GO HOME AND IMPLEMENT WHAT YOU HAVE LEARNT,AMBASSADOR CHALLENGES U.I. STUDENTS

By Tope Musowo
Nigerian Ambassador to Ghana,His Excellency,Amb. Olufemi Michael Abikoye has challenged the students from the University of Ibadan to go back home and implement all they have learnt during their two weeks field trip in Ghana.

The Ambassador said this while receiving the 49 students from the Centre for Sustainable Development,(CESDEV) U.I. at the Nigeria High Commission at 20/21 Onyasia Crescent,Roma Ridge,Accra,Ghana on Friday.

After a presentation made by the students to summarise all they have learnt within their two weeks stay in Ghana, the Ambassador who commended them for a brilliant presentation and good coordination by their leader,Dr. Olawale Olayide,said they should endeavor to take something home for implementation.

In his remark,the Ambassador said,"though I am impressed with your brilliant presentation,nevertheless,our problem in Nigeria has not always been lack of good presentation, because we are brilliant people, but the problem has been the implementation,we will write it beautifully well,we will present it beautifully well and we will drop it somewhere,so, what are you taking back home for implementation in all of these?",he asked. 

"Although your Coordinator said one of the reasons why you are here is to do research,but don't let it be that you just write your situation report only to get 'A' in your course and it all ends there,ensure that you go beyond academic exercise, if it is just one item you can take from all, go and implement that when you get back home",Olufemi advised.

Amb. Abikoye urged the students to start the implementation from their centre,

CESDEV,and take it to U.I,then to the city of Ibadan and beyond. He added that the students should look at the SDGs and pick out of the 17 Goals anyone they can easily handle and begin the implementation from their centre.

It could be recalled that the 49 students of Development Practice Programme (DPP) were in Ghana according to their coordinator for 5 reasons,which were captured in 5Rs; to Research,Refresh,Rebrand,Relate,and to Retreat.

The topic of their research being," Enhancing Endogenous Development and Partnerships for Sustainable Development in Ghana", they approached the research from their 4 different areas of specialisation,namely; Social sustainability,Economic Sustainability,Environmental Sustainability and MDP.

A joint presentation was made by the representatives of each area of specialisation to further understand the role of endogenous solution in achieving Sustainable Development in Africa, implications were drawn for Nigeria which they were challenged to go back home and implement.