YABATECH Rector Tasks  Youths on Skills Devt

By Funmi Ogundare

The Rector, Yaba College of Technology (YABATECH), Mr. Obafemi Omokungbe has stressed  the need for  youths in the community to expand their skills by taking  up innovative entrepreneurship activities,  solve problems and raise the bar in their various quests to becoming  a force to be reckoned with in the future.

Omokungbe who made this call, recently, during the United Nations International  Youths Day with theme, ’Get Skilled, Go Green; Go Green, Get Skilled’,  said  the programme was designed  to increase youths’ awareness about global trends and dimensions.

“It is to challenge to our youths to develop skills that will provide green and innovative solutions for  today and tomorrow’s problems. It is important to get the youths prepared and involved in the things that would shape their lives and the society in the days to come, because tomorrow belongs to them.”

He said the theme of the programme aligns with the worldwide need for sustainability.

At the programme,  the Director of Flexible Skills Development (FSD), Dr. Ibrahim Adedotun Abdul introduced four flexible short courses to empower the public on how to diversify income and to make life easier.

In another development, the Rector, Yaba College of Technology (Yabatech), Mr. Obafemi Omokungbe has appealed to the entire college community to shun improper disposal of plastic and waste saying that this constitute a harmful effect to the environment.

Omokungbe made the appealed during the World Environmental Day with the theme ‘Beat Plastic Pollution’, said “where there are   too much plastic in the ocean, you will have much plastic than the fishes and that could affect our lives negatively.”

He noted that the purpose of World Environmental Day is to create awareness and consciousness of the problem that plastic creates, while  promising  the college’s readiness to  key into the awareness and ensure that people refuse it.

“On behalf of the management,  we are going to make a lot of dustbin available in the college, so that if you cannot reuse the plastic then you can refuse it by dropping it in the dustbin so as  not to litter the surrounding. That move   would help us to sustain the environment.”

The Managing Director of Greenhill Recycling, Mrs. Lawani  discouraged the act of dumping plastic in the environment saying that  it would end up in the ocean. “There should be alternative source to it so that it would not eventually come back to harm us. Any plastic in the ocean stays for a thousand years or more, fish would mistake the plastic for food by eating it and die, the dead fish would be sold and people eventually eat the plastic thinking they are eating fish.”

She said  waste should  be separated in different bins and that  the recycling agent must be informed  to dispose,  recycle the waste and generate income  from it.

“Recycling prevents waste of potentially useful materials, saves energy and reduces air, soil and water pollution. It also prevents habitat destruction, environmental pollution, reduces raw material extraction and combats climate change,” she said