NDDC, NGO To Sensitise Niger Delta Students On Talents‘ Development

The Funky Four Foundation (FFF), a non-governmental organisation, is working with the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) to educate undergraduates in universities in the nine states in the Niger Delta region on how to grow their talents.

The foundation’s director of operations, Dr. Michael Adagogo Ogolo, said the campaign, called “Change the Tide,” was to help youths stand on their own two feet during school and after finishing their higher education.

Ogolo said the project also wanted to inspire students to discover, nurture, and be proficient while still in academic pursuits.

He said that being self-reliant would enable the students, after graduation, to hire others instead of looking for white collar jobs, which might be hard to find because of the high rate of unemployment in the tough economy of the nation.

The operations director said, “The purpose of the Change the Tide Project of the Funky Four Foundation together with NDDC, as the backer, is to motivate undergraduates in the universities not to ignore their talents, as most of them are very talented, in areas like music, acting, comedy, and the creative economy.

„Creative economy means going around, using what God has given you as a talent to provide for yourself and also employing others. We use ourselves, the funky four, as models.

„For those of us whose parents could not pay for our education, we used our talents in music, drama, comedy, and other skills to educate ourselves, pay bills, even help our parents with some money, and hire one or two people that followed us to hustle, thereby creating jobs, which they also copied by hiring others as well.

Today, with our skills, we have made it big in different fields: as comedians, as actors, as musicians, and many more. You see that by learning a skill while still in university, you create jobs for yourself and become a businessperson by creating jobs for others.

“We keep saying to people that there are no jobs, and that is why you should develop your talent to become a skill so that you can grow yourself to become big by being self-employed.