It is safe to say that the faces of teachers and students in Awgu, Aninri and Oji-River federal constituency will never be void of smiles and their lips never lack thanksgiving and appreciation as their federal representative, Hon. Toby Okechukwu keeps going above and beyond to make his people happy.

The Deputy Minority leader on the 4th of March fulfilled his promise which he made to the schools in Awgu, Aninri and Oji-River on the 11th of December by providing them with whhiteboards and marker thereby easing them of the stress called ”blackboard’.

Honorable Okechukwu has before now done numerous things for his constituency , some of which includes paying WAEC fees for all the students in all the public secondary schools in Aninri, Awgu and Oji-river Federal constituency for years, sponsoring over 1000 students for learning tours, training teachers at SEDI for 5 consecutive years and also providing each schools with mobile science kits and lots more.

During the presentation of the items to the school principals at Awgu local government secretariat, Okechuwku revealed that his love for education stems from the fact that his father was a teacher who taught for a long time and retired as one, and he was also a teacher, and taught English and also worked as a library assistant in Esut.

Appreciating the teachers for the work they put in for the students, he said “I appreciate the qualities you put in the students at their early stage, the lives you touch. You may not know it, the things you do is what makes us a better society. It may not be appreciated, but it is very evident that you people are the leaders of the leaders of tomorrow, you are the role models they see.

“My own effort is simply to compliment what the state government and teachers are doing. Ikeoha intervenes in university education. We also try to intervene in infrastructure. The last one I did at st. Vincent I had to rebuild the whole school because it was my alma mater. I was not happy to see the school that was once like a community becoming what was unrecognizable.

“Before now I promised you that each school will get at least 3 magic boards, so we have 180 pieces here and 24,000 exercise books so each school should get 400 copies. I also want to remind you that we have to each school in our place including Udi/ Ezeagu past questions. It may not be what they will set in exam but there is no way they will go through those things that they won’t know how to answer questions during the exam or have an idea of what to answer in the exam. So it should be made as a compulsory text for a student”, he said.

Making known the importance of women in the society, he added that “I was one of those who argued for the equality of women in the National Assembly. Because I believe when you train a woman you train a nation, and once you allow a mother to participate in government you have taken care of the families, and that is why I say they should have greater opportunity for representation.

“I have no doubt whatsoever that when we let them in executive positions, that everywhere will be adequately covered. We do this things in our own self interest, which is that our society will become better and that our children will be better than we are. This is just the beginning, I will make sure the boards run through the whole classrooms in every school in my constituency”, he concluded.

Supervising principal, Barr. ikpenwa who was also present at the event thanked the honorable for continuously making them proud, stating that “he keeps fulfilling all his promises to us, and my prayer for him is that he will keep succeeding in all he does.The best thing you can do as a representative is doing what will help the families under you, and what he is doing is just that”.

Egbunoha Onyinye, a Representative of director educational services, Dr Ifeyinwa Odoh, thanked Okechukwu for his contributions to their children’s education and pray that may God continue to bless and replenish his pocket.

In a vote of thanks, Chief Okonkwo C.C, the CSP prayed for him, declaring that “what the honorable is doing for us never stops, and the only way that can happen is for us to keep supporting him in the way that we can. As he is doing what he is doing now at the level he is, imagine when he gets to a higher position what he will do for us. We know it has not been easy for you, but every year you still pay WAEC fees for all the schools under you. You are touching every family by doing this”.

Lady Rebecca Ike, the Principal of Girls High School Nenwe while thanking the Honorable for his kind gestures said “We Came here today by invitation from Hon. Toby Okechukwu who gave scholarships by registering students in Aninri, Awgu and Oji-River. He has been doing this since I started being a principal. For years my students have benefited from him. And today he is sharing exercise books and marker.

“Hon. Toby Okechukwu is a wonderful man. He is not the only one representing, there are so many people in the house of Rep, but he has been a wonderful person. Today’s event was a great one. The love he has for his people is what we appreciate don much about him. We the teachers love it and the students will love it too. No more dirty class because of charcoal from the black board”, she said happily.