Rivers youth have been advised never to allow their poor backgrounds and limitations of circumstances deprive them from developing their God-given potentials.
Professor Owen Tam Adikibi, gave the advice during the official launch and maiden scholarship awards presentation of the Professor Owen Tam Adikibi Foundation (POTAF) in Kalio-Ama, Okrika, Rivers State, recently.
Adikibi said: “I was disturbed with the wastage of youngsters in my community due to widespread poverty, which has forced youngsters not to develop their full potentials. This made me develop a means of supporting youngsters to attend secondary and university education in order for them to develop their potentials.
“I did not allow the limitations of circumstance of my poor background deter me as I struggled against tough financial constraints in my educational pursuit. That determination enabled me attend the prestigious University of Ibadan, where I obtained my Bachelor of Science (BSc) and Masters of Science (MSc) degrees in Economics through a Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria scholarship awards in conjunction with Rockefeller Scholarship Foundation and Rivers State Government of Nigeria. As a product of scholarship awards, I want to give back too to the society and country at large,” Adikibi added.
He explained the rationale for restricting the POTAF scholarship to only students with specialty in key areas of Sciences, especially Medicine, Engineering and Computer Science, emphasising that secondary schools no longer concentrate on the important aspects of studies capable of developing the industrial base of the nation.
He expressed disappointment that despite the huge number of applicants for the undergraduate scholarship programme, only two candidates met the criteria with qualifications in Electrical and Petroleum Engineering, regretting that none has competences in Medicine, adding that he had no option than to award the scholarship to only two instead of three students JAMB offered provisional admission to study Electrical and Petroleum Engineering at the Rivers State University of Science and Technology (RSUST).
Adikibi noted that they were a large number of brilliant students from Okrika, Ogoloma, Kalio-Ama and Islands around the area deprived of pursuing and developing their capabilities and potentials because of lack of focus and concentration, but urged them to explore the huge opportunities available in science courses to lift themselves and their families out of poverty.
Adikibi advised teachers in secondary schools to refocus and concentrate more on sciences, particularly medicine as those who do well in the specific field turn out to become human technicians on earth by giving life back to humanity, adding that innovations and creativity form the core of their life.
He added, “My own little way of contributing to humanity, my own little way of worshipping God, and finally, my own little way to give thanks to God for all His blessings, which are not my right, but privileges, is for me to give back to the society, using the POTAF, and I pray that the scholarship foundation lives forever”.

Susan Serekara-Nwikhana