Nigeria’s first Integrity Idol, Dr Nuzo Eziechi has urged children to pursue their dreams with vigour and cultivate the habit of reading.
Eziechi gave the advice in Enugu on Saturday while receiving another award on `Leadership Role Model’ by the Coal City Literary Foundation (CCLF).
The award winner urged young ones to hold positive discussions and focus on whatever they had passion for adding that people were watching their activities.
“When I was nominated for the Ivory award, I never knew who nominated me till now which means somebody somewhere is watching but you might not know.
“So when you will reap the reward of your hard work, you might not know. I want you to know that determination is key to whatever one does to succeed in life,’’ she said.
Eziechi commended the foundation for promoting reading culture among the youth and pledged to step up the campaign across the country.
Another award recipient, Miss Cynthia Ali who made the best West African Senior Secondary School Examination in 2017 told the students at the event that she achieved her feat through hard work.
Ali, who is a first year student of Microbiology at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) on scholarship, said if she could do it, other children could too.
The Chairman of the occasion and former Vice Chancellor of UNN, Prof Bartho Okolo decried the dwindling reading culture in the country.
Okolo advised children that without reading, they would never become leaders and encouraged them to take their studies seriously to attain their goals.
In a keynote address, Dr Chinedu Aguba, the Head, Department of Education Management in the Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT) emphasised the pivotal role of reading and writing in building a democratic society.
Delivering a paper entitled,`Youth and Development: The place of Reading and Writing’ stressed the need to imbibe reading and writing when youth were beginning to embrace social vices such as political thuggery, cultism and drug addiction.
According to him, reading and writing is not an end in itself but a means to an end.
Earlier, the president of the foundation, Dr Adaobi Nwoye said the mentorship award was a programme aimed at celebrating literary icons, scholars and individuals who had made their marks in their chosen endeavours.
Nwoye said that the foundation was set up to encourage reading and writing adding that it would stop at nothing to ensure the goal was achieved.
She thanked Gov Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi for supporting the `Getting Enugu Reading Again Project’ and urged other stakeholders to key into the program of the foundation and save education from collapsing in Nigeria.
No fewer than 15 secondary schools from the three senatorial zones of the state attended the event.
Notable among those present were Gov Ugwuanyi, Education Commissioner, Prof Uche Eze, Board Chairman of CCLF, Prof Anezionwu Okoro, Principal Recipient of Readers are Leaders’ Award, Prof Cyprian Onyeji and royal father of the day, Igwe Vincent Ekwedigwe. (NAN)
