BENIN CITY – FOR the first time in four years, some chieftains of the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo State commended Governor Godwin Obaseki for allowing its member and a governorship aspirant through his Foundation to donate 500,000 exercise book to public schools.
A chieftain of the party, Gentleman Amegor stated this at the distribution of the exercise books by the 2023 Student Support Programme of the Anamero Foundation in Benin City.
According to him, “I commend Governor Obaseki for not being parochial in this; he did not play politics and allowed this distribution without considering politics in this, this is not politics, when it is politics, we will be here. For the books, Edo South will get 200,000, Edo Central will get 100,000 and Edo North will get 150,000 while 50,000 will be reserved for exigencies” he said and called on those that would be responsible for the sharing to ensure the books get to the people they are meant for.
Speaking at the event, the founder of the Foundation, Hon Dekeri Anamero popularly called Danco said his father taught him philanthropy early in life and called on those with the means to help the needy whether in or out of government.
He said “I also want to thank the state government for the first time for finding it necessary to be part of this. We communicated to the state chairman of SUBEB through the Commissioner for Education and they granted the approval for the distribution of these materials.
“I started from a very humble background and as God pleases, as He blesses me, I extend to others. You don’t need to be in government to bless people and a society can only be good if the majority of the people are happy.
“This Foundation started in 2011 starting with payment of WAEC fees, distribution of school materials and as we progressed we started introducing other things like farmers empowerment programmes where we organize a three days workshop for farmers at the beginning of every planting season.
“When the issue of insecurity was deteriorating, we also collaborated with the security agencies, local vigilantes and hunters to help our people.
“We have been distributing 200,000 exercise books across the schools in Edo North and at the beginning of the year, I was elected into the House of Representatives and that is when I proposed that this year, 2023 we will increase the number of notebooks from 200,000 annually to 500,000 annually and extending it to other parts of the Edo State that is why we are starting from Edo South.”
