Political economist, Prof. Pat Utomi, on Wednesday said the viral video of a schoolgirl, Success Adegor, who was sent home because of her parents’ inability to pay her examination levy, had exposed the Delta State Government as one that “has no shame.”Utomi, who is the 2019 governorship aspirant of the All Progressives Congress in Delta State, said the Governor Ifeanyi Okowa administration had lost every sense of shame in the governance of the state.
He said the state had more than enough revenues to give qualitative education, health and infrastructure to the people and to power agriculture endowment value chains and alleviate poverty.
In a statement titled, “The Battle Line Issues,” Utomi said Success’ viral video exposed the level of decay in the educational system in the state, calling on the government to prioritise key issues of governance which directly affected Deltans.
While equating Success’ bravery in the viral video to Rosa Parks who refused to obey the 1955 Alabama’s racist law, Utomi said the pupil’s strength of character gave appeal to the video and it went viral.
Utomi noted, “That all is not well with how Delta is governed has become clear with the Success resistance video; that story of the little girl who bravely said no more, with a steely determination.
“A little girl with gusto and sharp wit decided enough was enough. She had had enough with the collapsed education situation in Delta State. She was ready to be flogged till she was blue rather than be scammed yet again by the public school system in Delta State.
“You would expect shame to overcome the machinery of government in Delta for being incompetent to manage the school system as exposed by Success. But not the Delta State Government; they had become numb to shame or unable to understand the implication of the face-off Success had come to symbolise.
“Government officials instead, saw it as a Nollywood moment. As if it was one of those comedy skits filmed in Asaba, they began to fall over each other offering car gifts to the person who recorded the Success’ moment of rage.”
The renowned political economist posited that the government had the moral obligation to be accountable and reordered its priorities as depicted by Success in the viral video.
Utomi said the state government must quickly act to change the face of Delta positively.
“What Success stands for today is like what Rosa Parks stood for in Alabama in 1955. The then 42-year-old African American woman refused to obey Alabama’s racist law that required that she stood up for a white person. Her resistance resulted in the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycotts that fired up the civil rights movement. America has not been the same since,” he said.