Ibom Airport Gallery
Block work at Fire fighting Bay as at March 2007
Akwa Ibom Airport Runway - 3rd quarter 2007
Akwa Ibom airport runway 2 - 3rd quarter 2007
Compacting shoulder of runway
Control tower conduit
Control tower conduit as at Dec. 07
Blinding for under the footing at control tower as at Jan 08
Air traffic control equipment arriving from Port Harcourt
Air traffic control equipment arriving from Port Harcourt 2
Akwa Ibom International Airport Aerial view as at May 09
Runway facility as at June 09
Akwa Ibom International Airport Aerial view as at July 09
Air rescue & fire fighting facility
Fencing as at Aug 09
Control tower and lighting vault as at Aug. 09
Finishing Runway with Marking as at September 09
Fire fighting bay with fire fighting equipments and ambulance parked as at september 09
MRO facility as at September 09
Ag President Jonathan, ex-President Obasanjo, and Gov Akpbio
Borehole flushing Nov. 2007
By Essien Ndueso
If you think that education is expensive, then try ignorance.
The importance of education as the bedrock to the development of our society, informed the decisions of past governments in the states and the country to subsidize that sector.
Fortunately or unfortunately, the only result that could be recorded was a free-tuition NOT free education regime.
Under this policy, parents had to cough out money through their noses to carter for the academic requisite of their wards from primary, secondary to University level.
It became ironical that the cost of sending one’s children to school during that time had tripled even when a free education policy had been put in place by those governments, while the issue of provision of infrastructure and other learning facilities was completely thrown to the wind. And so while tuition (school fee) was free, students were compelled to pay sundry charges and PTA approved levies.
Education, according to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary is a process of teaching and learning, especially in schools or colleges, to improve knowledge and developed skills.
This sector of the economy is seen globally as the bedrock of any society. It is no wonder then that the United Nations’ Charter provides that member countries should allocate at least a minimum 25% of its annual budget to this important sector.
In Akwa Ibom State, the State Government under the ebullient leadership of Chief Godswill Obot Akpabio has taken the sure footed shot at what was seen in the past by citizens of Akwa Ibom State as a mirage. The Government for the first time, in the history of the 21 years old State introduced free and compulsory education for all its indigenes up to Senior Secondary School.
In doing this, Akpabio’s administration knows that the resultant effect would in the near future far outweigh the present cost.
For one, Governor Akpabio believes that the greatest legacy he can bequeath to his people is to make them knowledgeable, which would lead to total expulsion of criminality, restiveness and other vices that is the bane of the Niger Delta region today.
Said the Governor, “an educated child will shun militancy; an educated child will shun kidnapping; an educated child will shun all forms of criminality, so we must embrace a literate society”.
Governor Akpabio also believes that through qualitative free education, the State could be made more virile and will also churn out qualified personnel to fit into national and global economy in addition to encouraging capacity building of its citizenry.
No doubt this giant stride by the Akpabio-Government has received accolades even from critics.
To ensure that the system works, the Government abolished all Parents Teachers Association Levies, Development levies, Sports levies, Uniform levies and other sundry charges which were usually imposed by heads of schools.
Besides, by calculation, Akpabio’s Government would spend over 7 billion naira annually to fund the programme and another N1 billion as subvention to schools at the cost of 100 Naira per Primary School pupil and 300 Naira per Secondary School student.
To give a legal backing to the free and compulsory education arrangement as a right of every Akwa Ibom child, the State Government has enacted the Child Rights Law. The law makes it an offence for any child to be seen hawking, trading or roaming the streets during school hours. It further prescribed punishment for any parent engaging a school age child as house help or any form of child labour.
The massive and comprehensive rehabilitations of schools in the state and provision of learning facilities has subsequently tripled the populations in schools.
To create a conducive learning environment for pupils and students in public school, the Government has also embarked on total and complete rehabilitation of all schools in the State, bringing them to model learning centres.
Akpabio’s Government is also embarking on the total upgrade of at least two Secondary Schools per each of the 31 Local Government Areas of the State which would provide compulsory boarding system with state of the arts facilities for the students. This approach is widely branded as a return to the basics.
As a support to the free education programme, the Akwa Ibom State Government has further strengthened the peoples reading culture by embarking on complete renovation and upgrading of all State owned Libraries in addition to the building of a modern state of the art digital library which would also serve as an International Research Centre in the Niger Delta.
Worried by the decay of facilities and the non-accreditation of courses of the University of Uyo, whose students’ enrolment is principally drawn from Akwa Ibom, Governor Akpabio has continuously given a lifeline to the Ivory Tower through direct donations and construction of roads, classroom blocks and other amenities despite the fact that it is Federal Government owned institution. This effort has resulted in the restoration of accreditation over 23 courses that had lost accreditation.
Apart from these, Akpabio’s Administration is also developing facilities at the State owned Akwa Ibom University of Technology (AKUTECH) which status has been changed to that of a conventional tertiary institution, and is billed to commence classes in September this year.
This is in addition to giving bursary and scholarship to its students in tertiary institutions and has consistently undertaken the payment of NECO Examination fees to its Secondary School students.
Through the innovations in educational development, Chief Akpabio has erased the erroneous belief that empowerment of youths by governments should be done through donation of motorcycles, cash and other inducements.