Sen. Adetokunbo Abiru (APC-Lagos East), has pledged his commitment to prioritizing legislative interventions that would create opportunities for the Nigerian youth to realise their creative and innovative prowess.
Abiru made the pledge in a goodwill message on Thursday to commemorate the 2021 International Youth Day with the theme, “Transforming Food Systems: Youth Innovation for Human and Planetary Health” in Lagos.
The senator, celebrating the resourcefulness and creativity of Nigerian youth, said young Nigerians in the tech space had leveraged digitalization during the pandemic to rise into prominence.
He charged the youth to take their rightful position at the forefront, championing food security and combating climate change through creativity and innovation.
“As we are aware, the pandemic that took the world by storm in the year 2020 has no doubt permanently altered the course of history.
“The dislocations occasioned by the raging pandemic put most business concerns and solutions in jeopardy whilst also giving rays of hope to hitherto unthinkable options.
“In other words, as many groaned over loss of businesses, the pandemic created unprecedented opportunities for others to boom as smart companies rather than agonizing over the plague, confronted an existential threat by aligning with what moves in the market.
“Responsibly, our youths have also risen up to these challenges as we see the rapid evolution of fintechs such as flutterwave, paystack e.t.c in the technology space which has attracted massive foreign direct investments into the economy.
“As your representatives, we understand the need to provide the shoulders for young people like you to stand on.
“The minimum duty we owe you is to create an enabling environment and opportunities for you to thrive and this, we are taking seriously as the trustees of your mandate,” Abiru assured.
The senator added that in his service to the interests of the youths, particular attention would be given to the repeal and re-enactment of the Copyright Act.
Abiru also said that he was setting up a Community Innovation Space in conjunction with CCHub (a dedicated innovation group that makes use of social capital & technology to accelerate economic prosperity) for youths in the Lagos East Senatorial District.
“The centre will focus on tailor-made solutions that will solve scores of challenges facing us as a people.
“Our concept in this regard is the adoption of a Human Centred Design approach that will identify the real problems and challenges facing our youths and proffer solutions.
“Thirdly, students in various Higher Institutions of Learning in the Senatorial District will benefit from our planned Bursary Scheme.
“About 500 of our young people across the 98 wards in the 16 Local Governments and the Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs), have been shortlisted as beneficiaries and this will take off in the coming academic session this year,” he said.
