Former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, has donated one hundred desks and chairs to the Roguwa Primary School in Nasarawa State.
Other items donated to the school include exercise books, dozens of pens and other educational materials.
The gesture, according to the former minister, is to help improve the standard of learning in the rural community.
Amaechi, who was represented by his aide, Israel Ibeleme, urged the pupils to maintain the chairs and desks donated while pledging his continuous support to the school.
“Education is the only way to reduce crime in our society,” he said. “When I came here to conduct an assessment of the needs of this community, I noticed that the children were sitting on the floor to learn. I went home feeling really sad.
“Today, we have come with this token to improve the learning condition of these children because there are great men and women among them.
“Again, I want to say that we should not leave everything to the government. As individuals, if we can help fix little things in our communities, Nigeria will be a better place for us all,” he added.
Receiving the donation, he headmaster, Benjamin Dauda, expressed his gratitude to the former minister for the items.
While praying God for more blessings for Amaechi, he lamented the lack of adequate teachers in the school.
“I am so happy today because before now, our children used to seat on the bare floor without a place to place their hands to write. But now, we have sufficient seats and desks. We thank his excellency, the former minister for this,” he said.
“The PTA built this classroom, UNICEF built this other one while the former governor, Tanko Al-makura, built this one. But, the problem now is that there are only five instead of nine teachers in the school. We are currently lacking teachers in this school.
“This school has been in existence since 1985 and there are 270 pupils. The school is understaffed. We’ll be grateful if the government can send us more teachers,” he pleaded.
Highlight of the event was the conferment of the chieftaincy titled of Turaki Roguwa on Amaechi by the district head of Roguwa, Alhaji Abdullahi Mohammed Kasai.
“This is a very important title,” he said. “By this title, Amaechi has become an indigene of Roguwa and we will invite him for our meetings because he is now a part of us.
“The former governor of Rivers state and immediate past Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, has done a great thing for us and we are grateful,” he added.
