US Consul-general Tasks Youths On Environmental Protection

United States (US) consul-general in Nigeria, Wills Stevens, has urged youths in Nigeria to take up fundamental roles to tackle environmental issues in the country.

Stevens spokeon Wednesday in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital at the launch of the state’s chapter of the US government supported “Recycling Waste to Wealth Challenge”, an enterprise competition for students in vocational/technical colleges in Ogun state.

Stevens specifically charged Nigerian youths to take advantage of the, “Abeokuta Window On America” launched yesterday to drive the country to greatness in the areas of unemployment.

No fewer than 45 students, five teachers, with five facilitators are currently participating at the “Recycling Waste to Wealth Challenge” programme; an impact award project sponsored by the US Department, designed to enable students of Technical Colleges in Ogun State write about their business ideas and turn such to wealth through essay competitions and is supported through the International Visitors Leadership Programme (IVLP).

In his remarks at the programme, Stevens highlighted the importance of raising awareness on environmental issues among the youth and charged them to take the lead in providing necessary solutions to preserving the environment, part of which is the recycling of plastic wastes to wealth.

The US official charged the youths to key-in to the vision of the Nigerian-Americans that have successfully established themselves in the USA and providing technological solutions to meet the world’s needs.

‘’Today, we are talking about our youths; we are talking about giving people a chance to find the time inside them, and bring them to the forefront to address the problems of recycling.

“We are looking at funding different projects at the same time, enabling them. Solving a problem and developing capacity is helping people to figure out what they can do on their own by identifying a problem, developing a solution and implementing it. This teaches you the skills which will help you address a lot of problems”.