Ehis Nzewuji June 6, 2019

CSR: Okoh Says Primary School Is Foundation For Education

Director General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Mr. Alex A. Okoh has stated that the Bureau Commenced intervention at the primary level of the education sector in the country because of its firm belief that that level is the basic foundation for educational pursuit of the children who are the future leaders.

Speaking at the commissioning of projects undertaken by the Bureau in line with its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) at the Local Education Area (LEA) Primary School, Dutse-Alhaji in Bwari Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja on Friday, May 31, 2019, Okoh noted that without a solid foundation at the primary school level, the future of the Nigerian child would be bleak.

“We have in this school today, future leaders some of whom would be Directors General, Governors and a President of this country and we need to give them a congenial environment to excel”, he said.

He said the Bureau’s decision to intervene in some key sectors of the Nigerian economy is a fall out of its 30th anniversary where the management resolved to identify areas of intervention to bring reliefs to the citizenry. These include; Education, Health, Environment and people with disabilities.

According to the Director General, the intervention in the LEA Primary School, Dutse-Alhaji includes:

• Renovation of the Nursery and Primary Blocks
• Construction of a new a toilet block (Male and female sections of four toilets each)
• Provision of desks for renovated Nursery and Primary classes
• Provision of school bags (Back packs) and excise books
• Provision of School Uniforms (Male & Female)
• Provision of 20 Executive Chairs for the Teachers
• Provision of Desktop Computers and Monitors for demonstration classes
• Provision of Visitors’ Chairs for the Headmistress Reception Office; and
• Construction of culverts, drainages, walkways as well as sand filling of water logged areas.

In her speech, the Headmistress of the school, Mrs.Idowu Ajoke Adebomi thanked the Director General of the BPE, Mr. Alex A. Okoh with his management team for conceiving and implementing the projects within three months.

While nothing that the gesture by the Bureau has greatly enhanced the aesthetics of the school and given the pupils a conducive environment to learn, she said that BPE has undoubtedly provided the template of how government agencies could touch the lives of pupils and the less privileged  in the society; and called on other agencies to emulate the  Bureau.

Pledging to secure the facilities   provided by the Bureau for the school, she appealed to the paramount ruler of the area to provide security to the school to safeguard the facilities.

The Traditional Ruler of the Area, the Hakimi of Dusten, Alhaji Abubakr Bako pledged the commitment of the community to provide security towards the safety of the facilities and appealed to the BPE management to renovate the remaining building in the school which he described as an ‘eye-sore’.

Amina Tukur Othman

Head, Public Communications

May 31, 2019.