Senator Rafiu, Changing the Narratives of Education Sector in Kwara

Senator Rafiu Adebayo Ibrahim is no longer a stranger to the people of Kwara South senatorial district he is representing at the National Assembly.
Apart from being a thorough bred banker, business man and legislator, he has also impacted the lives of the people he is representing through his constituency projects which all and sundries have benefitted from immensely.

According to some political observers, many people do not understand the job of a legislator because we expect so much from them apart from contributing to legislation for the betterment of the people.

But Senator Ibrahim changed the narrative by contributing positively to the educational development of his senatorial district with a lot of testimonies from the beneficiaries.

Hopes were restored into many homes in Kwara South Senatorial District with the help from their representative at the Senate who does not only represent them well but has also contributed to achievement of many dreams of these families.

Senator Ibrahim’s contribution to educational development of his area started way back before he was elected as a senator of the federal republic.

As a Senator for just three years, he has not only renovated but also constructed new Schools across the Kwara South Senatorial District.

Some of these projects include the renovation of two (2) blocks of two (2) classrooms with an office at Muslim primary LGEA School Igosun, Oyun LGA, renovation of a block of four (4) classrooms with offices and stores at Ansarul-Islam Secondary School, Offa LGA, renovation of a block of three (3) classrooms with an office at Iyeru Okin Primary School, Offa, Offa LGA, renovation of a block of three (3) classrooms with stores at Erinmope Primary School, Erinmope, Oke-Ero LGA, renovation of a block of four (4) classrooms with offices and stores at Community Comprehensive High School, Obbo Ile, Ekiti LGA, renovation of a block of three (3) classrooms at Okose Community LGEA Primary School, Babaloma, Ifelodun LGA, reconstruction of a block of five (5) classrooms with a offices and toilet facilities for both staff and pupils at Muslim Community LGEA School, Oke-Onigbin, Isin LGA.
Others are construction of a block of three (3) classrooms at Junior Secondary School, Eleyoka, Irepodun LGA, renovation of a block of three (3) classrooms with office at Muslim Community Primary School Okeola, Oro, Irepodun LGA, construction & equipping of computer and offices building, ICT centre for Kwara State College of Education Oro, Irepodun LGA, construction of University of Ilorin Student Union Governments (SUG) relaxation centre, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Kwara state.

The Senator did not only renovated and constructed schools, he also helped some indigent students whose families could not afford their examination fees such as JAMB, WAEC, NECO, as well as scholarship to students at tertiary institutions to ease their studies.
Through the senator’s effort, in 2017 alone, Free JAMB Forms were distributed to 656 candidates across 164 Senior Secondary Schools in Kwara South.

The gesture also included free registration of WAEC and NECO for various students across the Kwara South Senatorial District, free Enterprenurship Training for 200 youths in Kwara South, retraining of 210 teachers in public basic Schools on the theme: Modern Teaching Practices and Technicques in order to meet up with the dynamism of education sector of other parts of the country and the world.
Apart from all the above, Senator Ibrahim took a step ahead his colleagues by providing both local and foreign schorlarship for his constituents.

Very recently was the sponsorship of Abdullahi Abdulwahab Adejumo of Kende’s compound, Essa C Ward, Offa LGA for his first degree in Arabic Studies at Al-Azhar University Cairo, Egypt and the sponsorship of Ayinla Tobi Ridwan of Oloya Banleku compound Eesa B Ward, Offa LGA for his Masters degree in Engineering at Universiti Teknalogi Petronas.

In addition to all of these, Senator Ibrahim has annual school fees, bursary and grants for his constituents across tertiary institutions in Nigeria. Good examples are:
-Payment of registration fees for all JSS 3 students of Muslim Junior Secondary School Ojoku, Oyun LGA since his days at the Kwara State House of Assembly;
– Annual payment of school fees for more than 50 University of Ilorin students;
– Annual payment of school fees for 25 Kwara State Polytechnic students;
– Annual payment of school fees for 15 Federal Polytechnic Offa students;
– Annual payment of school fees for 15 Kwara State College of Education Oro students;
– Annual payment of school fees for 10 Kwara State College of Education Ilorin students; among others.

Because of the senator’s belief that the best way to impact the lives of his people is through education, he also renovated the Offa Township Library and also launched a book published by an industrious son of Offa, Professor Oyawoye with the sum of two million naira which the author of the book intended to use for education development in Offa.

An indigene of Irabon oro ago, Malete compound of Ifelodun LGA who is student of Nigeria College of Aviation Technology (NCAT) Zaria, studying standard flight operations course 21(SFO-21), Bello Emmanuel Temitope was recently assisted by the man with big heart and this is coming few weeks after he paid for the licence fee of the First Lady Pilot from Kwara South, an indigene of Offa seeking for assistance to get her licence.

Recently, students of Kwara South origin in various universities across the country were presented with a sum of N100,000 each in the scholarship scheme of Senator Rafiu Adebayo Ibrahim.
Three beneficiaries were picked from each of the seven local government areas in Kwara South Senatorial District including Ifelodun, Offa, Oyun, Irepodun, Isin Oke-Ero and Ekiti.

They all received the scholarship under Rafiu Ibrahim Bilal (RIB) Foundation, a pet project of the Senator representing Kwara South Senatorial District in the National Assembly, Dr Rafiu Adebayo Ibrahim.

Speaking at the formal presentation of the cheques to the beneficiaries in Ilorin, the former Speaker of the Kwara State House of Assembly, Alhaji Babatunde Mohammed, described the financial assistance as apt and timely and congratulated the legislator for embarking on the gesture.

Mohammed, who chaired the brief ceremony, urged public office holders to emulate the benefactor.

In his remarks, a member of the Board of Trustees of RIB Foundation, Professor Kenneth Adeyemi, said the scholarship was a golden opportunity and warned the students against misusing it.

“What we are doing today is what everybody should be happy about. To our beneficiaries, you have an opportunity that many don’t have. It is a golden opportunity for you, others who are very brilliant pray for this. I want to appeal to you not to misuse it at all,” Adeyemi said.

The Director General of RIB Foundation, Dr Bosun Lawal, said the foundation has been doing a lot in the area of education, which he identified as the core mandate of the foundation.

He disclosed that the scholarship would run for the period of the academic programmes of the beneficiaries in their various higher institutions of learning, adding that others would also be accommodated.

Lawal said, “RIB is known for promoting education, community development, manpower development and the likes. This is another milestone that we have achieved now, we hope to sustain it. We know that the level of poverty within Nigeria system is high. The Vice President of Nigeria in March mentioned in a newspaper that the number of those within the poverty line has increased to 110million.

“So, we believe that if we can assist parents to support these bright children, we would have more people to give back to the society in the future. It is one of the principles and objectives of the foundation to promote educational excellence.

“All our activities are mainly for human and community development. Regardless of whether the Senator is still in politics or not, he has always said that his foundation is established for the development of his people whether in office or out of office.”

“The selection was done through the data obtained from JAMB. JAMB gave us the list of five best in seven local governments in Kwara South and we chose the best three for this edition. Hopefully in the future, we would be able to accommodate more. So, we have 21 beneficiaries in this maiden edition and they are spread across Federal and State Universities of Nigeria. We are giving them on an annual basis, so far they can sustain this academic excellence. On annual basis, we would be paying them N100,000 to subsidise their academic pursuits”.

These and many other projects he contributed to within and outside his senatorial district on education are geared towards making life comfortable for his people and whoever come across Senator Rafiu Adebayo Ibrahim.

To him, contributing to other people’s lives has been his watchwords and will continue to do that as long as God help him.

When next you hear of that name, Senator Rafiu Ibrahim, what should come to your mind is that man who wipe many tears and restore hope to many homes through his educational assistance to the downtrodden.

ABDULQADIR ABDULGANIYU
Media Aide to the Kwara South Senator, Dr Rafiu Ibrahim