Opinion II Intensifying Skills Acquisition Among The Youth

INTENSIFYING SKILLS ACQUISITION AMONG THE YOUTH

          

The last time I checked, on July 15, the world over celebrated the fourth edition of the World Youth Skills Day. The day, which is aimed at enhancing the youth’s ability in order to make informed life and work choices, was established by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly on November 11, 2014.

        

The World Youth Skills Day was initiated in the UN by the effort of the Sri Lanka Representative, and was unanimously endorsed by the assembly. Hence, the UN calls on Member States to observe the day in an appropriate manner.

        

A skill can simply be defined as the ability to do something well. It can also be referred to as the ability and capacity acquired through deliberate, systematic, and sustained effort in order to smoothly and adaptively carryout complex activities or job functions involving ideas, things, and/or people.

         

Similarly, skill acquisition is the process of acquiring a certain skill by an individual through a thorough intensive training over a given period of time. Skill acquisition involves both theoretical and practical training regardless of its duration.

        

Skill can be classified into three major parts including cognitive, technical and interpersonal skills. A cognitive skill deals with ideas; technical skill is the ability to handle things or a certain human endeavour effectively and efficiency; whilst, interpersonal skill is the ability to relate with people around you usually in business or work places.

         

It’s noteworthy that there are hundreds of thousands of skills in existence such as sporting skill, cultural skill, installation skill, maintenance skill, manufacturing skill, management skill and what have you.

        

Skill is required in every area of human endeavour and it enables the entrepreneurship drive of any nation to be actualized. The most important aspect of skill acquisition is that it benefits all classes in any society involved especially the masses.

        

A small or medium scale entrepreneur is expected to hire many skilled people to take on tasks that are outside of his/her skill set. However, every individual either a prospective leader or business personnel, must relentlessly strive to acquire the skills that will make him/her a great leader or a successful businessperson, as the case may be.

        

Someone who has commenced a business or trade venture owing to his specialized skills and knowledge related to a particular service or product is required to expand his skills to be a successful entrepreneur. Such measure is referred to as ‘skill enhancement’. No doubt, improving skills related to acquiring money or raising capital for a business boost represents the difference between success and failure of the venture in question.

         

Unequivocally, being good at starting a business does not automatically make one good at planning for growth. He or she must acquire planning skills that tie his/her vision to practical steps, which the business can take to realize that vision. The acquisition of the aforementioned skill is important because without it, your firm or business venture can stagnate and lose out to the competition.

         

One may have envisioned a smooth rise to the top when he commenced his business, but the truth is that he will surely encounter crisis or challenging situations. Whether it has to do with shortage of money or the loss of his facilities to a fire disaster, he must acquire the skills that would enable him to remain calm in times of turmoil and maintain his ability to make adequate decisions.

         

The above step is very vital because the affected person can learn to triumph when it looks like he could be defeated. Needless to say that skill acquisition in decision making remains an inevitable tool while carrying out a business strategy.

         

On the other hand, the importance of acquiring strong communication skills will be evident in all of one’s entrepreneurial activities. From networking to leadership, one needs to constantly and consistently update his communication skills to enable him form alliances and encourage consensus.

         

Taking Nigeria as a case study, you would notice that most of our young ones, or the youth, are potentially preoccupied with variety of skills in various areas of human endeavour ranging from culture to sports, engineering/sciences, art works, and leadership, that need to be develop with a view to strengthening their respective entrepreneurship prowess towards nation-building.

         

To this end, there is need to encourage our young ones to be acquainted as well as acquire proficiency in one skill or the other within their reach. The schools can help in this regard by ensuring that the pupils or students regularly create time for guidance and counselling during their school hours.

          

A good counselling would enable each of them to discover their potential skills or abilities, thereby making them develop an interest in that area. The parents and guardians on their part should not hesitate to boost the morale of their children or wards in any skill they are fit in by providing all the needed materials or facilities for them to excel.

         

Inter alia, there is an urgent need to revive the various technical colleges and commercial schools situated across the federation that are currently moribund. And at the tertiary level, the ‘Entrepreneurship Studies’, which are usually done by the undergraduates as general studies, ought to be taken more seriously by the various school managements.

         

In the same vein, the ongoing Industrial Training (IT) and Teaching Practice (TP) schemes being observed by the Universities/Polytechnics and Colleges of Education, respectively must be intensified by the concerned authorities.

        

Above all, the various cultural heritages across the country need to be revisited with a view to harnessing the required ones. This will go a long way towards discovering and reawakening thousands of skills among our numerous youths.

         

As Imolites, and Nigerians in general, join the rest of the world to commemorate the annual World Youth Skills Day, it’s imperative for the governments at all levels, the civil society, religious bodies, corporate organizations, and well-meaning individuals to intensify awareness on the importance of skills acquisition as well as look for a way they can contribute their respective quotas in the crusade with a view to eradicating the socio-economic crisis currently ravaging the country.

        

There could not be a better time for such consignment than now. Think about it!

FDN Nwaozor

National Coordinator, Right Thinkers Movement

__________________________________

frednwaozor@gmail.com

+2348028608056

Twitter: @mediambassador            

Opinion II When Electors Rape Elections

WHEN ELECTORS RAPE ELECTIONS

         

Democracy is arguably characterized by the people. It’s equally worth noting that election is peculiar to democracy. In other words, any democratic system is required to embrace an electoral process.

          

In elections, the voters or electors are presented with alternatives that they can choose among a number of proposals designed to settle an issue of public concern. Hence, in such an exercise, electors are expected to act as kingmakers. Elections are apparently central to the existence stability and development of democracy.

         

On December 28, 1978, the leaders of the then Nigeria’s five political parties issued a unanimous pledge to the nation, to keep election free and fair. The leaders in question promised that their leadership to the country would curb excesses in speech and behaviour by their party members.

          

They further stated that they would restrain their members from engaging in political thuggery and ensure that nothing was done to disrupt the peace of any community where election is to be conducted or upset the unity of the nationhood. Above all, they disclosed that they would accept the verdict of the electorate in the elections which they would help to make peaceful, free and fair.

          

Recalling the recent Nigerian electioneering eras, even the blind could attest that several things are no longer at ease as against what it used to be. The assertion that things have fallen apart is not unconnected with the fact that practices to include but not limited to thuggery, election rigging and vote buying are now the key attributes of most elections. It becomes pathetic when realized that the supposed kingmakers (electors) are the primary cause of the ongoing unfortunate situation.

         

If the above perception is anything to go by, then a sane person would wonder the reason a ‘kingmaker’ would partake in any act targeted at rigging a scheduled election let alone indulging in such dirty act as thuggery. It’s more baffling to acknowledge that those electors – particularly the youth – who sell their birthright would stand to gain nothing, not even reasonable cash.

          

Even those who would not want to associate themselves with activities that could lead to election rigging would prefer to act like mere onlookers as long as the election lasts. Funnily enough, most of them would be present at the polling unit just to engage in frivolous interactions like issues bordering on sports, emotional relationship or what have you, and not to cast their votes. When scrutinized further, you would observe that majority could not even boast of voter’s card.

          

Owing to the acknowledgement that electors are ostensibly the kingmakers, the constitution of most countries across the globe, which Nigeria’s isn’t exceptional, captioned a clause that relates to ‘Vote of no-confidence’. The aforementioned term is a constitutional matter that empowers the electorate, or the governed, to recall any elected officer if found wanting or culpable.

           

In such case, the concerned electors are required to act as a body by collectively endorsing a written document, stating that they no longer have confidence in a particular elected official thus ordering him/her to return home. This tool shows that the electors are meant to be in charge, both in the pre and post– election eras.

          

It is as well worthy of note that the teeming Nigerian electors have equally abused such a lofty democratic tool. They are often marred by apathy when expected to act as one indivisible body, thereby allowing themselves to be cajoled into a state of mockery by the elected officers who they have chosen to worship.

         

The primary consignment of a lawmaker is to air the collective view of his constituents in the Assembly. It suffices to say that there is no tangible reason a legislator who does not have a befitting constituency office would not be recalled by his/her constituents.

         

It is not anymore news that most of the present lawmakers cannot boast of a constituency office in their various constituencies let alone observing ‘Constituency briefing’ as a priority. Some don’t even know the ward chairmen of their respective political parties; they are invariably interested in acquiring such information when elections are by the corner. Worse still, the affected electors would claim ignorance of the injury they have incurred in the process.

         

This trending unwarranted and mind-boggling attitude of most Nigerian electors has continued to rape the god-sent democracy. The gravity of the unending rape is arguably colossal than we could think of.     
          

It is, therefore, needless to state that rebranding the Nigeria’s electoral system is indeed long overdue. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) needs to start taking some pertinent actions as regards the country’s electioneering activities. It ought to be willing and ready to sanction any political party caught in any anti-election acts, especially while a certain election is being awaited.

          

Above all, there’s a compelling need to carry out an all-inclusive sensitization among these individuals known as the electorate before the worst is witnessed.

         

It is equally high time the governments at all levels introduced voter’s education into our various schools’ curriculum. Think about it!

FDN Nwaozor

National Coordinator, Right Thinkers Movement

_________________________________

frednwaozor@gmail.com

+2348028608056

Twitter: @mediambassador            

         

TechDeck I As Nigeria Awaits Digital Switchover

AS NIGERIA AWAITS DIGITAL SWITCHOVER

          

The campaign regarding global migration from analogue to digital broadcasting precisely commenced on June 17, 2006. Nigeria graciously signed regional and international agreement to conclude the digital migration by June 17, 2012.

         

In a bid to meet up the deadline, in 2008, the Federal Government (FG) set up a Presidential Advisory Committee (PAC). The following year, the committee submitted its report but the FG failed to implement it, causing Nigeria to miss the June 2012 deadline. The migration deadline was shifted to June 17, 2015.

          

Though the ‘Digi-team’ inaugurated by the FG alongside the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) made a frantic effort to fulfill the mandate, the efforts again didn’t yield any result owing to paucity of funds as was reported.

          

Thereafter, June 17, 2017 was recognized as the new deadline for the long-awaited transition. In spite of all the efforts put in place by the NBC to actualize the feat, yet the motive wasn’t realized. At the moment, Nigerians have been promised that June 2019 wouldn’t pass them by as regards the long-awaited goal.

           

Having missed the switchover deadline thrice, the citizenry is sceptical about the country’s chances of meeting the new date. It has become obvious that for Nigeria to actualize the feat, there’s need to comprehend the inevitable attributes of digital broadcasting, and the dangers inherent in the ongoing analogue pattern.

          

Analogue mode of transmission is an unreliable system, though it has worked well enough for over half a century. Analogue Television (TV) transmits programming in a continuous signal. The signal varies in amplitude, depending on the information contained in the audio or picture. It is transmitted on a particular radio frequency from the TV station’s transmitting antenna over the air, to the viewer’s TV set.

         

It’s noteworthy that each TV station is assigned a particular frequency that corresponds to its channel number. So, when a viewer tunes his/her TV to a given channel, he/she has actually chosen to receive transmissions on that certain frequency.

        

TV frequencies are calibrated in Megahertz (MHz). There are two major transmission frequency bands, namely: Very High Frequency (VHF) and Ultra High Frequency (UHF). VHF channels 2 to 6 operate in the frequency range between 54 and 88MHz. VHF channels 7 to 13 operate in the frequency range between 174 and 216MHz. And UHF channels 14 to 83 operate in the frequency range between 470 and 890MHz.

         

The aforementioned analog signal is far from perfect. It does not usually reproduce the exact original programming. It can easily deteriorate over long distances. It can equally suffer interference from other sources, thereby producing ghost images, static, and ‘snow’.  
         

Hence, analog transmissions typically produce a lower-quality visual output than the original. The picture is not quite as sharp; the background is sometimes grainy. And the sound suffers from noise and reduced frequency response.

         

A situation where the viewer tries to receive signal from a distant station is even more unbearable. The farther the station, the worse the picture likewise the sound. The results are also poor if the viewer is located in a big city with lots of buildings that bounce the signal around. Among all, analogue transmission is inefficient; each VHF or UHF channel takes up a lot of valuable bandwidths.

          

Unlike analogue transmission that is prone to fading, digital technology reproduces a reliable crystal-clear picture without any form of interference. Digital tech equally enables TV stations to broadcast multiple channels with different programming. It can fit four or more channels into a single analogue channel; hence, it can accommodate as many wavebands as possible within the existing spectrum.

           

Digital tech makes the work easier, improves the professionalism, viewers’ delight, and creates more job opportunities as well as uplifts income for both the broadcasters and the government. Above all, it would enable more prospective broadcasting firms in Nigeria to be licensed by the NBC.

          

To this end, Nigeria needs to hasten up towards meeting the June 2019 deadline. It’s no longer about setting up a team but bracing up to the reality, which is to apply a pragmatic approach instead of the continued indulgence in theory.

         

Digital Terrestrial Multimedia Broadcasting (DTMB), to be utilized by Nigeria, adopts time-domain synchronous Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM) modulation technology, with a pseudo-random signal frame to serve as the Guard Interval (GI) of the OFDM block and the training symbol. Its content is viable and reliable, thus worthy of emulation.

          

The Broadcasting Organization of Nigeria (BON) has a very vital role to play. First, they must acknowledge what they stand to gain. Broadcasting involves generation, transmission and distribution. It’s the duty of the various broadcasting stations to provide the required equipment for the first two phases such as computers, amplifiers and digital transmitter.

            

The government, on its part, is to provide the instruments for the distribution phase such as ITS and pinnacle. BON must therefore conscientize their teeming members to do the needful.

          

Towards sustaining the feat, if actualized, the FG needs to create stiff policies and regulations. The NBC would be expected to be more proactive and endeavour to create the needed awareness. Similarly, the broadcasting firms need to deploy standard maintenance and anti-hacking softwares as well as engage reliable tech experts in their daily activities, either as consultants or employees.

         

The overall project is capital-intensive, so there’s need for adequate collaboration both on the part of the government and the investors. Think about it!

 FDN Nwaozor

CEO, Docfred Technologies

_______________________

frednwaozor@gmail.com

+2348028608056 

Twitter: @mediambassador