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Olanrewaju Lawal, Birnin Kebbi
A member of the National Youths Service Corps (NYSC), serving in Kebbi State, Ms Abdulazeez Umahani Onoono, has donated twelve wheelchairs to the School of Special Needs in Birnin Kebbi.
Kogi native Onoono, a Batch B Corps member attached to the Kebbi State Government House, speaking during at the presentation ceremony of the wheelchairs to students of the school on Wednesday, said that she was motivated to embark on the privately sponsored community development project after she had visited the school.
According to her, “I always advocate for equal rights; and when I was posted to Kebbi State to serve my fatherland, I met a friend who was a fellow Corps member at my place of primary assignment who was then carrying out a personal community development service.
“I often kept her company until when I had followed her to the state School for Special Needs where I noticed how physically challenged the students were crawling around the environment unaided.
“This was what drew my attention and sympathy to come up with a project to assist them with the chairs in order to help and encourage them with ease of mobility in their quest for knowledge and better future,” she narrated.
According to her, the project was actualised by her personal effort and support from some of the State’s Ministries, Agencies and Departments.
Onoono commended the donors, the State government and NYSC officials for their efforts towards ensuring the actualising of the project.
“I will also particularly like to commiserate with the good people of the State and Nigeria at large for the resilience they have exhibited during this trying COVID-19 pandemic,” the NYSC member said.
In his remarks, the Permanent Secretary, Kebbi State Government House, Alhaji Mustapha Aliyu Gwandu, described the donation as important gifts to the disadvantaged students.
He noted that the wheelchairs would enable them to move freely at the school, stressing that other Corps members and public-spirited Nigerians should emulate such gestures.
The Sector Commandant of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), Kebbi State, Mr Ebenezer Abayomi Asaniyan, who commended the Corps member for the donation, urged the State government to reward philanthropic Corps members with automatic employment in the State.
“It is very hard to remember the less privileged in the society. What this Corps member did today would go a long way to improve the lives of these Special Needs students. I want to urge the State government to be encouraging these kinds of Corps member by employing them. If they are doing something like this during their service year, they can do more if they get permanent work,” he remarked.
Earlier, the Kebbi State NYSC Coordinator, Mr Mutapha Muhammad, who was represented by the Head of Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurs Development (SAED), Mr Garba Fana, noted that what Ms Onoono did would go a long way to ameliorate the living conditions of the Special students.
“We pray that as she touches the lives of these Special Students, God will touch her life too.”
In her remark, the Principal of the School of Special Needs, Birnin Kebbi, Hajia Umar Aliyu Jantulu, represented by her Vice Principal, Hajia Aishatu Jamila Ahmed, eulogised the Corps member for the donation, stressing that her name would remain evergreen in the history of the school.
