By Otobong Akpakpan, Abuja
Amidst Perilous state of the nation plagued with impunity and lawlessness, tribalism, hunger and poverty, out of school children, corruption, insecurity, epileptic power supply; poor health and education infrastructures etc, the Chairman Open Africa Foundation, Tunji Aworinde has charged teenage Students in secondary schools across FCT to uphold to the tenet of integrity and fight corruption to restore hope for the country .
Aworinde gave the charge during the 9th annual conference on financial crime and governance integrity organized by Open Africa Foundation in Conjuction with forensic insight international and summit leadership institute in Abuja on Tuesday for secondary school students with the theme " a celebration of excellence " carefully crafted to rekindle hope for a new Nigeria free of tribal and religious bigotry, a united, peaceful and prosperous nation, where hopes are kindled and dreams realised!
The London based forensic expert envisioned a new Nigeria where the child chooses to go to school and stay in school without fearing of being kidnapped or murdered. A new Nigeria where children will prefer the classroom walls and not numbered among the Almajirai. A new Nigeria where leaders who make our laws will live by example as law abiding citizens. Impunity, lawlessness, corruption, insecurity, epileptic power supply, youth unemployment, poverty, would be confined to the sordid past of our nation’s history.
According to him, hoping for such a Nigeria is realistic and encouraged the students to keep their hope alive, for they're not not too young to hope and dream dreams, a dream of a new Nigeria, peaceful and prosperous for all. Without a dream of the future, life is meaningless, he emphasized
"When you have a dream, you have something to look forward to and life begins to have meaning, Ask yourself what can I do for my country, Nigeria? If you must dream a dream, dream big; if you can dream it, you can get there. Too many young people allow their dreams to die because they fail to live the dream and/or choose to enjoy the comfort zone of the crowd".
"We believe in your dreams and hopes, to transform Nigeria into food basket, by agriculturalists and farmers among you; engineers who would build our roads, to travel in comfort and our motor vehicles lasting a lifetime. Our doctors and nurses, working our hospitals to care for the sick. Engineers to explore innovations in power generation to power our industries; and technologies to transform our nation into the envy of the world and not the poverty capital of the world.
We believe in you children; we believe in your dreams and hopes. That we have among us today, the Bill Gates of Nigeria Microsoft; Jeff Bezos of Nigeria Amazon; Larry Page & Sergey Brin of Nigeria Google. Dreaming of unleashing the powers of technology of the Computer, the Internet, and the Artificial Intelligence, in transforming our nation from third to first world.
"We believe, in your hope and dreams. That we have among us today new generations of Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka, preparing to unleash intellectual abilities and capabilities, in transformation of our nation from import dependence to a creative industry and enviable country. The new generation of Dangotes and Mike Adenugas, willing and ready to unleash the power of industry and wealth creation, and thereby opening up the world of opportunities for the young, and making the ‘japa’ syndrome an obsolete word in our nation’s vocabulary!
The 9th annual conference also featured the 2024 essay topic '‘Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country’' (JFK 1962); which was a meticulously crafted piece of oratory, by JFK, dramatically promoting a generational change in American society, is also expected to have a transformating impact on Nigeria and called on the nation to combat crime, corruption, oppression, poverty, disease and war; and thereby urging Nigerians to participate in public service with the zeal of patriots!
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