Obaseki to set up sports arena in 18 LGAs, Rotary Club to develop reading culture in Edo

In a bid to reposition sports in Edo State, Governor Godwin Obaseki has declared that each of the 18 Local Government Areas of the state would have a sporting arena, adding that facilities at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium would be repositioned to meet international standards and host international events.

Receiving executive members of the amalgamated Union of Public Corporations, Civil Service Technical and Recreational Services Employees, Edo State Council, led by its Chairman, Comrade Julius Erharuyi at the Edo State Government House in Benin City, the governor stated that Ogbemudia Stadium would be refurbished this year.

He said: “We will improve on what we have as a state and ensure we revive sports to enhance its development in the state and country at large.

“Every local government area must have a sporting arena. We do not need to buy a land but can look for a school that has vast land and redesign the pitch, put a racetrack, and, as money comes, upgrade it to meet international standards.

A law had been drafted as part of the recommendation from the sports workshop held in the state, continued Governor Obaseki, who also stressed that his administration would set up a sports commission that would create avenues for only those experts in sports to contribute to the development of sports in the state.”

Meanwhile, Erharuyi appreciated the governor’s policies for developing the state, repositioning sports, as well as the financial commitment to Bendel Insurance Football Club of Benin and sports in general.

“We request that an institution to academically improve our sportsmen and women be created in the state and the need to provide more medical facilities, personnel, and drugs for the stadium cannot be underestimated,” he noted.

Obaseki, Rotary Club to develop reading culture in Edo

Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State, on Tuesday, moved a step closer to restructuring the form of basic education in the state, lamenting that children in Edo had not reaped the benefits of basic education in 30 years, and indicating that he would work with the Rotary Club of Nigeria to upgrade the system.

He made these revelations at Edo State Government House as he met with members of the club, bemoaning the inability of university graduates to acquire basic skills for life, and declaring that the curriculum of basic education had been improved to accommodate skill acquisition, while libraries would be restructured with technology.

He said: “It has to be general and public driven because the bulk of the children still have to go through the public system. We are partnering with an education group, which will provide the checking principles for SUBEB and put in a whole curriculum on a technology-driven platform.

“This summer, we will start to train our primary school teachers and we will have to organise things so that they will prepare their lesson notes and other things for teaching on a technology platform.”

He added that by September, this year, technology-friendly education would commence with Primaries 1 and 2 and sponsors would be engaged to fund the process so that in five years, every child in Edo State would be taught on a technology platform.

Meanwhile, the 2017-2018 Rotary International District 9141 Governor, Rotarian Ikponmwosa Osagie Ogiemudia, explained that the club comprised concerned citizens, who met to exchange ideas and proffer solutions to issues that challenged them.

He appreciated the Governor for his developmental policies in the state and informed him that the committee on books for Africa had collaborated with the charity club to the effect that a 40-foot container had landed in Benin City with books.

He therefore, appealed to the governor to send representatives to help in sorting out the books for Edo’s library, affirming that Edo State had been scheduled to receive grants on maternal health care.