It will go down in history as Nasrul-lahi-li Fathi Society of Nigeria (NASFAT) held the first online Sustainable Development Goal summit on Saturday 26th September, 2020. The summit which was also its maiden edition was tagged “Factivism” and had in attendance reputable speakers who have made their mark in their chosen careers.
The speakers include: Dr Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami – Honourable Minister of Communications & Digital Economy as the keynote speaker but was not available. Therefore, he was ably represented by Dr Dairu Abubakr. Other speakers are Ms Sarah Anlade-Dantsoho, Mr Hammed Kayode Alabi, Mr Rasheed Adebiyi, Mr Ismail Sogbade and Hajia Aderinsola Adio-Adepoju.
Speech of welcome was made by Alhaji Kabir Raji, NASFAT Youth Secretary and opening prayer offered by Imam Uthman Animasahun, Secretary NASFAT Missions Board.
The lead-off session was declared open with an intriguing lecture from Hajia Aderinsola Adio-Adepoju, Founder of I-Train African where she detailed why it is essential for youths to achieve SDGs during and after COVID-19 pandemic. She reiterated the significance of fulfilling their full potential for a desirous net result.
Second lecture was delivered by Mr Hammed Kayode Alabi, the executive director of KL Leadership & Career Initiative.
Mr Alabi focused on examining making sustainable development goals local. Also, he talked about investment and how youths can leverage their time using possible available means. He encouraged youths to normalise attending profitable meetings or training as some of these meetings will either directly or indirectly add value to them.
Opportunities and future challenges was the third lecture which was delivered by Mr Rasheed Adebiyi, a lecturer at Fountain University, Osogbo. Mr Adebiyi who placed emphasis on how many Nigerian youths are no longer employable, not job providers and not too creative in thinking of becoming providers of labour. He said they are not employable because they are not prepared and most importantly, everyone is in search of white-collar salaried professions.
Shortly after this, Alhaja Nafisa Arogundade read the first goodwill message of NASFAT’s Sustainable Development Goals tagged “Factivism”. This would not have been complete without the remarks delivered by the president of NASFAT, Alhaji Niyi Yusuf who elaborated on what NASFAT as a national body has strived to achieve towards making SDG a realisable dream.
The lecture from the keynote speaker, the Honorable Minister of Communications & Digital Economy was presented by Dr Dairu Abubakr who stood in for him. Dr Abubakr discussed Young people’s role in driving digital trends to achieving SDG which raised a lot of questions from the participants at the end of his session. He attended some of the questions while the moderator said other questions would be sent to the minister.
In the midst of the ongoing interesting lectures, the organisers delighted fifty participants with 1 gigabyte of data each. This was done via a Google form that was filled in by the first fifty lucky participants. Immediately after this, Alhaji Abulazeez Onike talked more on Factivism and some of the videos available for Nigerian youths by NASFAT.
Part of the activities that began the second session of the event was the lecture on “Accelerating the achievement of the SDGs” delivered by Mr Ismail Shogbade, co-founder Strategy Innovations Hub. He centred his discourse on digital entrepreneurship where he urged Nigerian youths to reconsider digital entrepreneurship as a thriving business.
Hajia Adio-Adepoju was in the limelight during the second session where she discussed “Critical entry points for Muslim youths”. Second goodwill message was read by Alhaji Suwebat Aduke while the last was read by Mr Fatai Olayemi.
Volunteerism was discussed by Ms Sarah Anlade-Dantsoho. It was really a captivating session as she brought in her personal experiences as examples. Some of the participants called it a brainstorming session. In her words, “I believe volunteerism is a work for God”. She encouraged youths to explore opportunities in the area of volunteerism and make themselves available at local levels before looking at international levels.
Lastly, she said volunteers do get lucrative jobs more easily than their counterparts who do not take it seriously.
Mr Abiola Abdullahi proposed the vote of thanks while Alhaji Olayiwola Wale Qudus said the closing prayer.
Reported by knowislam.com.ng
