Fubara Gives Team Rivers Full Scholarships, Reopens Rebuilt Bonny Grammar School
Blessing Ibunge in Port Harcourt
Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, has awarded full scholarships to members of Team Rivers who emerged winners of the National Inter-Schools Debate Championship, reaffirming his administration’s commitment to education and youth development.
Fubara announced the scholarship yesterday during the inauguration of the newly reconstructed Bonny National Grammar School in Bonny, where he declared that education remained the state’s most critical investment in the future.
The governor said his administration was determined to fund and sustain programmes that would create tangible value for Rivers’ people, stressing that the reconstruction of the historic school was evidence of a shift from promises to delivery.
He described the inauguration as historic, saying it was the first time in more than 20 years that a state government had visited Bonny to inaugurate a completed project rather than campaign or make promises.
“This is the first time in over 20 years that government is coming to Bonny to commission a project. We’ve been coming here to campaign. We’ve come here to make promises. But now we have gone a step further to ensure that we break that jinx,” Fubara said.
He said the project was also intended to reassure the people of Bonny that they remained an integral part of Rivers State.
Tracing the history of the institution, Fubara recalled that the school began in 1965 as a community initiative and had produced many prominent sons and daughters of Bonny Kingdom.
He linked the government’s investment in education to the economic importance of Bonny, particularly its role in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry.
“Today, we have the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) and other multinationals that are operating in Bonny. Some of our people are working with them and they are working with them because of education,” he said.
The governor also commended the Amanyanabo of Grand Bonny Kingdom, King Edward William Asimini Dappa Pepple III, Perekule XI, for his leadership and efforts to attract development to the kingdom.
He acknowledged the federal government’s contribution through the Bonny-Bodo Road project, which he said had improved access to the island.
A major highlight of the event was Fubara’s announcement that the Rivers’ students who won the Presidential Inter-Schools Debate Championship would receive full scholarships.
“For everyone of them that participated, we must make sure that we take full responsibility for their education starting from this minute,” he declared.
Amanyanabo described the event as more than the reopening of a renovated school, saying it represented the restoration of an important educational legacy and an investment in the future of Bonny.
The Commissioner for Education, Dr. Peter Nwagor, said the reconstruction included renovated classrooms, fully equipped Chemistry, Biology and Physics laboratories, a technical workshop, ICT centre, modern hostels, staff quarters, assembly hall, sick bay and a furnished library.
He added that the project also featured a sports arena, internal roads and drainage, solar-powered streetlights, upgraded electricity infrastructure, perimeter fencing, security gatehouse, interlocking pavements and a car park.
Fubara pledged that his administration would continue to deliver more development projects in Bonny, expressing satisfaction that the reconstruction of the school had transformed what once appeared impossible into a reality.
