By Our Correspondent

In a bid inspire jobless youths to join hands in the creation of new Abia state project, Abia State Governor, Dr. Alex Otti, has charged youths to embrace selfless service, innovation and excellence, and to become active drivers of the New Abia project.

The Governor gave the charge on Saturday, August 29, 2026, while speaking at the graduation ceremony of the 2026 Abia State Leadership Academy Youth Leadership Boot Camp,held at International Conference Centre Umuahia organised by the Abia State Leadership Academy in collaboration with the Enterprise Development Centre of Pan-Atlantic University, Lagos.

Governor Otti, whose speech was titled “The Leadership Vocation,” congratulated the 1,086 graduates of the Abia State Leadership Academy Boot Camp.

Gov. Otti reminded them that they were not returning home as ordinary citizens, and invited them to become active participants in the New Abia. He commended the quality of training delivered, noting that the programme was designed to inspire participants to pursue meaningful impact.

“The process was as seamless as it was transparent, and today, we can see evidence that, in line with our philosophy of merit, only the best performers were chosen to be part of this class,” the Governor said.

Governor Otti commended the President of the Academy, Professor Kenneth Kalu, and his team for their dedication, as well as the Enterprise Development Centre of Pan-Atlantic University, led by its Director, Dr. Nneka Okekaru, for their commitment to the successful delivery of the four-week programme.

The State Chief Executive also appreciated the Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers, the management of Government College Umuahia, and the Nigerian Naval College of Accounts and Finance for their partnership and support. He thanked parents for entrusting their children to the government for the programme.

The Governor noted that about 10 percent of the participants were young people of Abia origin living in different parts of the country, describing this as evidence that the administration’s inclusive policy of identifying anyone who lives in Abia as an Abian is yielding results.

The Governor particularly acknowledged one of the outstanding participants, Ms. Rosely Farida Abdusalam, who lives in Aba with her parents, saying her success demonstrated that the policy of “if you live in Abia, you are from Abia” is working.

Addressing the graduating class, Governor Otti urged them to understand that their graduation marks the beginning of a greater responsibility, rather than the end of their leadership journey.

“You are not going home as regular people anymore. You now belong to a special community of young minds with a responsibility to act with distinction and carry the light of excellence into your communities, schools, and wherever the future takes you,” Gov. Otti said.

Gov. Otti charged them to establish mentoring clusters, share the knowledge acquired at the academy, and mobilise their peers to become active partners in building the New Abia.

The Governor described the New Abia project as a transgenerational journey requiring patience, resilience, teamwork and commitment, and urged the graduates not to remain passive citizens.

The Governor stated that they would, in the future, occupy positions of influence and must therefore begin now to bridge the gap between the aspirations of the State’s founding generation and present realities.

“After your stay at the academy, you can no longer be passive citizens. You are invited to remove the cloak of lethargy and embrace without hesitation the responsibility of selfless service,” The Governor charged.

Governor Otti assured the graduates that the State Government would continue to support and monitor their growth, and directed the Academy to maintain a directory of participants and track their progress.

Gov. Otti expressed particular interest in seeing the ideas developed during their capstone presentations translated into practical solutions. “We are far more interested in seeing them come to fruition,” the Governor said. He described the graduates as “bearers of solutions, drivers of innovation, and agents of transformation,” and encouraged them to approach the government whenever they require assistance to actualise their ventures.

The Governor urged the graduates to remain steadfast in the face of opposition and challenges, stressing that their choices would determine the kind of future they help to build. “It is either you are voting for a prosperous future through your daily choices or you are undermining it by refusing to stand for your conviction,”

The Governor expressed confidence in the young leaders and called on them to make a difference in their communities, adding that their achievements would be the best way to justify the confidence reposed in them by the State.

Governor Otti also thanked the graduates for being good ambassadors of Abia State and their families, and directed the Academy to sustain the leadership development programme.

Speaking, the Chairman of the Abia State Civil Service Commission, Pastor Dr. Eno Jerry Eze said the Abia State Leadership Academy graduated 1,086 young people from its 2026 Youth Leadership Boot Camp, with a charge to become transformational leaders, innovators and change makers who will contribute meaningfully to the development of the State and the nation.

She noted that the 1,086 graduates were selected from more than 7,000 applicants, describing their selection as a testament to their potential and commitment to leadership.

According to her, the theme of the 2026 boot camp, “Raising Transformational Leaders, Innovators and Change-Makers,” reflects the vision of the Abia State Government under Governor Alex Otti to invest not only in physical infrastructure but also in the State’s most important asset – its young people.

“Under the leadership of His Excellency, Dr. Alex Otti, OFR, we are investing not just in roads, schools, climate-friendly transportation, agriculture, small and medium-sized enterprises and hospitals. We are also investing in our greatest assets, our young people,” she stated.

She explained that the theme was a call to participants to lead with integrity in their schools and communities, think creatively, develop solutions to problems around them, and take responsibility rather than waiting for others to act.

She said faculty members went beyond conventional lectures by exposing participants to real-life scenarios and encouraging them to think critically, understand the peculiarities of different situations, appreciate diverse perspectives and develop practical solutions.

“Through these sessions, you gained new perspectives on problem-solving techniques, learned to think more deeply, understand the peculiarities of each situation, and listened to different views across the table,” she stated.

She expressed appreciation to Governor Alex Otti for his commitment to empowering young people and commended the Abia State Leadership Academy for delivering what she described as a world-class programme.

Earlier, the Abia State Leadership Academy President, Prof. Kenneth Kalu, commended Governor Alex C. Otti for establishing the institution as a deliberate investment in the future of Abia State.

Prof. Kalu said the Academy was established because Governor Otti dared to ask a fundamental question: what if government invested not only in what Abia has today, but also in who Abia will become tomorrow.

According to him, the Governor could have chosen to concentrate exclusively on visible infrastructure such as roads, buildings and hospitals, which generate immediate public appreciation, but instead decided to invest in something that cannot be photographed – the minds, character and civic consciousness of young Abians.

“Roads, buildings and other structures are important, and Your Excellency is already doing a lot in those sectors. But a generation shaped by values, a generation taught to live with integrity, serve with compassion and build with purpose, that generation will outlast every structure one can ever erect,” he said.

The Academy President, on behalf of the faculty, staff and students, thanked the Governor for his support and vision, describing the establishment of the Academy as an investment whose impact would extend across generations.

“Thank you for planting a forest of leadership whose shade will shelter Abia for generations. History will remember this day that you came, you saw and you changed humanity for good,” he said.

Prof. Kalu urged the graduates to return to their communities and make a difference, stressing that they should take the values acquired during the programme into their schools, families and wider communities.

“Go back to your communities and lead. Go back to your schools and solve. Go back to your families and model the values you have learned during your time at the Academy,” he charged.

He further encouraged the young leaders to remain steadfast in the face of pressure and temptation, urging them to remember the values of the Academy whenever they were confronted with situations that could compromise their integrity.

“When you are tempted to compromise, as you will be tempted, please remember this day. When the path of integrity feels lonely, please remember the Academy,” he said.

By Our Correspondent

The Minister of Education, Dr. Maruf Tunji Alausa, has called on Nigerian universities and the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure, NASENI, to bridge the divide between scholarship and the market by transforming campus inventions into enterprises, employment and real-world solutions that can power Nigeria’s economic renewal.

The Minister made the declaration during a briefing for Vice-Chancellors, Directors of Academic Affairs, Directors of Postgraduate Studies and officials of the Federal Ministry of Education’s Directorate of University Education. The meeting focused on a proposed partnership model through the NASENI Campus. He said the model is designed to link researchers with state-of-the-art laboratories, prototyping hubs, industry players and funding sources, creating a clear route for ideas to travel from the lab bench to commercial use.

According to Dr Alausa, Nigeria must intentionally shift from pure research to commercial rollout if it wants to get full value from its people. He warned that research should not stop at journal articles or demonstration models. Citing the innovation cluster around Cambridge, Massachusetts as a reference, Dr. Alausa said Nigerian academics should be able to secure patents for their work, scale those inventions into sellable goods, and team up with investors to launch sustainable firms. That, he noted, is how intellectual capacity becomes tangible national progress.

To deliver this, he urged NASENI to deepen ties with universities located near its development centres. Universities, he said, hold a large reservoir of researchers, lecturers and students whose skills can strengthen the agency’s mandate. NASENI, he added, can fill the critical gap between academic work and business success by assisting with patent applications, linking innovators to venture capital, and helping to set up spin-off companies. He also tasked the agency to look into lithium refining and battery production as Nigeria ramps up renewable energy and industrial growth.

Reiterating government backing, Dr. Alausa said the Ministry will keep working with NASENI, universities and other partners to build a working pipeline from research and innovation through to investment, manufacturing and job creation.

Under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, he stressed, the goal is not just to generate more research papers, but to ensure Nigeria’s knowledge, skills and inventions become products, companies, jobs and lasting prosperity for citizens.

Earlier, the Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive of NASENI, Mr. Khalil Suleiman Halilu, outlined the agency’s push to close the gap between research and manufacturing, in line with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s directive to go beyond prototypes and reach full production. He said the planned NASENI Campus will sit inside a 100-hectare free trade zone and function as a fully integrated ecosystem where scholars, professors, prototyping units, industries and commercial pathways operate side by side. Several factories and industrial plants are already set up within the zone.

Giving a practical example, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Abuja, Professor Hakeem Babatunde Fawehinmi, said the school’s current collaboration with NASENI shows what the model can achieve. The partnership has delivered an integrated agricultural incubation centre, greenhouse units, automated poultry systems and tissue culture laboratories that serve both undergraduate and postgraduate research. He added that the university is prepared to expand the work into dairy science and renewable energy.

Also highlighting market-ready research, the Vice-Chancellor of Bayero University, Kano, Professor Haruna Musa, said BUK is pursuing wider cooperation with NASENI in nanotechnology, vaccinology, toxinology and mathematical modelling. He revealed that two BUK projects have reached the final phase of NASENI’s research commercialisation grant scheme. The projects are a reusable sanitary pad and the industrial production of starch derivatives from sweet potatoes.

By Correspondent
The African Minerals Strategy Group, (AMSG), has disclosed that the collapse of an artisanal gold mine in Zamboye, Central African Republic, which reportedly killed more than 100 miners, as a “profound tragedy” that should trouble the conscience of the continent.
In a press statement signed by its Chairman, Dr. Dele Alake, the group said the victims were not just statistics but “brothers, fathers, uncles, sons and indeed, bread-winners.”
“On behalf of the African Minerals Strategy Group, I extend my deepest condolences to the Government and people of the Central African Republic, (CAR) and most especially to the families who have lost loved ones in this terrible disaster. We stand in solidarity with them at this moment of grief,” Alake stated.

He, however, said condolences alone were not enough, stressing that the disaster must force African countries to confront the dangers of illegal and unregulated mining.
According to him, illegal mining has not only deprived African countries of legitimate revenues and damaging the environment, but it has also facilitated illicit trafficking of mineral resources and putting lives at grave risk.

“This tragedy is again, a painful reminder that behind every statistic about illegal mining are human beings—young men and women trying to earn a living, support their families and escape poverty,” he said.
Alake emphasized that “no mineral is valuable enough to justify the loss of a human life.”
The AMSG Chairman called for a dual approach: firm enforcement of laws against illegal mining and criminal networks, and the creation of legal, safe and productive pathways for artisanal and small-scale miners.

“The African Minerals Strategy Group will continue to advocate a continental approach that strengthens regulation, improves mine-safety standards, promotes responsible formalisation of artisanal and small-scale mining, protects mining communities and ensures that Africa’s mineral wealth translates into decent livelihoods rather than preventable deaths,” he said.
He warned that the Zamboye incident must not become “another statistic that we mourn today and forget tomorrow.
“Africa’s mineral revolution must be a revolution that values both the mineral beneath our soil and the human life above it. We owe the victims of Zamboye more than our condolences. We owe them action,” Alake added.
Artisanal mining employs millions across Africa but remains largely unregulated, with frequent accidents, child labour, and environmental damage reported in mining communities.
Stakeholders said formalising the sector through training, access to finance, safety equipment, and designated mining zones could save lives and increase government revenue.
The AMSG is a continental body of African Ministers responsible for mineral resources, set up to coordinate policy and ensure Africa benefits optimally from its mineral wealth.