Nduku, a Director at the Institute of Natural Resources, Environment and Sustainable Development (INRES), University of Port Harcourt regretted that the situation had remained despite efforts by government to improve the participation of Nigerians in the sector.
The don made the observation on Sunday in Yenagoa at the award presentation for the first Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) Annual Oil and Gas Undergraduate Essay Competition in the Niger Delta.
The lecturer who was a guest of honour at the occasion noted that while the age average of key players in the global economy is dropping, the reverse is the case in Nigeria.
He insisted that capacity is the key in the oil and gas industry, regretting that while Nigerian operators in the industry trained by the International Oil Companies are retiring, there is dearth of younger Nigerians to take over from them.
According to him, the situation is so bad that indigenous companies are going to call back those who are retired to man critical areas in the industry.
“Even the indigenous companies are going to call back those who are retired to come and work in the industry because a large population of our youths are not skills ready.
"They want to get the money without the capacity, which is absolutely impossible. It is like putting the cart before the horse.
“So we must get to the position where we have to do a radical paradigm shift to get our young people interested in this industry. We must be moving towards knowledge driven economy, and use global thinking and global competitiveness to grow indigenously.
“Knowledge is a global thing. We must prepare our children so that they can play”, Nduku said.
Also lamenting the lack of younger ones to take advantage of the Nigerian content policy, the Executive Secretary of NCDMB, Engr. Simbi Wabote, noted that the baton is leaving the ‘old hands’, but no one to hand the baton over to.
“Nobody can stop the world from moving. Technology can never wait for us. We must reset our mindset so that we do not engage in a catch up race”, Wabote said.
Wabote was represented by the Director, Planning, Research and Statistics, of NCDMB, Dr. Patrick Oba.
The Project Consultant, Mr. Eyinimi Omorozi had in his address of welcome, stressed that the essay competition was conceptualized to foster the realization of the broad objective of creating the Nigerian Content Monitoring and Development Board.
He said, “While the project is intended to promote academic excellence among university and polytechnic students, it is primarily aimed at creating awareness for Nigerians especially the youths.
"The young ones are the real drivers of the Nigerian Content initiative to build local capacities and competencies for indigenous participation in the Nigerian Oil and Gas industry and develop the talent to create value from that opportunity”
According to him, all the entries went through three “grueling stages of assessment” including an interactive assessment of the selected finalists for proper verification of the authenticity of their entries to determine eventual winners.
He expressed optimism that the innovation by the NCDMB would in no distant future become a huge academic exercise for students in tertiary institutions in the Niger Delta region.
The high point of the occasion was the presentation of prizes to the winners where Ikponwosa Kingsley Osamede, a 200 level student of Medicine and Surgery at the University of Benin emerged over all best out of the top five finalists.
He was presented with a cash prize of N500,000, a laptop computer and a plaque, while the first runner up, Ekele Eugene Augustine, also a 200 level student of Dentistry and Dental Surgery at University of Benin went home with N350,000, a laptop computer and a plaque.
The second runner up, Victory Williams, a 200 level student of Sociology at the Federal University, Otuoke, Bayelsa got N250,000, a laptop computer and a plaque, while third and fourth runner up got N50,000 and a laptop computer each.
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