GO GET THEM:

What is in vogue now, is to make the mission schools bleed like the Pelican. They are now the cash cow that funds the hitherto commendable free education toga of Owelle’s administration. The state government has slammed a near 1000% increase in annual renewal fees on the nearly 120 mission-run primary and secondary schools in Owerri Archdiocese alone, not mentioning Orlu, Okigwe, Ahiara dioceces. It has recently introduced an obnoxious re-inspection of schools that carry a mandatory 30, 50, 60 thousand naira levy for nursery, primary and secondary schools respectively. This poisoned chalice is carefully enshrined in a seemingly innocuous letter under the guise of checking substandard institutions. You and I know who bears the blames for poor standards in our schools. We also can tell whose schools are more below standard. The ministry of education through this means seeks to respond to the mandate given to it to raise one billion naira as its quota of the “Rochnomics” monthly funds drive abracadabra. The government through her hydra-headed agencies, area inspectors of education (AIE) etc, have been conducting constant barrages on the mission schools for trumped up revenue drives. How can we survive this harsh environment? With this sort of treatment being meted out, will the mission schools not die?

In the light of these, one wonders if these policy makers invaded us from planet Jupiter. It is highly probable whether they are educated. If they are, they must be bereft of all sense of history. Maybe one needs to remind them that governments have been brought down just by a mere increase in the price of a bread loaf.

The question now is, are the children who attend these mission schools not part of the vast citizenry of Imo origin? Are they immune to the Universal Basic Education or the much touted Millennium Development Goals? For all intents and purposes, they constitute a considerable chunk of our children population and therefore should benefit from any qualitative and affordable education available. One is also forced to ask, did the government tell us during their vociferous campaigns for votes that their free education was going to be segregational and sectional. If only they had hinted that…

MISSION NOT PRIVATE SCHOOLS:

Some commentators have argued that if there is concession for the mission schools it will open a flood gate of requisition from all manner of religious bodies claiming the Ecclesiastical  benefices and the privileges that accrues therefrom.  We have to point out that most of these bodies are either NGOs or are incorporated co-operatives that are only a shade shy of private ownership. Their modus operandi says it all. What we see and know of them is a far cry from missions that masterminded the CARITAS or the World Council of Churches that saved Biafrans from blight and total annihilation orchestrated by the Nigerian state during the gory years of war.The prosperity theology they peddle is purely personal, self serving and never collective nor community driven. The few universities they have built are not even affordable to their follower-ship.  There are yet to be noted ground breaking giving-back schemes from some of their ranks. That is why we refrain from squaring up or being lumped together with some of these.

We insist that our schools are mission schools and not private schools. Our vision is not profit oriented but charity propelled. This is why mission schools have to be kept as much as possible within the ambience of the poor as well as being qualitative enough to attract the rich.

WHY IS OUR CASE DIFFERENT?

As we remain eternally grateful to all those who have led the struggle for the return of our stolen schools, we plead that they be kept alive by the shakers and movers of today’s world. We ask that they give us the same support others are getting so that the missions can help reshape the Igbo society for excellence once again.

We give a big thumps up to those governments that have courageously splashed billions of aid to mission hospitals and schools. In those places, old dilapidated structures are rebuilt. Salaries are paid by the government. Vehicles are issued to schools. There are no harassments on school management to pay one draconian levy or another. This is a great demonstration of immense gratitude for what the missions have done for Igbo society. Does it mean that there are no neo-religious bodies in those states? No, but the gesture is a recognition of the quantum of loses the missions have borne on behalf of the Igbo people.

We pray that these same largesse be extended to us in Imo state rather than hound us with threats of closure and sanctions for obnoxious levies that we are not able to pay. We need encouragement from the government to render integral, wholistic, and functional  Catholic education to our children.

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    Fr. Eleba writes from the Owerri Archdiocesan Catholic Education Commission, Assumpta Secretariat Owerri.

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