TheCable

The faculty of management sciences of the Rivers State University, Port Harcourt, has announced its decision to immortalise Araere Timi Alaibe, one of the school’s “illustrious” daughters.

In a statement on Tuesday, D.J. Hamilton, dean of the faculty, said the new library of the faculty will be named after Araere on the ninth anniversary of her demise.

He said the measure was in line with the desire to recognise her contributions to education through the Family Reorientation Education and Empowerment (FREE) programme.

He said the official unveiling of the “Alaere Augustina Alaibe Library” is slated to hold on January 31.

“The faculty significantly considered the great and selfless efforts the Late Alaere Alaibe deployed during her brief but eventful life on earth, to positively touch hundreds of lives in several rural and impoverished communities in the Niger Delta region of the country, through her pet project, the Family Reorientation Education and Empowerment (FREE),” he said.

“Under the able leadership of the late Mrs. Alaere Alaibe, FREE programme became the most innovative intervention in adult literacy in the whole of the Niger Delta and perhaps Nigeria.

“Several years before the federal government of Nigeria conceived the presidential amnesty programme, Alaibe was already crusading and fiercely advocating for the transmutation of armed militant agitation to ‘intellectual militancy’ in the Niger Delta.

“It was a mission she pursued with uncommon clarity and vigour throughout her brief but memorable years on earth.

“Given the volume and quality of activities FREE was carrying out in communities in the Niger Delta, especially in the areas of education, maternal and children’s health care, farming, women empowerment as well as transformational and non violence training for the teeming youth population in the region, it was not long before FREE attracted global attention.”

Hamilton added that Alaibe, through her work with FREE won several awards, including the prestigious Confucius Prize for Literacy in 2007 awarded by UNESCO.

“This was the first time any Nigerian organisation or individual won the prize,” he said.

“While handing out the award to Mrs. Alaibe, UNESCO applauded FREE for creating a network of learning centres and providing literacy skills to adults.”