Indigenous oil company hands-over refurbished primary school to Effiat community in Akwa Ibom

An indigenous oil firm, Oriental Energy Resources Limited has completed and handed over new and upgraded essential teaching and learning facilities to Community Primary School, Ibuot Utan in Effiat, Mbo local government council of Akwa Ibom State.

The handing-over ceremony was performed by the Managing Director of the company, Mr. Mustafa Indimi, who stressed that the exercise was in demonstration of the company’s commitment to education and human capital development in the state, especially in the Effiat community.

Represented by the General Manager of Operations of the oil giant, Mr. Augustine Ekeigwe, he said that prior to the project by Oriental Energy, the Community Primary School with more than sixty children and a total of four classrooms barely had seats in the crumbling classrooms, no restroom, and no uniforms nor shoes for most of the children.

He said, “The restoration and provision of new facilities by Oriental Energy is part of its wider initiative of building safe schools to support inclusive and quality education across communities. This is in line with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4, as well as evidence of implementation of the Community Assisted Project component of Oriental Energy’s Project Specific Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Effiat community.

“We embarked on the project in this community for two reasons, firstly, we fully recognize that education is a human right. As such, we passionately believe that every child has a right to education from the primary level to higher levels of education. This is evident, for example, in our annual university scholarship awards for undergraduate students.

“Secondly, this project serves as our contribution towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals agreed in 2015 by all the 193 member states of the United Nations, including Nigeria. There is no doubt that the future of a child is dependent on their primary education. This is the foundation of formal education which usually covers the first six years of school life. The role of primary education includes enhancing the ability of children to communicate effectively, building literacy as well as character and moral training. A good primary education, therefore, enables children to develop social, cognitive, cultural, emotional and physical skills to the best of their abilities”.

He explained that the company strives a lot in creating positive sustainable foots-prints through projects and programmes that improve the quality of people in various communities in the state including the Effiat community.

“The core areas of our social investment interventions are a, Community Health, b, Education and human capacity development, c, enterprise development and support d, capacity building for sustainable development. Effiat community has benefited from our social investment interventions since inception”. He said.

In her remarks, the state commissioner for education, Mrs. Idongesit Etiebet who was represented by the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Lady Rose Bassey, described Oriental Energy as public-spirited and proactive in prioritising CSR, “I’m so happy with what the organisation has done in the education sector. Even gone beyond this to tertiary level scholarships and training young people in technical skills.”

A Board Member of the Akwa Ibom State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Sir John Udoh, on behalf of its Chairman, identified Oriental Energy as a pacesetter in educational development in Mbo and the state at large.

“This is one sure way the company has proven that education is serious business. Investing in education, especially at this basic level is an investment in the economic development and prosperity of the state. The handover will now ensure the school management, Effiat community and SUBEB take full ownership of the facilities”, he said.

Earlier, chiefs and other community leaders of Efiat called on youths in Effiat to shun vandalism and support growth on the small island, stressing, “This project started 10 years ago but it was disrupted. There would have been so much more development here. Oriental Energy has been a faithful partner.”