Techno Oil Plc, an indigenous oil and gas marketing company has expressed a desire to partner with the Nigerian Institute for Cultural Orientation, NICO, to resuscitate Nigeria’s cultural heritage.
Techno Oil’s Managing Director, Mrs Nkechi Obi, disclosed this while speaking as the special guest of honour at a ceremony to inaugurate Cultural Clubs in Secondary Schools in Lagos, recently.
The event featuring thousands of students drawn from over 50 secondary schools in Lagos, was part of an initiative by NICO to resuscitate the nation’s culture at the grassroots.
“We, as Nigerians, should encourage the positive values and the best in our music, dance, folklore, language, storytelling, dress code and cuisine, and inculcate them in our youths through the Cultural Clubs in Schools,’’ Obi told the gathering.
She expressed the resolve of Techno Oil to collaborate with government agencies, working to actualize government’s dream to foster sustainable development in the culture sector, while also commending NICO’s management for working assiduously to put Nigeria on the global culture map.
She said, “Techno Oil is committed in sustaining its foremost position in Corporate Social Responsibility. At Techno Oil, our Philanthropic activities are anchored irrevocably on the premise by ensuring that we passionately give back to communities and society for providing an environment that is supportive and conducive for the pursuit of enterprise.”
The Techno Oil Chief Executive also charged NICO to identify some of the nation’s bad cultural practices that negated development such as child marriages, child witchcraft syndrome, female genital mutilation and widowhood rites and advised government on how to tackle the problems.
Obi observed that it was gratifying that the Federal Government through organs like NICO, was stimulating the interest of the younger generation through the inauguration of cultural clubs in schools to serve as launch pads for culture revival.
She said that Techno Oil had over the years, showed an uncommon commitment to the cause of ensuring the emancipation of Nigerian youths.
“We recently built a world-class ICT Centre at Dr Lucas Secondary School in Kirikiri, Lagos. In the past five years, we have built and reconstructed classroom blocks and boarding facilities for five Secondary Schools.
“In the same vein, 100 students are currently benefiting from Techno Oil Scholarships in various academic disciplines in Nigerian universities. All these are in line with our core values because Techno Oil believes that the future of our country lies with our youths,” she added.
The Executive Secretary of NICO, Dr Barclays Ayakoroma, explained that NICO decided to set up the clubs in secondary schools nationwide to boost the development of Nigeria’s culture and mores among the younger segment of the population.
He said that the gesture was also to encourage youths to imbibe some positive Nigerian cultural values and make them to have a sense of pride of being Nigerians anywhere they found themselves.
Ayakoroma said that there was the need for the Federal Government to adopt a policy that would compel Nigerian youths to appreciate the nation’s culture rather than believing that other cultures were better than theirs.
