• …As Fayemi calls on indigenes to adopt a school for development.
Ekiti state governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi has announced that his
administration would soon embark on another round of “Operation
Renovate All Schools” (ORAS) to complement the earlier one he did
during his first term in office.
The governor also called on all Ekiti indigenes at home and in
Diaspora to come back to their communities and positively affect it by
adopting a school for necessary development.
He appealed to Ekiti sons and daughters all over the world to come
home and affect their communities positively by investing passionately
in them.
Fayemi stated this during the official launch of the newly re-modeled
block of classrooms at Ijero High school, Ijero-Ekiti and official
presentation of 1000 ‘back to school kits’ to all secondary schools in
Ijero-Ekiti by the Chief Official Photographer to President Mahammadu
Buhari, Mr. Bayo Omoboriowo, a native of Ijero Ekiti.
He urged public spirited individuals to support the developmental
drive of the state government in all the sectors of the economy
including education noting that government should not be left alone in
the drive to bring development to the state and that the little
contributions of individuals will allow for rapid development of all
the communities.
According to the governor, “Government will continue to do a lot of
works in our schools and we are doing a lot of projects, refurbishing,
renovating and very soon, we are starting another Operation Renovate
All Schools in Ekiti so that communities where we have dilapidated
structures such as the one that Bayo has assisted in renovating here
will also benefit from that.
“What he is doing here at home in Ijero by adopting a school is a
project that we have in Ekiti State Government to encourage those of
our people that have been blessed one way or the other by God to
contribute by adopting a school of their own choice not a school
imposed by government.
“The reason why I support this kind of gesture is that Ekiti State
Government cannot do it alone, we can always try but in Ekiti, we have
always have a community spirit to establishment and development of our
schools and various projects. The towns unions have always taken up
various projects and with the community contributing and developing
such projects. There have been many projects in this community that
had been product of children of the community not products of
government.
“This state belongs to all of us, not just government that builds a
state, you know what they say about a village taking up the
responsibility of raising a child, it takes the entire community to
bring up a state. So what Bayo has done here is something that I think
is exemplary and other public spirited Ekiti sons and daughters, Ekiti
residents should also consider and build within their own various
areas of jurisdiction. We’ve come into this with all forms of
expertise, Bayo is not a school teacher but he was brought up by a
teacher and that’s why he felt, he needed to give back to schools in
the community and look at what he has done.
“I encourage other Ekiti indigenes of the state wherever they may be
based, you don’t have to be based in Ekiti and you don’t even have to
have gone to school in Ekiti, those who have gone to school in Ekiti
are even more compelled to do so and I see that a lot of alumni
associations are doing that, they are all contributing their quota but
individuals can also adopt a school, they should just contact the
Ministry of Education, Science and Technology in the state, they can
adopt any school and support any project that will advance the course
of education and human development in the state.”
Fayemi commended and congratulated the Ijero community for raising
such illustrious sons and daughters who have been coming back home to
contribute to the community adding that it was a singular reason why
more developmental projects were accruable to the community.
He promised to continue to interface and collaborate with the
community to bring more development to the area.
The governor also commended the benefactor, Mr. Bayo Omoboriowo for
the great work he is doing all over the place aimed at repositioning
education in Nigeria especially at the University of Lagos where he
graduated.
“I want to say that this is not a show, but a display of his passion
to lift up the people, to help the vulnerable and the weak in society.
That is what we are known for in Ekiti, the prayer always is that we
would succeed and we would come back home to affect our community and
contribute our quota. That is the prayer of every parent who is
bringing up a child in Ekiti”, He stated.
While advising the students to see their benefactor as a role model
worthy of emulating, the governor urged them to make judicious use of
the educational materials presented to them.
Earlier, Mr. Bayo Omoboriowo said he set up a foundation as a response
to his unwavering desire to continually seek the improvement and the
general well-being of his immediate environment and the society at
large.
Omoboriowo said he had been involved in various impact projects,
utilizing his primary gift in photography and other creative
expressions as a tool for intervention adding that his focus had
evolved into more tangible actions, driven largely by his commitment
to contribute his quota towards improving the lives of Nigeria’s
youths.
He commended the Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi for the giant
strides he had taken barely a year in the saddle to urgently develop
the state, saying he is a round peg in a round hole.
The schools that benefited from Omoboriowo’s largesse are Ijero High
School, CAC Grammar School and Doherty Memorial Grammar School, all in
Ijero-Ekiti.
