By Efe Onodjae

The Nigerian Army Officers Wives Association, NAOWA, has completed the construction of a block of classrooms, an Information and Communication Technology,ICT laboratory and a 500-seater capacity hall at its Model Nursery and Primary School, in Ojo barracks, Lagos State.

Construction of the additional block of six classrooms is coming 37 years after the school kicked off its academic activities.

Speaking at the commissioning of the projects yesterday, NAOWA’s 22nd President and wife of the Chief of Army Staff, Mrs Salamatu Yahaya, disclosed that the decision for the construction was reached after she carried out a a Need Assessment of the NAOWA Model Nursery and Primary School.

Consequently, she said the ground breaking ceremony of the construction was done in January 2022, following an increase in the number of pupils from 165 , when the school kicked off, to 695 pupils presently.

According to her, “The need assessment report and the significant increase in the number of pupils, as well as the need to provide requisite infrastructural facilities for a standard school setting, propelled the initiative to construct additional block of six Classrooms, a 500 -seater multipurpose hall and an ICT Center in the School.

“ The establishment of the NAOWA Model Nursery and Primary School, Ojo, on September 26,2022, September 1985; precisely 37 years’ ago, marked a great point in the history of NAOWA. As an upshot of the singular act of establishing this pioneer school, NAOWA currently has and operates six colleges, 40 Nursery and Primary Schools, the NAOWA Institute of Management and Technology (NIMTA) Abuja, event centers, as well as vocational training centers across the country.

“The construction of these structures is in furtherance of my vision of “Sustaining Legacies and Upholding the Tenets of Unity and Service”, she stated, adding that that “on September 10,2022, two of my continuity projects: Mrs Martha Bamaiyi Multipurpose Hall at the NAOWA Model Nursery and Primary School Abuja and the Mrs Nnenna Ihejirika Staff Quarters at the association’s College in Abuja, were commissioned”.

NAOWA, according to her, had developed to become a leadership Institution where members get first hand experience in business management, human resource management and public relations .

She added that the association had also become a major employer of labour with a current employee strength of approximately 1,500, across the country, “thereby, contributing immensely to the socio-economic development of the nation. Considering the current standing of NAOWA, one can be bold to say that the history of NAOWA will not be complete without mentioning the NAOWA Model Nursery and Primary School Ojo”.

An alumni of the school, Ademuyiwa Ajoke ,appreciated NAOWA’s teachers for building her intelligence to where it is today.

According to her, “I graduated in 2010 from NAOWA Model Nursery and Primary school Ojo and what my teachers instilled in me is what has been making me cope in my academic trajectories so far. Currently, I am a 200-level Medicine and Surgery student at the Lagos State University and I am a first-class undergraduate”