
By Bassey Nkponam
UYO
The Akwa Ibom government has made known its readiness to establish a model secondary school with state-of-the-art boarding facilities in each of the three senatorial districts of the State.
The State governor, Pastor Umo Eno, who announced this, Saturday, during the February 2025 edition of the Government House Monthly Covenant Service, which took place at the Banquet Hall, Government House, Uyo, said this will involve adopting an existing secondary school in each of the three senatorial districts and reconstructing them to suit the purpose.
Eno said the schools which will serve as unity schools for the State and to the federal government, will be a model of an ideal boarding school, adding that he was constituting a delivery team to ensure timely implementation of the plan and intends to have strong Parents Teachers Association, and a special committee in place to ensure smooth operation of the schools.
He explained that parents will have to pay a prescribed fee for the feeding of the children, which must be done and proof of payment presented as precondition for a student to be granted access into the hostels.
On the criteria for admission into the school, Eno said that a special consultancy firm will be contracted to conduct very transparent entrance examination that will ensure merit as basis for the admissions.
“We have several projects that must kick off and we must finish as we go into 2026 and begin to prepare for the elections. Principal among them that God has touched my heart to do is to construct a replica of what a boarding school used to be in this State in those days, and to adopt three secondary schools, one in each Senatorial District to really take them back. Let’s build those boarding houses and put everything there and let’s make sure those three secondary schools are up and running.
“Admission will be by all our children gathering in a central place, write exams and then the exams will be marked by computer, and only the best will be admitted.”
The governor assured of his administration’s commitment to completing the abandoned International Conference Centre at the Tropicana Entertainment Centre, Uyo, which according to him, will on completion be renamed Ibom International Conference Centre (IICC), while the 14-Storey Tropicana Hotels at the Tropicana Entertainment Centre will be completed within the same time frame.
He said this is geared towards realising tourism potentials of the state and ensuring that projects initiated with the commonwealth of the people by his predecessors are made valuable to the people.
Speaking of recent sad occurrence that befell the second family in the State, Eno expressed grief over the untimely death of the deputy governor’s daughter and urged Christians to pray ceaselessly from their various altars for leaders and the government, that God may grant them grace to lead the State well.
He used the occasion to applaud the gesture of an Nsit Ubium-based clergy and entrepreneur, Pastor Imoh Ime Ekpenyong, who without government funding has been undertaking training of villagers in the production of soap, paint, etc, calling on other citizens to use their privileged positions to better lives in their communities rather than constituting themselves into arm-chair critics of government.
Eno announced the appointment of Ekpenyong as his special assistant on Entrepreneurial Development, with directives that necessary evaluations be made towards refunding him of the cost of the trainings done so far and that he be gifted a car to aid the furtherance of his good deeds.
In his message on the theme, “Mountain Conquering Grace” taken from Zachariah 4:7, Bishop Mike Eduok, of Life and Power Ministries, noted that for those who believe, God has given them the grace to conquer mountains, and therefore urged everyone to pray for the State and its leaders for the grace to conquer every obstacle and deliver on their mandates.
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