YOUTHVILLE ISSUE #128
Friday, April 28, 2017
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youthville@dailytrust.com outhvilllle e@ @d da da aiilly yttrru usstt..com com co
...young at heart
‘In education, we’re taught to READ, not to think’
US to raise Carrington Youth Fellowship funding From Nurudeen Oyewole, Lagos The United States Government has expressed its readiness to increase funding for the annual Carrington Youth Fellowship Initiative (CYFI), often organized for Nigerian youth with leadership interests. The Public Affairs Officer, United States Consulate, Lagos, Darcy Zotter made the disclosure while addressing the 20 graduands who participated in the 2016 fellowship programme, in Lagos. According to Zotter, the fellows in the 2016 class of CYFI have been
quite impactful and their commitments have earned plaudits from the United States Government which has thus resolved to increase funding for the annual fellowship programme. “We are Americans and we like to know how our money is being spent. We have about 50 grants and none has given us so much result like you graduands of today. You have all done so well that Washington has agreed to increase its funding of this fellowship,” Zotter said. The Consul General, John Bray also applauded the fellows, saying the fellows made the US Lagos Consulate proud this year.
Fitness group urges support for autism awareness By Mulikatu Mukaila Abuja based fitness and wellness agency, FitCity Club, has concluded arrangements to stage the second edition of Abuja Colour Blast festival, a five kilometre road walk, to bolster autism awareness and education campaign in the capital city. The founder, Mr. Prince Ulocha at a briefing in Abuja said the 5km activity is a family fun fair and social networking, non-competitive marathon fitness and lifestyle festival. He added that the event with the theme: ‘Colour of Friendship’ tends to provide provides Abuja celebrities, the populace and other personalities the opportunity to share experience and make friends. The event slated for tomorrow, April 29 would, be a unique experience that would focus less on speed but more on “crazy colourful fun with friends and family’ members, he said. Ulocha said, “The mechanics are to run your decided distance and at designated colour booths/stations (every 500 meters) along the route, different colours will be splashed on you.” He further explained that the event which is the 2nd edition of the Abuja Colour Blast would be taking place exactly six months after the maiden edition, which recorded over 700 participants. He noted that while the 2nd edition coincides with this year’s World Dance Day, the colour blast would “create an outdoor fun atmosphere welcoming various industry professionals living in the FCT and visitors alike, including children and students to a massive networking event.”
Poetic Wednesday plans for 1st anniversary By Bamas Victoria Poetic Wednesday, a group aimed at bringing people together from all walks of life by stirring creativity is set to mark it first anniversary. Salim Yunusa, a graduate of Ahmadu Bello University who pioneered the group said “I was sick and tired of all the negativity on social media; the politics, the insults and what have you. I thought, this will be a burst of fresh air in a toxic platform.” He said that the motivation behind starting the group is that “poetry
as an art is something I am passionate about. As a Northerner and a Nigerian, the art is something the youths have forgotten and should embrace, for we have creative and talented people.” On what makes the group different from others, Salim said “Each week, a theme is given at least two days before Wednesday. We then urge people to share and tag others on the post, and ask people to write on the theme. At the end of the day, we tag our selected critics to criticise and point out corrections on the poems.”
The youth is the hope of our future. – Jose Rizal
Oluwabus Majekodunmi is an Oluwabusola economist, education enthusiast, economis one of the 2016 and also o Mandela Washington Fellows. In this interv interview, she spoke about how she is helping to bridge the gap between conventional education and skills acquisition. educatio By Latifat Opoola @LatifatOpoola
H
ow did you start your advocacy, ‘Steer’? I studied economics at the University of Birmingham and I hold a master’s degree from the London school of Economics and Political science but came to Nigeria and after NYSC worked as a tax consultant with Deloitte Nigeria in Lagos. I did that for two years before I resigned to start a business with my friend called ‘Shuttlers’. I also started a nonprofit, ‘Steer to Greatness’ which is an education social enterprise. During my NYSC year, I realized there is a gap in conventional education and what is actually needed out there is skills acquisition but nobody actually teaches those skills in schools. So ‘Steer to Greatness’ helps bridge that gap, by organizing trainings, boot camps for teenagers. Our target audience is those in secondary schools or just out of secondary schools before they go into University. What do you hope to achieve
with ‘Steer to greatness’? I want to use it as a channel to help young people especially teenagers’ access quality, innovative and relevant education, in the hope that after leaving secondary school, they already see themselves as entrepreneurs and leaders, they understand that leadership is service and not how to get but how to give. How many persons have you trained so far? Since we started in June last year, with two workshops and one boot camp, we have trained around 100 teenagers but then I have been invited to other events and that has expanded the reach, to about 500. What is your target on empowering others? A relevant quality innovative education; we want to help teenagers be able to express themselves and be the best they can be in leadership. The focus in our education is to read and write, and then we forget the thinking part. Imagination breeds creativity because it is with imagination that you start creating. We need to get people to think, that is what
differentiates developed with underdeveloped countries. What do you do at Shuttler’s? I started Shutters in November 2015, with my friend Damilola Olokesoshe. She reached out to me with the idea on how to help commuters held in traffic, and we started researching and then started in November and thankfully in the one year plus we have actually scaled a number of hurdles. We are not where we want to be yet. We stopped at some point last year and launched in October. We have been running consistently and have shuttled over 1,200 users. What are your challenges at Shuttlers? Now that we have been able to build an image for Shuttlers we are stuck on capacity and that is why we are keying into channels to partner with bus manufacturing groups like Innoson group. Another thing in starting a business is managing employees; getting the employees to buy into our orientation, and then those that have this don’t want to work for a start-up.
Tonto Dikeh foundation gives scholarship to 345 FCT indigenes By Simon E. Sunday Nollywood actress Mrs Tonto Dikeh said her foundation, Tonto Dikeh Foundation (TDF), has awarded scholarship to 345 indigenes of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in six months. Dikeh told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the gesture was to enable her contribute her quota to the intellectual development of youths in the country. She said the students were sponsored under the foundation’s Back to School project which had also awarded scholarship to 200 students in Delta state.
She added that Cross River would be the next state that would benefit from the gesture, as Lagos state has benefitted already. “The project was conceived with the idea of assisting the less privileged in realisation of the United Nations sustainable development goals in the area of education and mass literacy in Nigeria. “It focuses on giving support to young girls who have been raped, molested or assaulted by giving hope to such young girls and providing help to them through our partners,” she said. Dikeh said that 300
students in Karamajiji community, a suburb along Airport road in Abuja were given scholarship to further their education from primary to university level. SSCE and JAMB fees were also paid for some of the benefitting students.
DAILY TRUST, Friday, April 28, 2017
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YOUTHVILLE LEARN holds time out with youth on May 1 By Simon E. Sunday
‘FG’s Agric loans to train youth, boost production’ By Simon E. Sunday @SimonEchewofun
T
he Federal Government has said part of foreign agricultural loans will be invested in training youth in modern agricultural practices to improve production. The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh has said in Abuja that the new policy would boost agricultural production, while facilitating efforts to improve
exports of agricultural commodities. Ogbeh was reacting to calls by stakeholders to commence the second phase of the West Africa Agricultural Productivity Programme (WAAPP). The minister in a News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) report said that the generation of foreign exchange through the exportation of agricultural produce would also help the country to reduce its debt burden. “A portion of any loan we take now will be dedicated to encouraging agricultural production and exportation of products grown by young people and women. We just have to earn more foreign exchange because we must pay our debts,” he said. Ogbeh said statistics indicate that 66 per cent of all tax revenues is spent on servicing debts adding that to avoid embarrassment; government will take part of such facilities and invest in agricultural projects that young people pursue for exports to earn both foreign exchange and naira. “The rest of the loans will go into training of youths and promotion of our produce,’’ he said.
AEDC immunises 400 children, donates N1.5m items to IDPs By Simon E. Sunday @SimonEchewofun The Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) yesterday flagged off the immunisation of 400 children and donated N1.5 million relief materials in the Gurku camp of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Nasarawa State. The Managing Director, Mr Ernest Mupwaya said the exercise was to mark the World Immunisation Week. It also demonstrates the commitment of AEDC to the belief that strengthening the health systems is the key to breaking the cycle of extreme poverty and disease. “We recognise and appreciate the children who were born in this undesired condition out of no fault of theirs. The global celebration of today is to further assure them that they have a right to live
a disease-free life and attain the greatness of their dream,” Mupwaya said. The day is set by the United Nations Health Agency to mark the Global Vaccine Action Plan (GVAP) endorsed by 194 member states of theWorld Health Assembly in May 2012 to prevent millions of death from vaccine-preventable diseases by 2020 through universal access to immunisation. The Chairman, Organising Committee and AEDC staff, Mr. Anthony Adolor said food items and toiletries worth N1.5m were donated to cater to the welfare of the IDPs which was supervised by officials of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA). The Esu Gurku, Chief Maikasuwa Dabmi lauded the feat while calling for more support for the IDPs. He also tasked them to be peace loving in the Gurku community while their stay last.
Unemployment: It’s time to shift to entrepreneurship A nation puts over 70 per cent of its hope on the youth, making them the most important category of individuals and the greatest hope and reason for a better, stronger, and a more fulfilling future. In Nigeria, the youth are wasting, largely due to unemployment, inadequate skills and slow acceptance of the capacity of entrepreneurship to replace white-collar jobs. The recent national demographic survey data reveals that there are over 180 million Nigerians, out of which over 50 per cent are under the age of thirty. This indicates that Nigeria has a huge youthful population considering that the period of youthfulness is identified to be between 18 and 40 years.
General unemployment rate in Nigeria has the worst numbers in recent history as the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reported that Nigeria’s unemployment rate rose for the seventh straight quarters to 13.9 per cent in the third quarter of 2016 from 13.3 per cent in the previous period, being the highest level seen since 2009. Meanwhile, the data for youth unemployment rate are even more frightening as the NBS reported that it skyrocketed to 25 per cent in the third quarter of 2016 from the 24 per cent in the previous period recorded. The scarcity of government employment has been largely the reason for youth unemployment and unfortunately, a large portion of the youth are bent on doing
nothing but government jobs. For instance, only six out of 30 students of Nasarawa State University randomly polled said they would go into entrepreneurial endeavours after graduation. This is disturbing considering that most of these students are likely to be disappointed after graduation when they discover that formal employments are scarce. It is worth noting that the solution to current youth unemployment problem is entrepreneurship and skills development in different areas: tailoring, carpentry, hairdressing, and farming among others. From Mimi Peniel, Mass Communication Department, Nasarawa State University, Keffi.
The Leadership Empowerment and Resource Network (L.E.A.R.N), a non-governmental youth development platform of former Dame Emmanuella Fashola will hold its 8th ‘Time Out with Youth’ on May 1, 2017 in Lagos. The Project Manager, Mrs Bisi Awoyomi in a statement said the topics for the programme promise to be exciting and educative. They include, Who Am I?, Telling
Your Story and Keeping It Real. They will be handled by resource persons like Dr Otivie Igbuzor of African Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development; Mr Taiwo Akinlami of Gilgal Partners; Mrs Funmi Ilori of Mobile Library Initiative; Dr Martin Agwogie of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency and popular Comedian, KOFFI. She urged interested youth in the age brackets of 1530 years to reach out to the foundation to register freely for the programme.
Music: FESTAC @40 to address negative messages By Simon E. Sunday @SimonEchewofun The commemoration of 40 years of Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC) will be used to address conveyance of negative messages by some Nigerian musicians and dancers, an official has said. The DirectorGeneral, Centre for Black Arts and African Civilisation (CBAAC), Dr F e r d i n a n d Anikwe, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the event which holds from May to November would be used to revive preaching of morals and national unity and progress through music as done by old high life music tunes and dances. FESTAC held in 1977 and this year celebration has since been tagged as FESTAC’77 @ 40. He noted that old musicians such as King Sunny Ade, Victor Olaiya, the late Celestine Ukwu, the late Osita Osadabe, Ebenezer Obey and Paulson Kalu propagated messages of honesty, hope, peace and unity.
He said music by Mike Ejeagha, the late Sunny Okosun, the late Fela Anikulapo-Kuti and some others also preached morals. The musicians and their works promoted Nigeria’s culture, unity and progress contrary to nowadays music which conveyed little or no
desirable messages, Anikwe noted. Anikwe said: “Some of these legendary musicians and dancers will be made to urge younger musicians to promote African cultural heritage through their music and consolidate on what their predecessors put down.”
Richard Quest: Nigerians, Ghanaians argue over jollof rice By Bamas Victoria English journalist and CNN International reporter, Richard Quest on Monday arrived Nigeria for filming around Lagos. The ‘Quest Means Business’ anchor who tweeted updates about his different activities with the #richardquestinnigeria said Nigerian Jollof rice is delicious. He however refused to get drawn into the long twitter
Youth without faith is a day without sun - Ouida
battle between Nigerians and Ghanaians on which country has the better. Quest wrote “Jollof Rice. Delicious. Ghana or Nigeria? Which is best? I ain’t getting involved in the #jollofwar” He also paid a visit to Nike Gallery where he was photographed garbed in western Nigeria traditional outfit, he said he was impressed by Nigeria’s cultural heritage and art. Quest was expected to be in Nigeria for about a week.