Vice President Osinbajo commends nation’s robotics team for impressive show

The Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, has praised the effort of Team Nigeria to the First Global Robotic Olympics in Washington DC, U.S., in 2017 for its outstanding performance at the challenge.

He made the commendation while receiving the six-member team, their project director, mentor and sponsors to the July 14 to July 19, 2017 event on Monday in Abuja.

Mr Osinbajo said that Nigeria had so many young talents who could do the nation proud in any international competition.

“We very strongly believe that this country has the talent and these young people demonstrated it eloquently.

“They have the talent and the creativity and all that it takes to make the kind of difference that could be done in technology,’’ he said.

He said that he was glad that the youth were working as a team, which was the best way to go, adding that it was an indication that personalised achievement was no longer viable.

He said that having seen a team of dedicated young people, the government would have to support and encourage them.

Mr Osinbajo said he looked forward to a better outing of Team Nigeria in the next Olympic challenge to hold in Mexico in August this year.

He said that the next challenge would be interesting to the country as it focused on energy impact.

He said it would support the country’s work on green energy for which it set up the first green bond as part of efforts to create a green environment and looking at how to mitigate the effects of climate change.

He said that an endowment could be created to fill the technology gap.

The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, pledged the support of the Ministry of Education and that of Science and Technology toward the August Olympiad.

The leader of the delegation, Remi Willouby, a retired robotics teacher, said that the Team Nigeria came first in one category and second in another out of the 10 categories of awards.

She said out of 163 teams from 157 countries in the competition, the country placed 25th globally and emerged third of the 41 African countries in attendance.

“What is important is that we are building a group of children that can change this country using innovation,’’ she said.

Ms Willouby stressed the need for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education being a critical component in the development of the country.

She called for federal government support in the 2018 challenge.

Faisal Jarmakani, the Managing Director of Aramex and Omar Jarmakani of Doculand, who sponsored the team, said the company’s mission was to give the young ones the international exposure in science and technology.

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