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The Deputy Director, Programmes, National Orientation Agency (NOA), Lagos, Mr. Bowoto Raphael has enlightened Nigerians on the surmountable nature of the current economic situation the country is facing.
Bowoto, who represented NOA’s Lagos Director, Waheed Ishola at an Economic roundtable titled ‘Survival Strategies in the face of current Socio-economic Realities: Prospects and opportunities,’ held in Lagos recently, said, young people today are not interested in vocational trainings.
Complaining at how the youths often don’t maximise available opportunities, he said “a lot of skill acquisition projects established by the government nationwide are under-utilised,” “when we ask, they would tell us the youths are not willing to learn, whereby making the facilities redundant.”
Bowoto also revealed government’s efforts on equipping the youths with skills needed to survive the hard time, said, “The government is doing something about it and the NOA is making efforts. Everyone is in need of skills, the government will put skills acquisition in place but management perhaps is the problem. Because how will the government put a gigantic structure in place and you’ll see weeds growing all over, we are not happy about this.”
Convener of the Development Roundtable, Mrs. Funmi Falobi, in her remark, agreed that it is no news the country is going through a period of economic downturn since the fall in global oil price.
In the face of current economic reality, Falobi said there is need for finding survival strategies.”In the midst of this economic quagmire, there is need to finding survival strategies in order to reduce the burden of socio-economic challenges among the citizens,” she said, suggesting that Nigerians should look inwards and think of what to do legally for financial empowerment.
Advising the government however, Falobi, a journalist, said “The government must also ensure conducive environment that will promote entrepreneurship in the country.” She also pointed that “there is the need for the government to review some of its policies that engender growth of entrepreneurship and industrialisation in the country. The government must ensure constant supply of electricity if it must alleviate poverty and financial limitations among the citizens.”
Also at the event, a social commentator, Mr. Chude Achike, talking on perspectives on way out and survival strategies for citizens, said “Nigeria has been saddled with one of the worst types of political leadership in the world.” Stating further, he said, “If we have harnessed our economy/potentials we would have been talking of having 30 trillion in reserve because Nigeria is virtually blessed with all the resources you can think of.” Achike who was sad at the leadership and economic woes of a rich country added that, “bad people heading this country will not just wake up to become good until the situation makes them to be good, we need to keep mounting pressure.”
In her response, the Chief Executive Officer of OSC College of Fashion, Lagos Mrs Sola Babatunde enjoined Nigerians especially the youthful population who are larger not to wait for a perfect situation before adding value to themselves and the nation.
Encouraging the youths of the country, Babatunde, who left her job to invest into the garment industry with meagre resources, which today is a success story, asked the youths to “look for a need to meet needs, learn a trade in line with your interest and think big.” She also assured that, “The table will turn over time, you must be eager and during the famine is where your treasures are, work hard but smartly and give back to the society.”
Taking a swipe at government parastatals in charge of vocational institutions, Babatunde wondered why the government often hand over such centres to non-professionals who have no passion for the outfits. “The reason government-run vocational centers don’t often do well is because they put those facilities in wrong hands.” The government needs to partner people who are already doing the things they want to,” she said.
Revealing her plan for her outfit, Babatunde said, “Our aim is to put our schools in every major city in the country, we already have students from other nations.” Also addressing participants at the roundtable, leadership coach and trainer Pastor Steve Akoni at the event noted that globally, there is a shift from natural resources to mental resources, stating that Nigeria mentally is still in the past. “There is a shift from natural resources to mental resources, most of our talks in Nigeria is about things of the past, we need to focus on current global trends”
