Yobe Invests N3.5bn in Rehabilitation, Upgrade of Seven Schools

• Yobe Invests N3.5bn in Rehabilitation, Upgrade of Seven Schools

Governor of Yobe State, Alhaji Ibrahim Gaidam, says the state has spent N3.5 billion in the renovation, rehabilitation and upgrade of seven secondary schools in the state.

Gaidam disclosed this in Abuja on Thursday, when Star Deepwater Petroleum Limited, a Chevron Company, and its partners in the Agbami oil field project, donated a fully-equipped science laboratory complex to Government Secondary School, Damaturu, Yobe State.

He said the rehabilitation was a bid to reverse the devastation inflicted by Boko Haram insurgents on the education sector in the state.

Speaking during the handover of the science laboratory, Gaidam, who was represented by the Secretary to the State Government, Mr. Baba Wali, identified the seven schools that were renovated, rehabilitated and provided with furniture and science laboratory equipment.

They include Government Girls Secondary School, GGSS, Nguru; and Government Secondary School, GSS, Fika.

Others are GSS Gwio-Kura; GSS Yunusari; GSS Nangere, Government Girls College, Damaturu and GSS Damaturu.

Gaidam said the state had accorded the education and health sectors top most priority, considering their strategic role in nation building and as indispensable tools for achieving excellence in improving the living condition of the people.

He noted that his administration has transformed the educational infrastructure in the state through improved teaching and learning in the primary, secondary and tertiary education.

“The huge expenditure in education is a deliberate initiative to bring quality education within the reach of all Yobe State students as well as reverse the devastation inflicted by the Boko Haram insurgents on the education sector,’ he explained.

In addition, the governor disclosed that the Chevron and its Agbami parties had proposed to construct four additional science laboratory complexes at GSS Fika, Potiskum; Government College, Nguru; Government Science and Technical College, Geidam and Government Girls College Damaturu.

Other projects on the radar of the parties, he said, included the construction of maternal and child clinics at General Hospital, Fika, Yobe State.

Also, Director of Star Deepwater, Mr. Richard Kennedy, said the project represented the resolve of the Agbami parties to improve the availability and affordability of quality education to Nigerians.

Kennedy, who was represented by Manager, Policy, Government and Public Affairs of Chevron, Mr. Mike Kabi, noted that the laboratory was expected to impacted positively on the students, providing them up-to-date science laboratory equipment for undertaking experiments and for writing their examinations.

He added that the Agbami partners had executed a number of projects in Yobe state and in other states across the country, in the area of health, education and other social intervention projects.

He said, “It is worthy o f note that the Agbami parties have also implemented other projects in the past in Yobe State in education. Forty-six Yobe state indigenes have benefitted from Agbami Medical and Engineering professional Scholarships (AMEPS) since 2013.

“We have several other projects across the country, weeither ongoing or completed. The projects, mainly libraries, chest clinics science laboratories, model classroom blocks and mother and child centers, constitute an aspect of the strategic intervention plan of the Agbami parties in promoting better life for Nigerians.”

Kennedy further stated that since the commissioning of the Agbami field, the Yobe laboratory project made it the 34 science laboratories completed and donated by the parties since the field was commissioned, noting that additional two laboratories would be completed within the year.

He added that six hybrid and conventional libraries, as well as 25 chest clinics, with additional three to be completed this year, to different states of the federation including the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.