Writing By Daniel Karlmax; Editing By Godwin Duru
Development expert and philanthropist Mr. Mohammad Adamu Adangba has emphasized the need for political office holders, parents, and other stakeholders in society to invest in capacity-building programmes for school children.
He said this would equip them with relevant technical and entrepreneurial skills suited to 21st-century development for sustainable growth growth of the nation.
Mr. Adangba made this statement during the graduation ceremony and maiden edition of the free summer holiday media training programme organized by Ruko TV for primary and secondary school children in Kaduna.
He stressed the importance of empowering children through skills acquisition and entrepreneurship, describing it as a sustainable way to address the growing challenges of street hawking, child begging, and other social vices.
“During long vacations, instead of children spending time watching television or roaming the streets, it is important that parents engage them productively through capacity-building programmes to make them self-reliant in the future,” he said.
He warned that failing to invest in children could lead to greater societal problems.
“If we don’t invest in these children now, they may become a problem to our families in the future. A lot of the bourgeoisie fail to realize that if you ignore the children littering the streets today, they could become a threat to your own home tomorrow.
“Especially you in the media—help propagate this message to the wider society. Let’s be communally conscious. Even if your child is abroad today, he may return to Nigeria someday, and then those same children we neglect today could become threats to his safety.
“Use your little resources to empower a child from the street. It doesn’t have to be much—just contributing to taking one child off the street is already a major impact,” he added.
Mr. Adangba further noted that acquiring extra skills would enable children to earn income even before gaining admission into tertiary institutions, thus easing financial burden on their parents.
Parents who benefited from the programme, Mrs. Flourish Mordi and Sunday Jennifer, expressed gratitude for his philanthropic gesture, describing the training as a valuable and timely platform for children to thrive in the 21st-century information and communication technology space.
They encouraged the children not to give up on their dreams and talents but to make judicious use of the knowledge acquired during the summer lessons.
“Parents should allow their children to follow their passion. That is the pathway to sustainable human and national development,” they said.
Some instructors at the programme, including the manager of Ruko Television, Mr. Gabi Okotie, and film editing expert Mr. Paul Yakubu, explained that the training focused on filmmaking, provided a hands-on platform for children to learn editing, scripting, elementary film production, and shooting of short films among others.
“Within a short while, they’ve learned how to shoot short films. They wrote their scripts, directed, and edited them themselves.
“We keep talking about entrepreneurship, and this is the way forward. The government alone can’t do it all. When we catch them young, they’ll contribute meaningfully to the development of our society in the future,”
“We started with organizing their clips and arranging them into folders before importing them into the editing software. I used Premiere Pro to teach editing.
They learned how to open a project, import files, use the timeline, and begin cutting and editing,” Mr. Yakubu added.
“I’m very impressed with this set of students. They’re currently working on final projects involving drama, interviews, and talk shows. I divided the nine students into two groups for practical sessions.”
Some of the participants, including Adamu Mohammad, a JSS2 student from Air Force Comprehensive School Kaduna; Divine Abundance from Redeemer’s International Secondary School; and David Adikwu Otache, shared their experiences.
They stated that they learned skills such as editing, video production, scriptwriting, acting, and film production.
The summer holiday free media training powered by passionate parents and philanthropists was designed to build entrepreneurial and technical capacity among children, enabling them to make meaningful contributions to the country’s development in the future.
Daniel Karlmax
