A section of rehabilitated Iyeru-Okin Primary School,Offa by Airtel Nigeria.

STEPHEN OLUFEMI ONI/Ilorin

As part of its corporate social responsibility and in recognition of the role education plays in the development of a country, Airtel Nigeria has adopted and carried out extensive rehabilitation work on Iyeru-Okin Primary School, Offa, in Offa local government area of Kwara State. It is particularly significant that under Airtel Nigeria’s adopt-a-school programme, government-owned schools located in poor, rural/semi urban communities are captured and are either rehabilitated or rebuilt as the case may be.

Speaking at the inauguration of the project, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Airtel Nigeria, Mr. Segun Ogunsanya, said Iyeru-Okin Primary School has now joined four other Airtel-adopted primary schools spread across the country. The other four are Oremeji Primary School, Ajegunle in Lagos State; St. John’s Primary School, Oke-Agbo, Ijebu-Igbo in Ogun State; Community Primary School, Amumara in Imo State and Presbyterian Primary School, Ediba in Cross River State.

The MD/CEO, who spoke through Airtel Nigeria’s Chief Sales Officer, Mr. Godfrey Efeurhobo, noted that over the years, the company has brought notable transformation to its adopted schools by providing ultra-modern blocks of classrooms, boreholes for portable water, classroom furniture, while also donating items such as uniforms, bags and educational materials like books, textbooks and pens on a yearly basis.

Ogunsanya

He said: “Last year, hundreds of pupils and teachers benefited from the Airtel free eye screening exercises conducted in the adopted schools. Besides, several teachers in the affected schools have been trained by Airtel Nigeria in collaboration with the State Universal Basic Education Board, SUBEB, of the various states. It is also pertinent to add here that we have not just come to upgrade infrastructure and go away, but we will continue to support the adopted schools on a long-term basis.”

Lauding Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed’s quest for rapid educational rebirth in the state, Ogunsanya said Airtel Nigeria was motivated to contribute its widow’s mite in this concerted effort of the administration to make a difference in the lives of the people of the state, especially the less-privileged, having realised that government alone, no matter how benevolent, cannot bring about the change people earnestly crave. “We are hopeful that this project will add value to the lives of the children of Iyeru-Okin community and who knows we may be providing classrooms for the grooming of future employees of Airtel Nigeria,” he said.

While also commending SUBEB and the authorities of Offa local government for supporting Airtel Nigeria’s initiative, Airtel Nigeria boss urged the community members to help protect the facilities from hoodlums and vandals.

Speaking, Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed said the company’s initiative connects with his administration’s educational infrastructure development programme under which government remodelled 400 blocks of classrooms in the last administration, adding that in the current dispensation, necessary machinery has been put in motion for the construction of 2,000 new classrooms and rehabilitation of 1,000 existing classrooms across the state as well as the establishment of two new campuses for the Kwara State University.

As the administration embarks on what he regarded as perhaps the boldest infrastructure development programme in the history of the state, Ahmed, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Alhaji Lamidi Alabi, urged the citizenry to fulfil their obligation of paying their taxes, fees, levies and commissions as they become due to ensure that the dream of making the state North Central’s economic hub comes to fruition. While soliciting similar interventions in other schools across the state, the governor urged other organisations to emulate Airtel Nigeria and give back to the communities in which they operate.

The Permanent Secretary, Kwara State Universal Basic Education Board, Dr. Musa Dasuki, who was represented by Hajia Raudat Yusuf, said the windows of project undertaken by Airtel Nigeria included the renovation of three blocks of eight classrooms with three staff offices,installation of lighting and ceiling fans, construction of a borehole with over-head tank, provision of 43 sets of tables for the pupils, eight sets of tables for the teachers, 400 school uniforms and 400 school bags for the pupils.

Commending Airtel Nigeria for the kind gesture and the governor for creating a conducive platform for private-public partnership to flourish in the state, Dasuki charged other corporate organisations to also expand their portfolio of social responsibility by ploughing back part of they have reaped from the society.