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Excitements As RSG Opens World Book Capital School
Barely 10 months after Port Harcourt in Rivers State, took over as World Book Capital, teachers and pupils of Banham Primary School, Aggrey Road, in the state capital last Friday celebrated their relocation to the UNESCO World Book Capital Model Primary School situated at Moscow Road in the city.
The formal commencement of academic activities in the school marks the fulfillment of yet another promise by the state Governor, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi.
Pupils of Banham Primary could not contain their joy upon seeing the facilities at the UNESCO World Book Capital School, which became their new place of study last week.
According to the teachers and pupils, the school is well equipped with the state-of-the-art facilities like the sick bay, library, music class, science laboratories, and ICT, among others.
Head Teacher of the school, Mrs. Ibiene Eremie, said that she was short of words to describe the kind of facilities in the school.
She said that the teachers and pupils can now settle down to teach and learn as the conducive environment provided by the state government will make teaching very easy and learning fun.
Eremie, who was full of commendation for the state government, promised that the teachers would do their best in bringing up properly educated children in the new environment.
On their part, pupils of the school also lavished praises on Governor Amaechi for providing a conducive learning environment for them.
They said that the new school cannot be compared to where they were coming from, observing that the new environment would make them to study harder and aim high in life.
Chairman of the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Sir Ali Oruitemeka, said the pupils were moved to the new structure because the environment is more conducive for learning.
He stated that the upsurge in the enrolment of pupils into government-owned schools in Rivers State necessitated the construction of 20-classroom blocks across the state, adding that the schools are well equipped with books and e-books.
According to him, the schools are being used by the state government to promote reading culture among pupils and students, noting that “every pupil of the schools has a reading period as pupils are made to pick a book, read and summarise during the book review segment”.
The UNESCO World Book Capital School is one of the 20-classroom school blocks built across the state by the Amaechi administration as part of its efforts to expand access to education by pupils across the state.
The Rivers State Government had a month ago commenced the movement of pupils from old schools to the newly constructed one-storey classroom blocks which Amaechi promised to deliver before handing over power on May 29.
The Tide recalls that UNESCO had crowned Port Harcourt the 2014 World Book Capital City in April 2014, with the famed Garden City beating ten other great cities that include Oxford in England and Moscow in Russia.
Governor Amaechi thereafter promised to build a world-class primary school to commemorate the feat – a promise which he has now fulfilled with the formal opening of the UNESCO World Book Capital School, Port Harcourt.
Amaechi’s feats in the area of education that moved UNESCO to choose Port Harcourt as the World Book Capital City include building over 500 model primary schools and 24 model secondary schools.
The government has also employed about 13,000 teachers, offering free education with free books as part of a strong vision to promote and sustain activities that would make promotion of literary activities and make literacy a staple in the state’s agenda.
The Nigeria Immigration Service has officially ended passport production at multiple centres, transitioning to a single, centralised system for the first time in 62 years.
Minister of Interior, Dr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, disclosed this yesterday while inspecting Nigeria’s new Centralised Passport Personalisation Centre at the NIS Headquarters in Abuja.
He stated that since the establishment of NIS in 1963, Nigeria had never operated a central passport production centre, until now, marking a major reform milestone.
“The project is 100 per cent ready. Nigeria can now be more productive and efficient in delivering passport services,” Tunji-Ojo said.
He explained that old machines could only produce 250 to 300 passports daily, but the new system had a capacity of 4,500 to 5,000 passports every day.
“With this, NIS can now meet daily demands within just four to five hours of operation,” he added, describing it as a game-changer for passport processing in Nigeria.
“We promised two-week delivery, and we’re now pushing for one week.
“Automation and optimisation are crucial for keeping this promise to Nigerians,” the minister said.
He noted that centralisation, in line with global standards, would improve uniformity and enhance the overall integrity of Nigerian travel documents worldwide.
Tunji-Ojo described the development as a step toward bringing services closer to Nigerians while driving a culture of efficiency and total passport system reform.
He said the centralised production system aligned with President Bola Tinubu’s reform agenda, boosting NIS capacity and changing the narrative for better service delivery.
The Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) has disbursed N2.225 trillion as federation revenue for the month of August 2025, the highest ever allocation to the three tiers of government and other statutory recipients.
This marks the second consecutive month that FAAC disbursements have crossed the N2 trillion mark.
The revenue, shared at the August 2025 FAAC meeting in Abuja, was buoyed by increases in oil and gas royalty, value-added tax (VAT), and common external tariff (CET) levies, according to a communiqué issued at the end of the meeting.
Out of the N2.225 trillion total distributable revenue, FAAC said N1,478.593 trillion came from statutory revenue, N672.903 billion from VAT, N32.338 billion from the Electronic Money Transfer Levy (EMTL), and N41.284 billion from Exchange Difference.
The communiqué revealed that gross federation revenue for the month stood at N3.635 trillion. From this amount, N124.839 billion was deducted as cost of collection, while N1,285.845 trillion was set aside for transfers, interventions, refunds, and savings.
From the statutory revenue of N1.478 trillion, the Federal Government received N684.462 billion, State Governments received N347.168 billion, and Local Government Councils received N267.652 billion. A further N179.311 billion (13 per cent of mineral revenue) went to oil-producing states as derivation revenue.
From the distributable VAT revenue of N672.903 billion, the Federal Government received N100.935 billion, the states received N336.452 billion, while the local governments got N235.516 billion.
Of the N32.338 billion shared from EMTL, the Federal Government received N4.851 billion, the States received N16.169 billion, and the Local Governments received N11.318 billion.
From the N41.284 billion exchange difference, the Federal Government received N19.799 billion, the states received N10.042 billion, and the local governments received N7.742 billion, while N3.701 billion (13 per cent of mineral revenue) was shared to the oil-producing states as derivation.
The Governing Council of Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa Polytechnic, Bori, has decried the inadequate power supply and poor state of infrastructural facilities and equipment at the institution.
The Council also appealed to the government, including Non-Governmental Organisations, agencies, as well as well-meaning Rivers people to intervene to restore and sustain the laudable gesture, dreams and aspirations of the founding fathers of the polytechnic.
The Chairman of the newly inaugurated Council, Professor Friday B. Sigalo, made this appeal during a tour of facilities at the Polytechnic, recently.
Accompanied by members of the team, Prof Sigalo emphasised the position of technology, technical and vocational education in sustainable development.
He noted that with the prospects on ground, and the programmes and activities undertaken in the polytechnic, there is no doubt that the institution would add values to the educational system in our society and foster the desired development, if the existing challenges are jointly tackled.
This was contained in a statement signed by Deputy Registrar, Public Relations, Kenpoly, Innocent Ogbonda-Nwanwu, and made available to The Tide in Port Harcourt.
The chairman who restated the intention of his team of technocrats to ensure that KenPoly enjoys desirable face-lift, said the Council would deliver on its core mandates, accordingly.
Earlier, the Rector, KenPoly Engr. Dr. Ledum S. Gwarah, commended the appointment of Professor Friday B. Sigalo as Chairman of the KenPoly Governing Council.
He described him and his team as seasoned technocrats and expressed confidence in their ability to succeed.
The Rector pledged the management’s support to the Council to ensure that KenPoly resumes its rightful place in the comity of polytechnics in the country.
Facilities visited by the Governing Council include KenPoly workshops, laboratories, skills acquisition centre, library, hostels and medical centre.
Chinedu Wosu
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