..bemoans parental influence on career choosing

..says Bemore Summer Bootcamp is an environment to discover purposes, abilities

The First Lady of Ondo State and Founder of BeMore Empowered Girls Foundation, Chief Betty Anyanwu-Akeredolu, has emphasised the need for parents to allow their children identify their areas of interest in choosing a career.

Mrs Akeredolu stated this today in her goodwill message at the 5th anniversary service/Prize giving ceremony of Mabest Academy Akure, the Ondo State capital.

Corroborating the stance of the guest speaker about  parental influence to determine or forcefully  choose a career for their children, the Ondo First Lady charged the students to discover their areas of interest and not parent’s interest.

She encouraged the young minds to find their purpose and contribute to the socioeconomic development of Nigeria.

“But I want to tell you that the world is changing, whether you’re a boy or you’re a girl, you have a place and you should be able to discover your niche. Parents should please support their children whenever they discover what their purpose is”, she advised.

The Ondo First Lady affirmed that her annual Bemore Summer Bootcamp for girls was a good environment for the younger generation whose minds are still malleable to discover their purposes and innate abilities.

According to her, the BEMORE Summer Bootcamp was an environment where self awareness, self worth, integrity and leadership quality were being taught in order to build the kind of personalities needed to move Nigeria forward.

Her words: “This Bemore Empowered Girls foundation that I initiated  five years ago is a place for every daughter to be. It’s  an environment where girl child is mentored to discover herself that she can do something. Majority that took part in this Bootcamp never in their lives thought they could build and install solar panel because it is a profession that we had hitherto thought exclusively reserved for male children.

“But we have proven in no small measure that girls  can also be a solar engineer. And in this kind of environment the girls  begin to realise that they’re part of the society, the girls begin to recognise that they’re part of this world we are accustomed to believing that it’s a man’s world.  Our girls are being taught it is a man and woman’s world.

“They leave the bootcamp knowing that they can fit in to ICT  space  where they can code and make money, even from the comfort of their homes; because we have made them to realise that technology, after all, is gender neutral”.

She charged parents to raise their daughters to contribute to the socioeconomic development of the society, rather than being raised to become  trophy wives, as she hinted that the main objective of the BeMore Summer Bootcamp was to educate girls that technology space was gender neutral.

While stressing the need to promote entrepreneurial skills amongst Nigerian youths, Mrs Akeredolu noted that application of academic knowledge and skill would help to solve societal problems, describing it as one of the banes of our educational system.

Commending the management of the school for providing such a good environment of learning, she described her encounter and awareness of the existence of the school as quite accidental when there was an urgent need to get a venue for this year’s edition of the BeMore Summer Bootcamp.

” This school provided us everything that we wanted and I’m very happy to got to know this school.

Congratulating  the graduands for the successful completion of secondary education, she charged them to be of good conduct as they progress in their educational journey, and be wary of social vices that dominate higher institutions’ environment.

She further encouraged the young minds to have a vision board of what they wish to become in life, and also embrace volunteerism by utilising their free time for community service as witnessed in developed countries.

She, however, urged parents, especially mothers to be alert to their responsibility of checking on their children as they left for higher institutions.

“As your child is leaving home, get a jotter and write in quote ‘REMEMBER WHERE YOU’RE COMING FROM’; I did that to all my children whenever they left home for higher institution. It’s like a check because when you start hearing what’s happening in the university, most times your heart skips and you’ll remember you have one of your blood in such environment”.

Mary Agidi
Special Assistant to the Governor on Media (Office of the First Lady)
Oct. 6th, 2022