The scheme was open to all youths from Nnokwa town and beyond, targeted at enriching their knowledge and equipping them to overcome the challenges of life.
Job Osazuwa
Eminent indigenes of Idemili South Local Government Area of Anambra State, on the platform of the Nnokwa Progress Union (NPU), Lagos branch, recently exposed youths, teenagers and others to how to become successful in life.
The event, which was held on August 25 at the Nnokwa Town Hall in Ejigbo area of the state, was organised by the education committee of the union. It was its ninth edition and had about 200 participants in attendance..
Hard work, commitment, determination, passion, perseverance and honesty were the words that re-echoed at the hall while the different lectures lasted. All the facilitators said quality education and acquisition of requisite skills were needed to brighten up their lives.
The theme of the event was “Nigerian Youths: Education and the Challenges of Nation Building.”
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A patron of NPU, Sir Simon Ukpaka, said one of the reasons for the youth forum was to raise champions who would lead their contemporaries to recreate a better society for all to live in. He said the concerned elders from the community were hell-bent in ensuring that the twisted orientation of the youths was corrected through consistent tutoring.
He affirmed that Nigeria has abundant talents needed to revamp the political and socio-economic landscape of the country. He lamented that the younger generation was drifting from hard work and commitment to social vices.
The chairman of NPU’s education committee, Mr. Nnamdi Anozie, stated that life was like a buffet where you don’t expect anybody to serve you. He charged the participants to embrace hard work and diligence.
He also lamented that many Nigerian graduates were incompetent and unemployable. He encouraged the participants, whether with formal or informal education, to be exceptional in their chosen fields.
Said he: “In all societies, virile youths form the bedrock on which national integration and development is predicated. Any nation that denies its youths the necessary enabling environment does so at its own peril. Youth education must be seen as an investment, not fiscal liability. Knowledge and skills are forms of capital and this capital is a product of deliberate investment. The right education empowers people and liberates them from bondage.”
Having organised the training for nine years, he said the feedbacks had been overwhelming, as many of the trainees had been employed while some of them were already employers of labour.
He announced that the scheme was open to all youths from Nnokwa town and beyond, which was targeted at enriching their knowledge and equipping them to overcome the challenges of life.
“We are here to encourage the youths and impact on them by changing their mindsets. You must take a step to be part of your success story. There is the need for Nigerian youths to improve themselves in whatever they are doing. I believe that when you have a good product, even your enemies will buy it.
“Thank God that, over the years, many of them have changed the way they used to think. They now believe that their parents don’t have to manipulate their admission to the university or employment processes. In a nutshell, merit, determination and resilience are what we are preaching to them.
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“The volume of books that many of us read decades ago is what made us who we are today. But you see children of these days wasting their time on irrelevant things at the expense of their education. They believe in shortcuts to success and programme their brain to such perception, but they are often disappointed,” Anozie said.
Chairman of NPU, Mr. Innocent Ezennia, urged youths to pay undivided attention to all the courses embedded in the programme, and stressed that they were designed to shape their future.
He commended the efforts of Rev. Festus Emeka Abone and Ukpaka as the past chairmen of the committee, saying that they devoted their energy and personal resources to running the youth empowerment programme. He pledged to dutifully follow their footsteps in order to leave the committee better than how he had met it.
Chairman on the occasion and national sales manager, Greenlife Pharmaceuticals Limited, Mr. Derrick Osondu, advised the participants to key into the vast opportunities that abound on the Internet, where they could make genuine money. He, however, regretted that the youths were channelling their energy towards Internet fraud.
While calling on Nigerian youths to come up with ideas, he said knowledge-based companies were in the forefront of empowering people across the globe. He argued that a knowledge- based economy would pave the way for entrepreneurship that would in turn create job opportunities for many.
Other facilitators at the programme were the managing director/CEO of NEO Media and Marketing, Ehi Braimah, represented by Vincent Braimah; the publisher of African Dame and National Biographer magazines, Mr. Raphael James; a retired director at the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Mrs. Blessing Audu, and Lady Ijeoma Mbanugo, among others.