By Stanley Onyekwere
The Chairman, Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), Abdullahi Adamu Candido has implored indigenous people of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to embrace digital and other innovative skills, in order to ensure rapid and inclusive development of the Territory.
Candido particularly urged FCT youth to join other Nigerians in sharing whatever experience and innovative skills that are available within their respective domains, so as not to be left behind in the scheme of things.
He made this point yesterday while performing the foundation laying of AMAC School for the Gifted, ICT/Innovation Centre, Unguwan Hakimi Orozo.
The AMAC Chairman noted that today’s world is moved by the digital knowledge; that’s Information Communication Technology (ICT), which is a given asset that is taking the council to the world.
He said: “We the aborigines; the indigenous populations here don’t allow other Nigerians to only the ones to benefit from this place, come and share whatever experience and innovative skills that are available here.
“The Igbos and Yorubas are not better us, so we can as well partner with them, and acquire knowledge that can in turn be of use to the communities.
“Please I beg you; particularly the young ones, if we are able to complete this institution, please come and learn something, so that you can ensure something meaningful to do for yourself and your family.
“We are exploring ways and manners where things can get better for us. So I’m you (indigenous people) to realise that this is an opportunity that we have, and we must not abuse it. Sincerely, we have skills acquisition Centres in Jiwa and Karu.”
On the School for the Gifted, the AMAC Chairman said upon completion in the next two or three months would enable highly talented persons, graduate or school leavers acquire some digital and innovative skills.
“This (AMAC School for the Gifted) is going to be a better skills acquisition Centre, as it’s going to be a mixture of physical training and digital knowledge acquisition Centre
“The idea behind this institution is borne out of the desire to ensure that our youth in particular don’t unnecessarily wait for white collar job. We are trying to make sure that we don’t allow any mind (youth) to be idle.
“Some children are highly talented, but they are not discovered, so we can as well discover them from one or two of our villages and bring them here to acquire innovative and ICT knowledge.
“That’s the reason why this government under our watch is particularly interested in ensuring that in AMAC we have institutions where we learn some vocational trade.
“Once we starting, we are going to encourage partnership initiative, so that if we have partners that can support us with one thing or the other they can come in , as government cannot be able to do everything alone.
“It’s our desire that this government we leave behind very strong institutions for any government coming after us, to continue from where we stopped,” he stressed.
Responding, District Head, Orozo community, Dangiwa Maikeffi, thanked the council leadership for citing the school in the area, which he said would go a long way to help youth to contribute their quota to the development of the council.
While describing the initiative as a welcome development, the community leader urged the council to ensure the timely completion and take off of the project.
