting of members of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) at the Godwin Ezeemo International Press Centre, Awka, the commissioner further observed that both the ‘One Youth, Two Skills’ Programme and the free education from primary to senior secondary schools are ways of dealing with poverty transfer, just like the ‘Igba Boi’ system adopted by Ndigbo after the civil war.
According to Mefor, “Governor Soludo wants to reset the entire state, and he’s doing that through the road networks he’s building. I keep talking about roads because it’s one major physical infrastructure connecting every part of the state; the 21 local government areas are being connected with stone-based roads constructed to last at least twenty years.
“The latest he has done is to proclaim free education from primary to junior secondary. Now he has added senior secondary. That free education is breaking generational poverty transfer. There are widows and poor families where poverty has become a dynasty. There’s now the possibility of riches coming into such families through free education. That’s the kind of future Soludo is building.”
Dr. Mefor urged journalists in the state to do more in fairly reporting the governor’s achievements, even as he assured that he would work out a physical interactive meeting between the governor and journalists in the state.
“I want us to work together. Let’s strike a chord—a synergy that will make Anambra better. Soludo is on a mission of rebranding; resetting the entire state, and he’s doing that already,” he said.
In their separate remarks, the Anambra State Chairman of NUJ, Dr. Odogwu Emeka Odogwu, and the first female professor of mass communication in Nigeria and former commissioner for information in Anambra State, Prof. Chinyere Stella Okunna, assured of the union’s support and willingness to partner with the government for a better and greater Anambra.