The National Assembly has urged young Nigerian students to fully equip themselves with relevant skills in artificial intelligence, saying that is where the future belongs.
The apex legislature also called for the review of the Nigerian education curriculum to include social media studies in the disciplines so as to guide students and warn them about the dangers of social media usage.
Femi Gbajabiamila, Speaker of the House of Representatives and Amos Ojo, Clerk to the National Assembly made these calls at the 2022 Commonwealth Day Celebration in Abuja on Monday.
The day is celebrated every year on the second Monday of March to create awareness and understanding among the young people, about the Commonwealth in general and the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) in particular.
Gbajabiamila represented at the occasion by Yakub Buba, chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs charged the participants drawn from Command Day Secondary School, Federal Government Girls Secondary School and Government Secondary School (Tudun Wada) in Abuja to good to use their creative energy to positively impact their environment.
“You must use the various social media platforms to learn and improve yourselves in order to be responsible citizens that would contribute to nation-building.
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“As future leaders, the future begins now and you must avail yourselves of these rare opportunities to play responsible roles in your immediate environment.
“The world is rapidly changing, bringing people more closely and putting enormous pressure on the available resources. It is, therefore, important that we collectively build a world that is inclusive where everyone is fairly treated,” he said.
Ojo explained that the objective of the day was to introduce students to the CPA ideals of democracy, good governance and human rights as a conscious attempt at mentoring and coaching them for leadership.
The Clerk said: “As young people are the supreme target for this year’s Commonwealth Day celebration, it affords me the wonderful opportunity to direct my attention entirely on them. The future belongs to you and you must begin to consciously work to secure it.
“Through your creative energy and youthfulness, you can become an active player in addressing identified challenges. The task of delivering a common future calls for collective efforts to achieve. We must, therefore, work for the present in order to secure the future. Know it today that the future is you.
“Talking about ‘delivering a common future’ for our teeming youths in Nigeria is a huge challenge to Parents and society because of the disturbing circumstances and distasteful scenarios surrounding them today. The tide must change positively so the next generation is not doomed.
“Nigeria is fast losing her youth to obsession of wealth and fortune which has plunged them into diabolical rituals. Our youths now want to become rich overnight while some suddenly turn living horror to their pals.
“Over the past two decades, social media have gained so much growth and fame worldwide but the youth and teenagers are the leading and most fanatic of these social platforms to the point that they even use social network while in class or even at religious places, Social sites impact the lives of our youth in a society a great deal in terms of morals, behavior and even education-wise.”
