The Special Adviser to Governor Ben Ayade on Education, Castro Ezama is facing a major backlash following his controversial statement about secondary school girls in Cross River State.
Ezama issued this statement at a programme on FAD FM Radio in Calabar monitored by Daily Trust while speaking on government’s effort to improve the standard of education in the state.
He said there was high level of promiscuity and permissiveness amongst students in the state. In his words:
“50 or 60% of girls in our secondary schools are not virgins. And this is not good for the image of the state and of education.”
However, a councillor representing Ward 7 in Bakassi Local Government Area, Grace Bassey, said such a statement was demeaning of the girl child.
She ruled the statement which highlighted sexual issues about girls while excluding the boy child, stressing that it was “totally unacceptable” and should be condemned.
Many Cross River state indigenes have condemned Ezama’s comments, with some questioning how he arrived at the statistics.
“This is a very poor comment. No amount of apology can remove this stain. My brother Castro, I sincerely call for your resignation,”
Another Facebook user, Oseuno Inspire Justus Efio-Ita Nyok wrote:
“How and where was this data collected? Is it a random data for secondary school as a whole or just Cross River state? What’s the purpose of this data to the standard and quality of education in the state?
How was this data verified and certified to be true? Because that’s half of the female students in the secondary school population in the state. He has gone through the stress of collecting and verifying the data we will like to know to what end, please. Sigh!!! Cc: Castro Ezama.”
