Efio-Ita Nyok|15 June 2016|6:42am
The Speaker of the Cross River State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon John Gaul Lebo, has lamented the dwindling reading culture among youths.
Lebo who described the ugly trend as catastrophic also said that the intellectual future of the country would be bleak if the situation was not reversed.
Addressing a delegation of the National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN) Cross River State chapter recently in his office, the Cross River Assembly Speaker observed that reading helped to sharpen intelligence and builds capacity as well as informs and educates.
He called on the youths to embrace reading and sustain a culture of reading as it was necessary tool for the future, submitting that the globe was already transforming into a knowledge economy which was radically shaping the present and future.
The Speaker urged the youth to be good ambassadors of the state and role models to younger generations while eschewing acts capable of smearing their image in the mud even as they strive to further develop themselves through reading.
He encouraged the youths to enlist into the Calabar Readers’ Club which he founded to help remedy the declining reading attitude of youths, remarking that the club would help them re-activate the habit of continuous reading.
Rt. Hon Lebo added that NYCN must create novel programmes and youth development activities if it must be taken seriously.
Speaking, the Chairman of the Cross River State chapter of the National Youth Council of Nigeria, Comrade Prince Ndiyo Ndiyo commended the Speaker for his inclination to youth development and the numerous initiatives to this end.
He solicited for more space for youths in governance and also the support of the House of Assembly through the enactment of a law to encourage employment of more youths of the state into companies operating within the state as well as capacity building programmes and projects for youth of Cross River by the state government and other stakeholders, while also appealing for support to enable the council organise debate and essay competitions which he said would help to develop the intellectual and social acumen of the youths.
Efio-Ita Nyok
Is a Blogger & the Editor of Negroidhaven.org (Negroid Haven)
