Youths in Africa must task their minds to work out solutions to the myriad of challenges facing the continent, the Global Advisory Board Member of African Diaspora Nation Organisation, Pastor Paul Adefarasin, has declared.
Adefarasin spoke at the launching of the organization in Lagos that attracted over 180 aspiring change agents, civil society groups, captains of industry and religious leaders.
He said the liberation of Africa lies with young minds.
The popular preacher urged African youths to reconcile, organise, mobilise, educate and rebuild their fatherland as no one could do it better than them.
He stressed that young people and civil society groups are the changes Africa has been waiting for, urging them to spearhead efforts to save the continent.
Founder of the organisation, Kwabena Boateng, said it was established to serve as a guiding light for renaissance in the global African community.
He said: “We need to identify the strongholds and dividing walls that inhibit meaningful connections between various constituencies of the global African community.
‘’We must not only identify the mental strong holds dividing walls but tears them down.”
THE founder of Youth Capacity Development Organisation, Osunlakin Akinola, has called for strong inclusion of young Nigerians in governance.
He lamented that youths have been marginalised at all levels of government, saying the situation was counter-productive.
Akinola said: “In Nigeria of today youth are rarely found in leadership positions in government. Young men and women are marginalized.
“The political vacuums are being filled by the pre-independence generation: Born before 1960 and the early post-independence generation: Born 1961-1975.”
He called on President Muhammadu Buhari to redress the situation because the youth segment contributed a lot to his emergence.
He said only youths can tackle the challenges facing their generation, saying their inclusion in governance will help government to address the issues.
On the way forward, the youth activist advised: “Several countries have recognized the importance of youth participation in governance and have taken measures to ensure that enough opportunities are given to them.
“Positions in local and national level have been created to allow young people to have firsthand experience in governance.
“These government positions can serve as a perfect training ground for youth to prepare them for leadership and policy-making.”
You run into Dotun Akande at an interactive session for parents of children with Autism. Here, the banker turned educator shared a personal experience on how her son who is now in the university has survived autism and how the passion spurred her to save other children. In this interview with YETUNDE OLADEINDE, the woman who is also the overall winner of the 2015 Vlisco Award talks about the passion and the inspiration behind Patrick Speech and Languages Centre and Pure Souls Learning Foundation.
When did the organisation begin? We started in 2008 and started with the centre for children with Autism before starting the Patrick’s Speech and Languages Centre. We discovered that there are so many families that could not afford to pay fees and that inspired setting up a foundation on their behalf. So we started sponsoring families for therapy.
Did something personal inspire you to do this?
Yes, my son did. He was diagnosed with Autism. After this, he was growing and we did therapy and he emerged and was emerging. He is now in the university. So it showed me that if you put them in an environment of love, put them in an environment that is filled with affection, care for them, they really would do well. We have been doing this for about ten years now.
What were some of the challenges that you faced at the beginning?
Funding and I would say that awareness that was the major challenge that we had at the beginning. Where do we go to? I remember when my dad came to the centre and saw tables and chair. He was surprised and wondered why we had so many chairs and if we had so many people that have children with Autism in Nigeria. Then I said ‘daddy, they would come,’ that a lot of people were hiding their children, but today we have a full centre and so many people are coming out. We have about 42 children and adults. Our oldest person in the school is 36 years. We have also seen a 49-year-old, even though the person does not stay in the centre.
Would you say that you have overcome all the challenges?
Can that happen? The challenges are still there. We still have challenges with awareness. A number of people are partnering with us because they see that we are doing something that is impactful. That we are touching the lives of families that ordinarily were hopeless.
Let’s talk about two or three memorable cases that you have handled
My first memorable moment case was one little girl that came to the centre. We tried for over eight months to try to let her release her words. Then she was the first that started using words like pass the ball. She actually made a sentence and she is now in a regular school. She graduated to secondary school and her parents never left the shores of Nigeria, meaning that it is possible to get help here. My second testimony is the thirty-six-year-old that is with us. He came to us at thirty-five and we had almost lost hope. My staff had actually dismissed the mother when she came and I ran out of my room to tell her to give us her son and we would see what we can do.
Now, the gentleman from doing two quick puzzles can now do up to fifteen quick puzzles. So you see that cognitive skills are developing here. The elasticity brain is important and it continues to grow as long as we are alive. It continues to adapt to the environment and once learning comes, it stays. Another testimony was someone who came with no skills at all and now he plays the piano with great skills. Ore ofe is one of the best that we have at the centre now.
Is the tuition free?
Yes, it is free for those in the foundation. For some, we ask them what they can pay and whatever they can pay, we work with it. However, the most important thing is to get the parents involved. You must be involved in the activities, you must come to meetings, for project, programmes and this would help you to understand how to handle your children. However, the speech centre is where we get more of our funding. Some parents don’t pay at all.
We also do some programmes, like the talent hunt concert which is a yearly event. The reason we do this is to make the parents to know that their children are not babies. We have one coming up on the 13th December. We are looking at the story of creation because it is talent hunt.
This is the pioneer programme for parents. We are trying to let them talk about their problems and we can all find solutions together. We already have forms for this, if we cannot solve the problems individually, we can solve them collectively. We match them with someone in their support group and they support them as well as give them counselling. This gives them hope and shared experiences.
Is there anything that you wish government would do?
I wish that government would help us with capacity building for families. I also wish that government would help to train our doctors, help them identify the problem when the children are still very young. You can imagine the thirty-five-year-old that we are working with now and you can imagine what could have happened if we had met him when he was much younger. We would like the government to support sensitisation programmes for families and children. That is the best way to do this.
At what point can this be detected?
It depends on the type of problem that the child has. In Autism, the child cannot pick speech and the respiratory behaviour. But for the other disabilities, there are other ways in which to detect this. For the cerebral palsy, the child’s head is not properly placed by the time the child is three months, cannot walk, and cannot speak at the appropriate time. For ADHT, the attention is very short, and for dyslexia, cannot read, cannot write and cannot communicate.
Did you go for training for all this?
I had to go away for training abroad. I attended courses and I am still attending courses. I go out of my way to call friends abroad on updates and to clarify grey areas. I was in banking for 13years.
How did you find banking?
It was very stressful. There was money because there was money in banking at that time.
You are also the overall winner of Vlisco 2015. What do you think made you to emerge as the winner?
It was the work that we did. Somebody nominated me, that is how it works. Then we went to the polls and people voted for me. Autism won, it’s not Dotun that won.
How has this affected you and what you do?
I have been relishing. A lot has happened. They pamper me, do my makeup and bring fabrics and clothes for me. I look elegant and it’s been a beautiful experience. I have also met a lot of people in the process. I have met great people. I have met wonderful people doing great work in the things that you do. Sometimes you think you are doing a great job, then you meet other people who are doing something really great and you marvel. Now, you analyse what you are all doing and it inspires you to do more.
If you had to advise women in public life, what would you tell them?
My advice to them is that our days are numbered and everyone is watching. There is no way you can behave in a way that would discredit you, discredit your background and think it won’t be talked about. People are watching and we must be careful. Our youths should be patient. In all areas of their lives, our youths are not patient. They are not patient in the work they do, in their relationships and the other areas. I am an employer and I know what I do to get results. Money is not everything; there is so much money cannot do. Unfortunately, we do not realise this. Until it gets to a point when we know that it is only God that propels this wheel that we are all pedalling. It is important that they should be patient and love their neighbours as themselves. It is not about me, me and me.
What would you want President Buhari to do?
Mr President should really come to the aid of families. Families are really suffering, especially those in the field of special needs. We have been trying to get Lagos State to give us land for our permanent site. You can’t even imagine the things that we would be able to do there. In the last ten years, we have been able to support the young ones, mentor them and make sure that the services that they are given are the right services. He should support centres like ours. We are an indigenous centre, the first centre for Autism in Nigeria.
The need for the youths to step up their involvement in national affairs was the focus of discussion at a Students’ Independence Summit organised by a Youth and Leadership Development Platform in Lead City University in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.
President of the Lead City Voices, Mr Tobiloba Ogunleye, in his remarks, noted that the challenges facing the nation would be overcome easily if the youth got involved in politics and became agents of change.
Speaking on Risk of change, Mr. Kobah Koate, the keynote lecturer, expressed concern on the inability of youths to contribute intellectually to the process of nation building. Youths, he said, must be the agents of the change they craved.
He said true revolution would begin if young people change their mindset and challenge the elite intellectually. He said youths must be willing to pay the price for positive change if they want to have a better country.
The event featured a panel of discussion during which the participants engaged speakers on how to become change agents. The session had a journalist, Mr Dan Ikpoyi, and Head of Department of Politics and International Relations, Dr Tunde Oseni, as speakers. They charged the youths to rise above their personal challenges and bring out opportunities from the current national problems.
The participants pointed out that the youths had been denied opportunity to play their roles in governance and were only being used for selfish political gains. They urged the leaders to do away with laws restricting youth involvement in nation building and create a better environment for young people to succeed in business.
The convener of the summit, Dotun Ojon, reminded the participants that the essence of living was to make positive impact, urging them to break barriers holding them back. He advised the participants to take advantage of their age to pursue the dreams.
Nonagenarian, Pa Timothy Alade Oyedeji has advised children and youths to be obedient, hard working and honest.
Speaking after the Children’s Day celebration at the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Oke-Bola, Ibadan where he was the special guest, Pa Oyedeji stressed the need for the adults to mentor the younger ones in the way of God.
He said: “Children should know where their strengths lay and how well they can put their talents to good use in order to make them better citizens. As they are growing up, it is important for them to know certain things.
“By the time they leave secondary school, they have a lot waiting for them outside there. So, it is about looking around you; what is embedded in you to shape the present situation with resources at your disposal.”
Dr Ezekiel Adelere, a lecturer at the University of Lagos, described Pa Oyedeji as a patriarch who had touched many lives.
The event featured various children’s presentations, songs and hymns.
Dignitaries who attended the event incýluded Elder Adelani Akintunde, Prof. and Prof. (Mrs.) Olarinde Akinboye, Prof. Johnson Oladiran, Mr. Kanmi Fadele, Elder Dapo Afilaka, Mr. Jacob Jegede and Pastor Rufus Akintunde, among others.
Youths in the six local councils of Argungu, in Kebbi State willing to join the Nigerian Army have been given recruitment forms by the senator representing Kebbi North Senatorial District, Senator Yahaya Abdullahi.
The gesture is said to be one of the ways Senator Abdullahi intends to tackle youth unemployment in the area, according to a statement from his constituency office in Birnin Kebbi, the state capital.
The statement said that the APC chieftain recently procured 300 Nigerian Army recruitment forms and distributed to youths from the six Local Council Areas of Argungu, Augie, Kangiwa, Kamba, Bagudu and Suru, all in the Kebbi North Senatorial District of the state.
According to the statement, the senator has promised to support every successful candidate who sat for the qualifying examination that held on October 8, 2015, including the provision of transport and feeding allowances to each of them.
In a similar development, Sen. (Dr.) Yahaya A. Abdullahi has taken up the medical treatment of a commercial motor cyclist, (achaba), IbrahimSadiq of Tudun Wada, (Kokani South) who broke his arm in a serious crash, shortly before this year’s Ramadan.
According to medical sources at the Federal Medical Centre, Birnin Kebbi, the accident was so serious that without the timely intervention of the Kebbi North federal legislator, it could have led to the amputation of the arm. Sen. Abdullahi is also reported to have already deposited N120, 000 for the accident victim’s treatment, promising to do more so that Ibrahim Sadiq can get back on his feet.
Also, Senator Abdullahi has condemned the arbitrary surge in electricity current in some Argungu communities of Kebbi State, saying no fewer than 11 people have so far been killed by suspected public power surge, in the last three weeks.
The Senator said he has taken up the issue with the relevant Electricity Distribution Company (DISCO), adding that the deaths from electrocution have created fears and anxiety among the people in the area.
Besides the high casualty figure, household items and appliances, destroyed during the deadly public electricity system failures, have been estimated in millions of naira. Dr. Abdullahi, however assured that he has discussed the unfortunate incident with members of the Senate Ad Hoc Committee on Power, and to soon present a formal memo to them on the matter.
According to him, there is every indication that his colleagues will work with him to call on for a comprehensive overhaul and re-strengthening of power lines, across the country, to withstand the impending increase in national power output, particularly as President Muhammadu Buhari sets about tackling the issue of infrastructural decay in the power sector.
Faced with present day realities, many youths are taking their destinies in their hands. They are no longer looking for jobs; they are establishing their own companies, which have potential of blossoming into big enterprises. Assistant Editor CHIKODI OKEREOCHA reports on the inspiring exploits of budding youth entrepreneurs who, against all the odds, are exploiting opportunities in the SME sector.
Omolere Oiku
Despite her mien, it is easy to see the determination of Omolere Oiku to conquer the business world. At 26, the 2010 Accountancy graduate from the Covenant University in Ota, Ogun State, is already an employer. Three people are in her employ, even as she plans to take more youths off the unemployment market.
Lery B Designs, which came about through her resourcefulness, specialises in high quality hair extensions, hand-made jewellery, beads and hair accessories. “I want to meet the beauty needs of women in Nigeria and Africa,” she said, exuding a business tycoon’s confidence.
It was a target she set for herself in 2013 when she set up the business. And two years down the line, Oiku is inching closer to realising the target.
The uniqueness of her jewellery, made from crystals, corals, German stones and pearls, in line with customer specifications, has made her firm the toast of fashion-conscious women in Nigeria and beyond.
When The Nation met with the budding entrepreneur at the recently concluded ‘TeamFest Africa 2015,’ she said customer satisfaction has been her unique selling point and one of the secrets of her success so far.
Oiku said she has her eyes on building a flourishing small business empire in the burgeoning fashion industry.
TeamFest Africa was a three-day African business exhibition fair, which provided a platform for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to sell and connect with customers.
Organised in Lagos by Olsen Decker Nigeria Ltd., the marketing/TV rights owner of TeamFest Africa, the fair provided an opportunity for SMEs and budding entrepreneurs to network and build capacity. It also encouraged existing and aspiring entrepreneurs who cannot afford the cost of exhibition stands to exhibit their products and services free of charge.
Interestingly, Oiku is not the only budding youth entrepreneur that jumped on the TeamFest Africa platform to take advantage of the bountiful but largely untapped opportunities in the SME sector.
• Omadide
Dennis Omadide, another promising youth entrepreneur, has also taken the arts and crafts industry by storm. In and around Maryland, Lagos, the hub of cane craft business, he is one of the most sought-after cane weavers. His artistic and creative designs have earned him the confidence of customers who daily throng his workshop.
“I have been in this business for more than 20 years,” he told The Nation, pointing out that “Everybody cannot work in banks or oil companies.”
That was instructive. While most of Omadide’s peers are probably still roaming the streets in search of non-existent jobs in banks and oil companies, the Delta State-born cane weaver counts himself lucky to have shunned paid employment.
“Patronage has been good,” he confessed, saying, “We sell some cane chairs under N120,000; some N80,000, depending on what the customer wants. Some people buy sets or singles, depending on the apartment they have.”
Omadide, who is the Vice Chairman of National Cane Weavers Association, however, said patronage could have been better but for the rising violent campaign by Boko Haram insurgents. According to him, the activities of the Islamic extremists have became a pain in the neck of cane weavers, as products need to be carried to the North where most markets have been shut down. “We only transact the business between the South and the West here. We are selling but not like before,” he lamented.
He said he and other weavers source raw materials from suppliers most of whom are members of National Cane Suppliers of Nigeria. The suppliers, he said, are in Delta, Bayelsa, and some parts of Edo State. Cane, which is the major raw material, is a non-timber product found abundantly in the bush, especially in the Niger Delta. It can be used to weave any kind of furniture, handicraft and other household articles, from baskets to rocking chairs, baby cots, settees, bridegroom chairs and even mirror.
Some of the designs made by Omadide easily beat those made by wood, iron and plastic ware manufacturers in aesthetics and durability. Same for paintings made by Lekan Kushimo, another budding entrepreneur, who is into painting and photography. Since 2013 when he made his break, landing a juicy contract to do six large paintings and 60 small water colours for a hotel, the 2002 graduate of Civil Engineering has never looked back.
Lekan cut his teeth in photography and paintings while in school.
“I am a photographer and an artist. While I was doing my course, I used to go to a studio behind the engineering department with my friends to draw and paint,” he said, adding that he also visits the Internet to further hone his skills, aside attending a media school for photography.
Some of the results of Lekan’s personal development could be gleaned from his artistic portrait of the Civic Centre that also encapsulates some of the buildings of 1004, the Nigeria Law School perimeter fencing on Ozumba Mdadiwe Road, and Falomo Ikoyi Bridge, among others.
Although, he declined to say how much he makes from the business, he admitted that patronage has been encouraging, but could be better.
The long road to the centre stage
For budding entrepreneurs, running a successful SME particularly in Nigeria is no tea party. Their gradual but steady road to fame and fortune has been long and tortuous. For instance, many of them lack finance, which has been identified as one of the major challenges of establishing and running an SME. Because of this, they could not procure the necessary operational equipment and facilities. They literarily squeeze water from stone, with most of them constrained to rely on personal and family funds to carry out their businesses.
A survey conducted by the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) showed that there are 17.28 million MSMEs in Nigeria employing 32.41 million people and accounting for an estimated half of Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
However, access to affordable finance remains one of the major challenges inhibiting the MSMEs’ growth and development. According to the CBN, only 4.2 million MSMEs have access to finance. Because of banks and other lending institutions’ aversion to lending to small businesses in the informal sector, about N9.6t is said to be needed to bridge the financing gap in the MSMEs sector.
That is not the only disincentive. A lot of them are weighed down by the country’s harsh operating environment. For instance, despite their small size, SME operators not only contend with excessive taxation, but also pay multiple taxes to the different tiers of government. They also struggle with government’s policy inconsistencies, which affect their projections.
The huge infrastructure gap in the country has not helped matters either. Apart from dilapidated roads, which push up the cost of moving products by SMEs to areas where they are in high demand, the cost of acquiring and maintaining generators to power their businesses in the face of poor or even non availability of electricity has been a burden too heavy to bear.
Other challenges that stand in the way of the growth and development of start-ups include bad management, which has to do with poor leadership, inadequate training, lack of succession plan, poor record keeping, no strategic or business plan, and lack of entrepreneurial skills, among others.
The General Manager, Enterprise Development Centre (EDC), Pan Atlantic University, Mr. Olawale Anifowoshe, could not agree less on the big challenge posed by quality of leadership. He said some owners of start-ups are not properly trained and mentored into management roles.
This, he said, explains why finding the right skill is a big problem for most SMEs, as they could not recruit the best people for the right roles.
Anifowoshe, who spoke at the recent ‘SME Empowerment Innovation Challenge East and West Africa’ organised by HIIL Innovating Justice and Ford Foundation in Lagos, however, said the Centre supports entrepreneurs and enterprises to strengthen their skills and abilities. It also helps them grow businesses that generate income, sustainable economic growth and impact.
However, centres in the mould of EDC are private sector led interventions intended to help bridge the gap created by successive governments’ failure to harness, engage and unleash the innate productive potentials of youths for national development. This is despite the fact that Nigeria boasts a predominantly youth population of over 70 million most of who are unemployed.
Director General/CEO, Nigerian Youth Chamber of Commerce (NYCC), Comrade Peter Ayim, noted that the concept of entrepreneurship, though an emerging phenomenon, is fast gaining momentum and acknowledged as the critical pathway to growing the economy, generating jobs and creating wealth thereby combating and reducing unemployment, hunger and poverty.
• Ayim
Comrade Ayim, however, expressed regrets that although policy makers seem to appreciate the prospects, potentials and positive impact of entrepreneurship, it is evident that they have not been able to develop a result oriented and sustainable policy framework and intervention mechanism targeted at supporting the accelerated promotion and development of functional youth entrepreneurship in Nigeria.
He told The Nation that though government has demonstrated commitment to promoting youth entrepreneurship through short term intervention programmes, most of the intervention programmes are limited in scope and does not benefit a broad spectrum of aspiring youth entrepreneurs to facilitate start-ups or assist existing youth entrepreneurs in expanding their businesses.
Citing the YouWIN programme, an acronym for ‘Youth Enterprise with Innovation in Nigeria’, the NYCC DG said, for instance, that “Such short term measures are usually handouts and tokenism that cannot in any sense facilitate and grow a functional start-up or micro-enterprise.”
‘YouWiN’ is an innovative business plan competition launched by the Federal Government with the aim of creating jobs by encouraging and supporting aspiring entrepreneurial youths to develop and execute business ideas. The initiative hopes to trigger a ripple effect that would inspire the creative and entrepreneurial spirit of millions of youths across the country.
The scheme is also expected to help identify and empower young Nigerian entrepreneurs with the technical skills and capital needed to start or grow a business such that they could create employment for themselves as well as for others in different areas. But Comrade Ayim argued that the scheme is limited in scope.
He also decried the orientation of state and non-state actors who he said are in a hurry to jumpstart employment policies of state that are only targeted at giving grants and soft loans to youth to keep them off the street and engage them with an activity they don’t understand its guiding philosophy and modus operandi. He insisted that such attitude must be discouraged.
Hear him: “Entrepreneurship as it is currently being practiced should not become government’s bait to lure the youth only to maintain law and order. For them, the higher the number, the higher the score card.
Entrepreneurship policies are not intended to build wealth in Nigeria but used as a criteria to boost government performance evaluation.
This could be seen in the number of failed schemes in Nigeria youth empowerment drive.
Ayim identified another obvious gap in the system as the lack of synergy between the public and the private sector working together to achieve a common objective of promoting the development of youth entrepreneurship. “The only seeming existing synergy recently fostered is the public/public synergy between the Industrial Training Fund (ITF), Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) and the BOI,” he pointed out.
Youths see opportunities in challenges
For the new kids on the entrepreneurship block, it is survival or nothing. What their peers see as challenges, they see as opportunities. Many of them see the opportunities in the SME sector too tempting and rewarding to ignore and so refused to be bogged down by the several hurdles on the way to greatness. They heed the wise counsel of starting small and growing big.
Ocheni Onuche Simon is one of them. With a paltry N1, 250 seed capital, the Computer Science graduate from the University of Abuja, is today the proud owner of a flourishing manufacturing outfit that produces the ‘Kasso Flakes-Soaking Wakkis.’ “My business kicked off on June 7, 2013, with an initial capital of only N1, 250.00 during my service year at the Nigerian Army, Abuja, where I served. At the Headquarters of the Nigerian Army, I had a lot of customers and that made the business to spread to other arms of the Armed Forces,” he said.
More than anything else, it was the innovativeness, ingenuity and creativity that the budding entrepreneur brought to bear on the business that should challenge other unemployed youths. Apart from the fact that Ocheni’s products are indigenous and are found virtually in every home. While every Nigerian knows it as garri, Ocheni and his company gave it the name “Kasso Flakes-Soaking Wakkis,” which simply means cassava only flakes.
He explained it thus: The name ‘soaking wakkis’ simply means “soak and eat” with varieties such as meat (i.e Kilishi), milk, sugar and groundnut. Others are garri with groundnut only, garri with groundnut and sugar, garri with Kulikuli, better known as ground nut cake. This is also in addition to our premium product “Sollo ‘G’, derived from swallow garri. This category is best for dough i.e Eba.”
The same ingenuity and creativity also saw Amaechi Goodluck, a 28-year old 400-Level English/Christian Religious Knowledge student of Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education, Lagos, establishinmg a strong foothold in the education sector where she is one of the most sought after private tutors. No fewer than nine pupils aged three to fourteen from different parents are currently receiving tutorials from her for a fee.
Goodluck, from Abia State, told The Nation that her ultimate ambition is to set up a thriving private school. She said opportunities abound in the education sector for unemployed youths wishing to take up part-time or full time jobs as private tutors. She stated that from crèche to nursery, primary to secondary and even tertiary level, private tutors are in high demand to fill the gap left by inadequate and sometimes unqualified teachers in various levels of the education sector.
She said although, she currently concentrates on nursery/primary pupils, secondary school students as well as those in adult education classes, she hopes to incorporate university undergraduates when she completes her degree programme. She said beyond certificate, passion, commitment, diligence and patience are qualities required for anyone to excel in any small business of his or her choice. BoI’s interventions.
•Olaoluwa
The Bank of Industry (BoI), Nigeria’s foremost development finance institution, says it is not unaware of the challenges facing operators in the SME sector. Its Managing Director, Mr. Rasheed Olaoluwa, said BoI recognises the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) sector as the engine of economic growth because of its potential to create jobs, boost production, and reduce poverty hence it has come out with intervention programmes to reposition the sector. Some of the interventions that stand out include the signing of a service agreement with 122 Business Development Service Providers (BDSPs) to address the challenges of poor packaging of loan requests and non-bankable business plans, which are believed to be responsible for the low level of financial support to the sector; partnering Grow Africa Equity Partners Limited to raise a $60m Venture Capital Fund (VCF) for SMEs.
There is also the continuation of sector-specific intervention funds by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Ministry of Agriculture, Solid Minerals and others; managed funds from various state governments and foundations; long-term loans at very low interest rates from multi-lateral/international development institutions.
Despite these interventions, Comrade Ayim insists that “there is the urgent imperative for a functional public/private partnership that will facilitate a robust, dynamic and sustainable enterprise development eco-system in line with contemporary trend and global best practices in the promotion and development of youth entrepreneurship.
The pathetic rise of cultism in our country and its attendant destructive activities are a clear picture of the fact that things have indeed fallen apart. And the need to checkmate it is now more important than ever before it gets out of hand.
Overtime, the activities of cult groups degenerated to all sorts of hellish acts that include robbery, political assassination, drugs, arms dealings, and kidnapping.
To make the matter worse, the involvement of artisans, butchers, okada riders as well as underage pupils and secondary school children who lack moral upbringing at that tender age has put the society at a risk. I remember quite well that during my childhood days, late 80s and early 90s, many of the cults related stories that filter to our media nowadays were hardly heard. Then, this menace which government at all levels has consistently grappled with was limited to mostly students of tertiary institutions. Until recently, cult group membership was not a “two for penny” contrary to the cultists’ on-going dance of shame at the market square in broad daylight without any form of decency.
Cultism in Nigeria dates back to pre-colonial era when a group of people with the main aim of seeking protection from their ancestors conducted rituals. Secret cults have always existed in many parts of the country. The Ogboni secret cult is notable among the Yoruba, Ekpe secret cult among the Efik, Ekine cult in the Delta region and Owegbe cult among the Edo. Almost everywhere in the world, different types of secret rituals groupings are manipulated in the articulation of organisation functions for a variety of social and political purposes. These societies differ in what is kept secret and what is made public. In some, membership is secret, but the rituals are not, while in some others, membership is made public but rituals are secret.
According to Opaluwah A.B (2009), in his book, Cultism and Nigerian Campuses, “one positive thing about these societies is that they do not harm unless provoked and they could serve as an instrument for cleansing the society of any cultural debris.” The author argued that some even serve as socialization groups that initiate men and women into adulthood as in Poro and Mende societies in Sierra Leone and the Oviaosese in Ogoniland.
Nigerian educational institutions were not associated with secret cults until 1952 when Prof. Wole Soyinka and six others, including Olumuyiwa Awe, Ralph Opara, Tunji Tubi, Daign Imokhuede, Pius Olegbe and Olu Agunloye, formed the Seadogs confraternity, popularly called Pyrates. The ideas behind the formation of the confraternity were both patriotic and altruistic as it was not imagined as a secret cult. Its objectives were basically to fight non-violently but intellectually and effectively against the imposition of foreign conventions as well as revive the age of chivalry and finding a lasting solution to the problems of tribalism and elitism.
It is no news that Nigeria as a nation has too many nuts to crack. But things would have been much easier if cultism, which is the root of many social vices, had not eaten this deep into the fabrics of our young ones. The insurgents who are threatening our existence, under the guise of Boko Haram, are mostly youths. Not forgetting the Niger Delta militants who are clamouring for resource control in the name of Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND), also predominantly young while the Igbo group, Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) is struggling for secession.
Without mincing words, if this unwholesome growth in cult activities is not put in check, I can aptly say that Nigeria has a bleak future. How do you expect a brighter tomorrow when today’s leaders are busy with destructive activities and tendencies? A Yoruba adage says, “to ensure that your eyes does not see evil, the whole body must be engaged.”
Parents should endeavour to be committed to parenting. Many parents have abandoned the role of children upbringing to babysitters, nannies and teachers. Teaching of morals, manners and the fear of God should be given emphasis in the home. Unfortunately, children spend more time in school than they do at home when parents, who should be their primary models are far away at work or elsewhere. It is advisable that both parents should work hard to have a happy and stable marriage because children are always at the suffering end of any broken marriage.
Educational institutions should as well not fail to always remember that they award certificate based on character and learning. There is, therefore, no need of tolerating acts that will put the school in bad light. It is also expedient that teachers who are supposed to be custodians of morals should not fail to do so as they inculcate virtues in the young ones.
Our religious organisations should see this time as dangerous according to the Bible. Hence, the need to intensify preaching and teaching on topics that build the total man. Religious leaders should be focused. What God hates should be clearly stated to all and sundry without “economising” the truth for whatever reason. And it is good “we catch them young” because dried fish can hardly bend.
The place of the media in nation building is second to none. Gone are the days when television and radio programmes which were centered on building character in children were on air. Nigerian media should passionately set agenda for discourse on children and the reason they are tomorrow’s leaders.
With the change mantra of President Muhammodu Buhari-led administration, government at all levels should be not take it calm in its attempt to curb the menace of cultism. There should be laws that will ban all forms of cult activities and use of weapons among young ones in both schools and larger society. And whoever is caught flouting should be made to face the wrath of the law.
The Vision 31 Grassroots Initiatives, a socio-political group in Akwa-Ibom State, has praised the management of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) for its quick intervention on dilapidated projects within the Niger Delta region and taking proactive moves in line with the mandate given to the board by the Federal Government to complete all ongoing projects within the region.
Speaking on behalf of the group, its National Chairman, Otuekong
Charles Uwa said the board under the leadership of Sir Bassey Dan-Abia has initiated, completed and inaugurated several projects since the current board assumed office.
Uwa, who said this in Uyo while interacting with newsmen, noted that the NDDC has done the region proud through its efforts in delivering quality projects, adding that projects embarked upon by the board are those that will stand the taste of time. Such projects, he said, include strategic roads and bridges, school structures in higher institutions in the region, intervention in the health sector and the environment, among others.
While urging youths in the sub-region to protect NDDC projects, Uwa expressed his confidence that Sir Dan-Abia is a man competent enough to lead the NDDC at a taxing period such as the current economic downward-spiral.
“Always meticulous in the discharge of his duties, Sir Dan-Abia is endowed with vital leadership competencies to deliver on the statutory mandate of the NDDC to develop the region.
“He is unassuming and humble to the core with unimpeachable character and temperament to enable him superintend over the affairs of the NDDC as its Managing Director,” he said.
Continuing, he said: “It is imperative to note that a seasoned and pragmatic leadership is indispensable at the helm of affairs of the interventionist agency at this critical time of its existence. Effective leadership of the NDDC is critical toward anchoring the socio-economic development and structural change in the Niger Delta Region.
Uwa, however, called for better synergy between the NDDC and other key stakeholders in the planning and execution of projects.
The group is happy over the commission’s plans to enlist partners for the rebuilding of strategic and life-touching projects in the region.
He said states in the Niger Delta Region were in dire need of such rescue
projects that are virtually in the state of collapse.
He decried under-funding of the commission as one of its challenges affecting the
commission, even as he expressed optimism that the new administration of President Muhammadu Buhari would get rid of the bottlenecks hindering proper funding of the commission.
Sahara Group Executive Director Mr Tonye Cole, did not mince words about his firm’s readiness to continue supporting youth innovation when he led the ENACTUS team of the Federal Polytechnic in Kaduna (KADPOLY) to meet Governor Nasir El-Rufa’i last week. WALE AJETUNMOBI reports.
A company executive is canvassing for support for students to make them self-reliant and employers. According to Mr Tonye Cole, Sahara Group Executive Director, it is through such encouragement that students can realise their potential. Entrepreneurship, he said, unlocks opportunities and economic prosperity worldwide.
Cole believes that youths must be supported to develop Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai’s innovative ideas. This, he said, remains the key to achieving irreversible economic growth and solving unemployment.
Cole spoke when he led members of the Entrepreneurship Action in Us (ENACTUS) of the Federal Polytechnic in Kaduna (KADPOLY) to present the trophy they won at a global entrepreneurship contest to El-Rufai, last week.
The ENACTUS team in KADPOLY, comprising students from different disciplines, represented the country at the ENACTUS World Challenge in Johannesburg, South Africa last month. The Nigeria team beat several countries to get to the semi-final round, before it lost out to its counterpart from the United Kingdom (UK). More than 3,000 students from 34 countries participated in the contest.
Sahara Group has been the major sponsor of ENACTUS team to promote youth entrepreneurship through a network of students in free enterprise.
Receiving the team, El-Rufa’i said the achievement of the students indicated that the nation had a promising future, noting that the feat underscored the need for private sector participation in driving positive change in the country.
The governor said: “This achievement underscores the need for increased private sector participation in driving positive change across all sectors of the economy. Our youths hold the bright future we all long to see and organisations, such as Sahara Group deserve commendation for providing platforms and opportunities for our youths to realise their aspiration.”
Cole told that the KADPOLY students got the ticket to represent Nigeria at the competition after they won the national Sahara Light Up Nigeria Challenge – a contest developed by Sahara Group to help creative students develop alternative and sustainable energy models that can boost power supply using locally-sources materials.
The KADPOLY team, he said, developed a green power generation project labelled Renewable Energy Advancement Project (REAP). The electricity project involved the use of recycled materials for the construction of a Hydro-power system that generated electricity for residents of Sabon Kakau village on the outskirts of Kaduna.
Cole said: “The village never had electricity for over 50 years of its existence. While it would have cost the villagers a whopping $22,000 to connect to the national electricity grid, the students only spent $600 to provide the environmentally-friendly facility.
“This is one of the positive changes we are driving. It is the reason why we have continued to invest in youth innovation and empowerment to enhance capacity building and entrepreneurship in Nigeria and other places we conduct business across the globe. We have been doing this through the platform of Sahara Foundation.”
Through the contest, Cole said students have developed simple power-generation models that reduce production cost and encourage the broad utilisation of the different energy sources to boost small-scale businesses, healthcare centres and schools.
He added: “I am confident that even after the 2015 ENACTUS world cup event, every participating nation would always remember the Nigeria team for its creativity, resourcefulness and spontaneous intelligence. Sahara Group believes that by supporting youths in various intervention projects, we would be extending and strengthening frontiers for sustainable socio-economic growth and development.”
Zam Obed, a final year Accounting student and leader of the team, praised the Sahara Group for the opportunity given to the students to develop their entrepreneurial abilities.
Cole said that the firm had started a partnership with the United Nations on “Building Bridges” project, which seeks to engage young people for effective participation in activities that will make Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) realisable.
The platform had already started with a conference with the theme: Beyond 2015: Promoting Gender equality and Good governance, where Sahara Group and other partners joined the conversation on the challenges and opportunities for youths in SDGs agenda.
