By Dean Chisambo
Independent parliamentary aspirant for Ntcheu Central Constituency Paul Wongani Ng’oma has renovated and roofed Chikuse, Gumbu and Mdeka primary schools which were affected by Cyclone Anna.
Speaking during official inspection of the project at Chikuse primary school which is in Kasale village in the district on Sunday, Ng’oma said it has been three to four years since they have been experiencing disasters in the area and the students were failing to attend classes because all the classrooms had no roofs and were in bad shape.
Said Ng’oma:”When I saw the classrooms, I was deeply touched. I then decided to renovate them so that our children should be able to have quality education as they deserve.”
Ng’oma blamed the authorities for not prioritizing the renovation of the school blocks through Constituency Development Fund (CDF) saying cyclone Anna was an emergency which they could have left all the projects and concentrated on that emergency so that learners should have access to quality education easily.
“Most of us, the members of Parliament and the ministers have the capacity to send our children to private schools but the rural masses don’t have that privilege”
“We want to prioritise those type of developments and you cannot get development from the government only.You can get funding from the cooperate as for me I secured funding for some school block called Nenekeze primary school from my friends and partners,”he said.
He disclosed that he is also going to make an appeal on social media platforms for financial support to windup the renovation of other schools which are also in bad shape for the betterment of the learners in Ntcheu Central Constituency.
Ng’oma further thanked the government for introducing Malawi Rural Electricity Programme (MAREP) eight initiative in the area saying there is a need for politicians to elaborate to the people living in the area that electricity is not used for lighting only but for small industrial purposes like barbershop, tailoring, saloon, making cement blocks and iron sheets inorder to empower the rural masses financially.
Ng’oma added that he will empower the people of the area economically by introducing and elaborating to them more about macadamia farming which is one of profitable farming and which at the same time saves the environment from global warming.
He said: “Macadamia nuts after seven years can give you up to 1000 dollars per tree which is close to K1.7 million Kwacha, but in the first year it can give you 200 up to 300 dollars, if we empower those people in that area which is the catchment area for Blantyre water board ,there is mpira dam where government used to plant pine trees but the people are not benefiting anything, what we need to do is to give them those macadamia trees instead for them to burn charcoal.”
On her part ,group village headman Kasale thanked aspirant for helping her area saying learners from Chikuse primary school were struggling to learn when the rain comes and the number of absentism were high.
In his remarks, Chairman of the school at Chikuse primary school Charles Mponda hailed the aspirant for his gesture and urged well wishers to come renovate the teachers’ houses which were also affected by cyclone Anna.
Ng’oma also witnessed the wrap up of his football bonanza which he launched last week, where Gumbu football club beat Matchado football club in the post match penalties 10 to 9 after one draw in the normal time.
Gumbu football club went away with K85000 for being the champions and Matchado went away with 65000 for being the runners up.
Chikuse primary school was established in 1950 by Inkosi ya Makosi Gomani Chikuse first.
