Do not make our environment more toxic than our fathers left, New Era President, Nwaka Urges Youths
The President and Founder of New Era Foundation, (NEF), Evang. (Comrd.) Osinachi Nwaka has enjoined the youths of Ibere Clan, in Ikwuano Local Government Area of Abia State and Nigeria in general, to abstain from contaminating their various immediate environments through involvement in some toxic skills.
Addressing the members of National Association of Ibere Youths, (NAIY) youths of Ibere Clan during the 2023 International Youth Day, at Ngwugwo-Ibere Town Hall, in Ikwuano Local Government Area of Abia State, on the theme, ‘Green Skills For Youths: Towards a Sustainable World’, Ossy Nwaka appealed to the present day’s youths not to make the environments more venomous than how they met them.
He wailed that the present day’s society “gets worse than what our forefathers left for us. Let’s learn to avoid things that are wrong and do the right ones.
“Today, looking at the topic, and using the traffic light as an illustration; a traffic light has three colours: the red, yellow and green. Red is a sign of danger which entails stop; yellow is in-between the red and green. Now, this year, whereas green.
“And in this year’s celebration, we’re considering green which means life; green means friendliness; and today, we’re looking out for the nontoxic skills that are environmental, climate and inter-network friendly. What are the attributes, knowledge, skills, or potentials that an average Ibere, Abian or Nigerian youth should possess, to contribute meaningfully to his immediate environment so that the environments our fathers left for us would not become more toxic in the next generation.
“The problem we’re trying to solve here is this; let’s not leave a more toxic environment than what our fathers left for us and then our children will be inheriting a bad environment, he pleaded.”
Speaking further, he elaborated ‘Green Skills’ to include technical knowledge, expertise and various abilities that enable the effective use of green technologies and processes in professional settings.”
“Green Skills are like attributes, knowledge, values and our various competencies”, he added.
The renowned philanthropist who reiterated that the present day’s youths were faced with the responsibility to save “our environments for our children yet unborn”, insisted that, “your ability to say boldly that my skill such as internet fraud is bad; yahoo business is bad; distorting canals is bad, doing things that are not healthy for the society is bad. Your ability to point out those things that impede the life and and begin to work towards stopping them, then you are the greenish type.
“Also, some of the things we should avoid are those things that have the capacity to would make our rivers not to flow; things that will release smoke into the air thereby causing air pollution. We are advised to rather
dissipate them and then you begin to think about how to reduce it; how to solve it. If you do these as a youth, then, you’re headed towards the right direction.
He, therefore, implored the youths of Ibere to endeavour to dispose of everything, whatsoever as perceived to be toxic to the environment, in a quest to pave the way for a healthy and progressive society.
Earlier, Nwaka who, stressed that the nonprofit organisation, hence New Era, “is a platform through which we reach out to the vulnerable, the widows and the downtrodden in the society”, implored the youths to always remain law-abiding, and eschew all manners of social vices, as well as restiveness.