…Establish primary school for his community
Determined to encourage youths to pursue their educational pursuit encumbered, the Executive Chairman of Ini local government area of Akwa ibom state Elder Isreal Adaisin has approved the payment of bursary to the students of Ini origin in all the higher institutions in Nigeria numbering about 1500 students.
Elder Adaisin who disclosed this on Friday in an interview with Journalists in Uyo Akwa ibom state stated that this will be the second time his administration will be encouraging the student with bursary support notwithstanding the small funds coming into the coffers of the council.
The council boss who described education as the bedrock of personal and community development explained that his actions was borne out of his desire to see his people become good and useful citizens rather than allowing them waste away in largely rural community.
According to the chairman, “All we do is to compile their names, do adequate profiling and documentations and credit their various accounts directly, they don’t need to start coming from their various schools to the local government secretariat which is far for most of them and will consume so much on transportation. In the same vein, several other youths who are not in school have been assisted to learn a trade and get empowered with tools and starter packs, while the only major market in our domain abandoned earlier have been reconstructed with adequate facilities and security
”He highlighted that the biggest project close to his heart is the building of a primary school for his community from his personal savings and paying the teachers from his resources as government is yet to take over the school.
“As a child I trekked about 4 kilometer daily to attend a primary school, this alone discouraged many people from going to school in my community leaving a lot of out of school children and their ill behavior, I prayed to God to give me opportunity in life to change this narratives and when I have the privilege, I shunned personal comfort to give my people this school and funds the teachers’ salaries while attendance is free for every child while waiting for the government take over. This is the only school in my community till date no secondary school, no health center”.
On the communal crisis which constantly pitched his council area with their neighbors in Abia state in which several people have been killed in the past, the council chairman explained, “It is true that Ini Local Government Area witnesses border crisis. It takes a leader with wisdom to handle the sensitive issues involved otherwise there will be perpetual war. I have, with the help of God, ensured that there is peace in Ini; the only exception is Nkari area. Historically, we are bounded with four different local government areas of Abia State, Ikwuano, Arochukwu, Bende and etc.
“The solution to put the dispute to a final rest is with the National Boundaries Commission. The problem sometimes emanates from one nuclear family where a brother will take up citizenship of Akwa Ibom and his brother will opt for citizenship of Abia State. We have been severally to Abuja to bring the officials of the National Boundaries Commission to come for demarcation and once they arrive, Abia people will create tensions and they will flee back and it takes another two to three years to get them to come again and same thing repeats.
“However, after a careful study, I concluded that if I keep waiting for the National Boundaries Commission we will record more casualties and I decided to have dialogue with the chairman of Ikwuano Local Government Area of Abia State. We had a fruitful dialogue and peace was achieved and for some time now there has been no problem. The piece of land which was at the centre of the problem, we agreed, should be left alone by both parties for now as we wait for the National Boundaries Commission to come around and carry out official demarcation of our boundaries with them. The wisdom we applied paid off.
“The chairman who acknowledged the difficult topography of his council area owing the poor road network opined that its soil remains the best for massive food production both for consumption and export, “We thank God that Governor Umo Eno has pinned down agricultural development as one of his pilot schemes and Ini Local Government Area as a major beneficiary of the project. Ini has a very fertile soil that can grow any crop in commercial quantities from rice, cucumber, tomato, palm trees, cassava, in fact, everything you plant grows immediately. We donated land to the former governor to help attract investments into Ini Local Government Area.
“Today, the kind of agricultural development Umo Eno is talking about is all-encompassing; a situation you have massive farm estates with facilities like schools, medical facilities and other infrastructure that will make farming a permanent job for those cultivating the farms. It will be commercial farms and Ini is very vital to his development. We have massive hectares of land and we can give as much land is needed to see to the success of the programme. We have fertile lands good for mechanized farming”.
