By Blessing Gabriel
A Non-governmental Organisation, known as “Open Africa Foundation” has called on Nigerians to keep hope alive and continue to believe in the country, inspite of all its challenges.
This was the main thrust at the Hope for Nigeria Conference organised by Open Africa Foundation on Tuesday in Abuja.
Some resource persons who spoke on the sidelines of the conference said…
Mr Tunji Aworinde, the Chairman of the foundation said the objective of the conference was to motive and assure the children who are the future of tomorrow that there is hope for Nigeria inspite of all her challenges.
“The greatest motivation for organising the conference was the realisation that our children are growing up in a very difficult environment.
“As a foundation, we came to the conclusion that it was appropriate to recognise these children, motivate them, give them confidence and assure them of our support on their journey, especially as teenagers through their education and to motivate them to excel academically,” he said.
Aworinde noted that the Conference which usually focuses on financial crimes and governance integrity was in its 9th edition, adding that this year’s edition was unique.
“We used to have very young people join us at the conference, devouting an hour to them, but we thought this was inappropriate, and that we should rather organise a whole day’s event for secondary school children.
“Today is for celebration, celebrating the children, and not the President, not their teachers or anyone else, but them and the message we have for you at the Open Africa Foundation, is a message of hope and dreams.
“We are here to help and support them and their journey through the perilous terrain of this age, the teenage years.
‘We are guilty, as a nation, of many errors and many faults, but our worst crime is abandoning the children, neglecting the fountain of life,” he said.
He added that it was also the basis of having an essay writing competition and awarding prizes accordingly to well deserving students.
“For instance, today, we actually awarded prizes to the first seven students of a total of 80 essays that were submitted.
“In addition to that, the schools producing these excellent children are getting commurative plaques to celebrate excellence and the hard work they are putting into ensuring that these children become great future leaders of our country,” he said.
Blessing Ogoke, a deputy director at the Universal Basic Education, who representated the Minister of Education at the conference said there was hope for the children as the Federal government was doing alot in the area of the provision and accessibility of basic education to out-of-school children in the country.
“The Federal government has put so many things in place to ensure that we reduce the number of out-of-school children in the country.
“We have the out-of-school-children campaign, the enrolment drive, improvement in infrastructure, cash transfer to parents of these children to encourage them.
“We also have e-learning platforms which have also been established by the FG and the School to work scheme, where we try to encourage the children to acquire various skills.
“These are some of the things that the government has been able to do to curb the menace of out-of-school children in the country so far,” she said.
Joseph Lantyo , a deputy director at Nigeria Orientation Agency, who representated the NOA Director General said that the Agency had continued to sensitise the public on the need to believe in the renewed hope agenda of President Bola Tinubu.
“The NOA recently presented the National Value Charter which has the two templates, that is; the Nigerian Promise and the Citizen Code.
“The elected, political appointees, and likes operate on the premise of the Nigerian Promise. It reminds them of the promises and their contributions to the government and encourages them to review their values and concept towards nation building,” he said.
Lantyo encouraged Nigerians to continue to believe in the country, its leaders and the renewed hope agenda of the Bola Tinubu-led government.
He stressed that Tinubu’s agenda had brought on board new innovations and ideas that can give Nigerians a new lease of life, change our economic narrative and our perspective and values,” he said.
Francis Okogun, from the Drug Salvation Foundation said the fight against drug abuse and addiction by the youths in the country was a collective one, adding that the government cannot be left to shoulder the responsibility alone.
“The parents of these young ones need to be involved in this fight as well as the teachers in our various school to educate them on the dangers of illicit drugs, but must especially our youths must be prepared to take their future in their hands by taking a bold and concious decision to abstain.
“There is indeed hope for Nigeria and I want to appreciate the Drug Salvation Foundation for the good job they are doing in collaboration with the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in curbing this menace that has ravaged the youths in so many countries around the world.
“Thankfully, Nigeria hasn’t fallen into a state where Drug use or drug dealing is now the norm. We are still at the level where we can curb and nip the issue on the bud and save the lives of our children.
“So, I think there is hope because drug use and drug dealing destroys everything and all hands must be on deck to ensure that we don’t fall victims of this epidemic that has ravished so many nations,” he said.
Francis Usani, director of fraud and risk assessment, prevention and control at the Economic Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said the government was doing alot in addressing the issues of
“I believe there is so much hope for Nigeria because systems have a way of purging themselves. I can assure you that the Nigerian system as it is would purge itself of corruption and financial crimes.
“If you look at most great nations in the world today, they have also gone through most of these systems and problems we are going through in our nstion today.
“Even up till now as we speak, there are still some countries that are suffering more than us. Nigeria is not the most corrupt country as there are so many other countries that ahead of Nigeria in terms of corruption.
“So, if you ask me, I will reiterate that there is hope for this country,” he said.
No fewer than 200 children from across various schools in the FCT, participated in the conference as well as the 2024 essay writing competition on the topic, ‘Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country’ (JFK 1962); which was meticulously crafted piece of oratory, by JFK.
David Adeoye, the head boy of Model Secondary School, Maitama, Abuja and who won 1st prize in the essay competition said his hope and dreams was for a new Nigeria, a Nigeria free of tribal and religious bigotry, a united, peaceful and prosperous nation, where hopes are kindled and dreams realised.
Mardiyah Komolafe of Footprint School, Abujs said she hopes for a new Nigeria where leaders who make our laws would live by example as law abiding citizens and where impunity, lawlessness, corruption, insecurity, epileptic power supply, youth unemployment, poverty, would be confined to the sordid past of our nation’s history.
