The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), Nyesom Wike, said mobilisation fees have been paid to contractors handling 19 schools in the nation’s capital.
He pledged not to owe any of them while the project lasted.
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Wike, who made this known yesterday while flagging off reconstruction and total rehabilitation of the 19 schools, warned the contractors against any sabotage of FCT administration efforts in giving conducive learning environment to the students in the territory.
The minister, while promising to support the teachers in FCT in delivering quality education to the students, also promised residents of Gwagwalada to complete the construction of the abandoned General Hospital in the area council headquarters.
He noted the importance of a proper, conducive and habitable learning environment, while disclosing that the schools’ rehabilitation will be funded from the 2023 Supplementary Budget, while another 20 will be rehabilitated later this year from the recently passed 2024 budget of the FCT.
“I thank all of you, and I thank the students, and I want to assure you that all the expectations will be met. It is not only access to education. If you give access to education without quality, then you have not given education. While we are providing access, we must also provide quality.
“Quality entails that one: the environment must be conducive; the environment must be something that is habitable, the hostels and where you take care of yourself is very important. So be assured that we will give you the best. We are looking into the teachers too, how we are going to provide quality teachers to teach our students,” he said.
He commended the National Assembly for the passage of the 2023 Supplementary budget of FCT administration.
Earlier the minister of state FCT, Mariya Mahmoud, told the residents that children deserve the best of learning environment, hence the rehabilitation and reconstruction project of FCT schools.
In his address earlier, the mandate secretary of the Education Secretariat, Danlami Hayyo, disclosed that the minister had approved the sum of N280m as a scholarship for over 130,000 indigent students of the FCT, across all levels of education.
He added that the schools’ rehabilitation initiative was about laying the foundation for the children’s future.
“As we flag-off the rehabilitation of several schools across the FCT, this initiative is not just about brick and mortar, it’s about laying the foundation for a brighter future for our children,” he said.
One of the contractors handling the rehabilitation projects, Engr. Osondu Ekeekwu, told the minister that at the point of taking over the site, the only structures in good shape are the Mosque and Church auditoriums rehabilitated by private individuals.
Ekeekwu said that anytime the school went on vacation, herdsmen usually took over the school premises, making it unfit for use on resumption. On behalf of other contractors, he promised that they would do a good job and deliver the projects within the time frame.
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