Former UN envoy tasks youths on active participation in global ICT

Former United Nations Assistant Secretary–General, Dr. Agwu Ukiwe Okali has charged the younger generation to become active participants in the burgeoning global digital revolution and partake in ruling the world through Information Communication Technology (ICT).
   
Joined by his wife, Ifeoma, Okali gave the charge while presenting computer sets and gadgets to boost teaching and learning at St.Peter’s Presbyterian Church Secondary School in Ameke Abriba town in Ohafia LGA, of Abia State.
  
Okali, who is the Founder/Chairman of Okali Seminal Ideas Foundation for Africa (OSIFA), an organisation that promotes the participation of Africa in the world of ideas, handed over the computers to the church leaders and school management.
   

Okali said their donations were informed by the urgent desire to empower the young generation to become active participants in the ongoing digital revolution.
   
Charging the students to make best use of the materials, Okali said: “If these philanthropic activities get supported by international donors in Nigeria and beyond, we can be decisive in ensuring that we are able to avert an otherwise predictably bleak future.”
   
Elated by the kind gesture of the Okalis, the Minister in charge of St Peter’s Presbyterian Church, Abriba urban parish, Rev. Chika Nwankwo lauded them while the Chairman of the school management committee, Elder Chidi Onwuka and school principal, Mrs. Mercy Opara said that with the donated materials, the school will transform into a digitised institution.
   
According to the Principal, Mrs. Opara, “before now, we only taught our students how to use the computer theoretically, but with the donation, it is going to be practical computer teaching and learning for which we have decided to employ qualified computer instructors. We shall protect and use these computers to train our students towards excelling in WASC examinations.”

The Chairman of the occasion and former Pro-Chancellor of Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike, (MOUAU) Abia state Prof. Anya O. Anya, while commending the donors for their contributions to the development and advancement of Abriba people and Africans in general, especially in the area of education, predicted that the young generation of Abriba would reap bountifully from such uncommon initiative.