The Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Honorable Yusuf Sulaimon Lasun, has distributed about 150 laptops and printers to people of his constituency in Osogbo.
The items are for those who graduated from the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) training programme, to help enhance their skills in ICT.
He affirmed that without productive engagement of about 45million Nigerians, the country’s economy will remain stagnant .
The programme tagged: “ICT Training Programme on Desktop Publishing, National Information Technology and Development Agency”, was held for youths of Olorunda, Osogbo and Orolu Federal Constituency.
According to the lawmaker, “Development of any nation largely predicates on the level of growth in its ICT.
“With nature of composition of the Nigerian nation-state, which is heterogeneous in content, more Nigerians need to acquire more skills and be productively engaged.
“Development encompasses growth in ICT, we need a knowledge based society to make our economy strong and viably sustainable.
“An individual who is educated with skills has the hope of a better future, and at the long run contributes immensely to the economy.
“I put up the programme to make every participant create an independent national economy, not in theory but in practical.
“By the scientific education acquired through the training, they would be able to contribute successfully to the construction of an independent national economy by the shortest possible route.
“With acquisition of this knowledge, I believe this has opened the way for the development of our national economy and set as the central task, the preparation of material and technical conditions to equip all sectors of the people’s economy with modern techniques.
“Knowledge is what is lacking in Nigeria, that makes life so difficult for many Nigerians, and you know, acquisition of knowledge is not limited to the four walls of classroom, you learn squarely”, Hon. Yusuf said.
The lawmaker who described ICT knowledge in any given society as inevitable, argued that any society that lacks it would be in perpetual retrogression in terms of self-reliance.
The Deputy Speaker, however, charged all and sundry not to regard learning of computer as something mysterious but master it to transform their immediate environments.
He stated that everyone must be brought up to be computer literate so they could become wizards and grow into invincible revolutionaries to overcome every difficulty and break through every bottleneck, fearing nothing technologically.
The lawmaker, therefore, charged youths in the country to be dynamic and computer literate, to be able to fit in to the current technological world of rapid development.
