By Oshio Joy
Theatre and Performing Arts Department of Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, in northern Nigeria, is supporting other partners to hold an Inter-faculty Talent Hunt Series – the 3rd in a series of the activity.
This is aimed at discovering new talents in creative and entertainment arts, social entrepreneurship, critical thinking, architectural designing, locally-produced/home-made technologies, cultural engineering, as well as tourism governance for sustainable development.
Unlike the past editions, the organisers said, this year’s edition will provide opportunity to students in the sciences, engineering, arts, management science to showcase their research findings, talents, and creative abilities, adding that there is a need to identify students with native abilities in diverse areas in order to mentor them to be effective leaders for tomorrow.
Speaking on the importance of the project, a University don, Dr Emma Gana, said, the academia must begin to discover talents from the university campuses all around Nigeria and coaching identified talents to achieve their potentials.
According to him, students after graduating from the university are faced with harsh realities and most of them often abandon talent for survival.
“We must begin to check against students abandoning talents for survival. Most of the popular start-ups and real-time services we enjoy today are borne or nursed by students from university campuses.
“Tech-students with talent were quickly identified and mentored and today they have delivered services that have made communication and businesses to thrive”, he said.
A lecturer with the University Department, Jamila Mohammed, noted that Nigeria is lagging behind among the comity of nations with large population of student innovators.
She calls for replication of the talent hunt project in other Nigerian institutions for greater harvest of innovations.
https://www.africaprimenews.com/2018/06/23/news/nigerias-open-university-matriculates-transport-workers-reiterates-commitment-to-human-capacity-development/
