Onakoya takes back-to-school campaign to Adamawa IDP kids

.’Nigeria needs skilled youths to be globally competitive’

In his quest to encourage more school enrollment and give children assured future, Guinness World Record (GWR) holder and founder of the Chess in Slums Africa Initiative, Tunde Onakoya, has inaugurated Back-to-School campaign for children of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Adamawa State.

Onakoya, who played a game of chess with the children at Malhohi IDP camp at the weekend, described chess as a transformative tool for self-discovery and empowering of young ones affected by insurgency. His visit to Adamawa was part of a special program tagged ‘Chess Tournament and Back to School Campaign for IDP Kids’.

The chess master has also emphasised the need to develop the next generation workforce through skill investment for Nigeria’s global competitiveness. He noted that without the right opportunities, young people risk becoming liabilities to the society.

Tunde, spoke yesterday at the commissioning of the Chess in Slums Africa Innovation hub designed for children in the slums to acquire vocational and educational skills needed to survive in the modern world.

He pointed out that the reason for focusing on kids in the slums is because they are often neglected, and through the programme, they would be equipped with the right skill and empowerment.

“Having the right skill is what the future demands and this is the vision for this project. Through this initiative, we are going to give them the future where they won’t be defined by their poverty status.” or where they are from. When they have these abilities and skills, nobody is ever going to deny them opportunities.”

“The world is designed for you to find where you belong in there. But if these children don’t know where they belong, they are going to become a liability to the society and the deterioration level will continue to get worse over time. Our target are children under the bridge, in traffic, because we are not going to run away from them.”

Speaking earlier, the Chief Operating Officer, Chess in Slums Africa, Emmanuel Oke, said the motive behind the commissioning is to build a hub where children especially the marginalised children from slum communities get to learn about robotics, STEM education, Artificial Intelligence, Machine language and other vocational skills.

He said: “We believe that every child has the opportunity but most of them find themselves in situations that they do not have control over which causes them to take hard decisions that makes some of them end up on the streets. So this innovation hub is meant for children in marginalised communities, out-of school children, where they come to get empowered as well as learning the ability to think, the capacity for independent thought and acquire skills for the future.”

Speaking on the importance of chess games, Oke noted that critical thinking is developed by playing chess, adding that, chess is not just a game, it enforces creativity, critical and strategic thinking and problem solving abilities.

While noting that the programme will be made accessible for all, he added that the Chess game is part of the designed programme that would be taught in order to help them become critical thinkers, where they can think before they move, stressing that the quality of decisions they make rests on their ability to think and capacity for thought.

The Commissioner for Youth and Social Development in Lagos, Bolaji Ogunlende, commended the initiative, assuring that the State Government would support the programme to reach a larger scale of the youths to benefit from the initiative.

He called on other well-to-do individuals to also take part in creating opportunities for the youths, saying that everyone has a role to play in making the society a better place.

One of the sponsors of the project, René Koinzack, who is the Senior Director of Sales at Lufthansa Group, said that education is a sustainable long-term strategy for empowering individuals to overcome their circumstances and improve their lives.

He noted that the collaboration with the Chess in Slums Africa, aligns with their mission to make a meaningful impact and creating sustainable living for the vulnerable in the society.

Political Officer, U.S. Consulate General, Lagos, Brittany Orange, also expressed that the innovation hub is critical to achieving STEM education, adding that fields like science, technology, engineering, and mathematics are the future.

According to her, “The World Bank states that an estimated 2.5 million more engineers are needed in sub-Saharan Africa to tackle its development challenges, however less than 25% of higher education students pursuing STEM fields.”