By John Adams, Minna
The Senator representing Niger East Senatorial District, Mohammed Sani Musa, has instituted scholarship programme for no fewer than 1,000 indigents students in secondary and tertiary institutions from his Senatorial zone as part of deliberate efforts to assist the underprivileged to acquire western education in the area.
Apart from the secondary school students, the scholarship at the tertiary institutions that will soon commence, will focus largely on students studying medicine, law and professional courses.
Senator Musa who disclosed this on Saturday in Minna at the closing ceremony of a five-day training of 140 youths from his Senatorial District on Computer appreciation, web-design, digital poster and banner designs as well as digital card designs, insisted that Education remains the only way to arrest youth restiveness in the society.
Senator Sani Musa pointed out that his decision to train the youths on ICT was born out of his passion to empower them with requisite skills that will make them self-reliant and stay away from crimes and other forms of violence in the society.
The beneficiaries of the ICT training were drawn from the nine local government areas of Niger East Senatorial District, namely, Chanchaga, Bosso, Paikoro, Gurara, Suleja, Tafa, Shiroro, Munya and Rafi.
He disclosed further that the computer training which was anchored by the National Information and Technology Development Agency, NITDA will be a continuous exercise, stressing that the youths must be productively engaged so as to take them away from drug abuse, crime and political thuggery which according to him should be discouraged.
‘I have children at home. If my children will not be on the street engaging in political thuggery or drug abuse, I will give my best to see that other children do not go on the street. I also believe our youths have the potentials to be at their best if given the necessary support. Hence, the training is geared towards making them realise their dreams and putting their potentials into profitable ventures,’ Senator Musa said.
‘We have to match what advanced countries are going to use against us in the future. And that is ICT. We have to start learning it today,’ he said.
In addition to the ICT training, he pointed out at least three hundred youths and women are currently undergoing training in crop production at the Niger State Technology Incubation Centre Minna and other aspects of science and technology at the Industrial Trust Fund (ITF).
The lawmaker further revealed that training will also commence for 180 teachers of Science and Technical expertise in the senatorial district which will be facilitated by the Institute of Scientific Innovation, with 20 beneficiaries to be selected from each of the nine local government areas.
He stated: ‘In no distant time, we are also going to build ICT Centres in each of the nine local government areas. We are bringing a modern rural market in all the nine local government areas. We will build 60 open shops with different designs. With that, we will re-engineer our economy and diversify the source of income of our people.’
Earlier on, Governor Abubakar Bello, who was represented by the Commissioner of Investment, Dr Mustapha Jibril, had commended Senator Sani Musa for the kind gesture.
He expressed optimism that with the contributions and support by the lawmaker, the state government’s goal of reducing the unemployment rate in the state would be realised.
‘Senator Mohammed Sani Musa has shown that it does not take a hundred years to transform the lives of the people. In less than a year and six months, we have seen the giant strides he has been able to make in the lives of our people. I believe by the end of four years, he would have transformed the entire Niger East,’ Dr Jibrin said.