Several Speakers at Nupe day special lecture that held at the IBB University Lapai yesterday emphasised the need for all Nupe sons and daughters to imbibe the values of honesty and hard work as the Estu Nupe Alhaji Yahaya Abubakar inaugurated the Trustees for Nupe Foundation Revolving Scholarship Scheme.
The Etsu Nupe who inaugurated the 96 members’ team said the move was to ensure that education is promoted in Nupe Kingdom considering the mass failure especially, at Senior Secondary School Certificate Examinations.
According to him, the need for scholarship scheme was further informed by the fact that education was declining in the Kingdom and the younger ones needed economic support to be able to achieve their desired educational goals.
He therefore, handed down seven terms of reference to the committee which includes mobilising resources that would help to sustain the scholarship scheme of the Nupe Foundation.
He said the committee was also expected to work out modalities for the scheme? and report back to the traditional council within six months to fashion out the way forward for the scheme to achieve her desired objectives of promoting education and ensure sustainable revolving scheme.
Meanwhile, the key note speaker at the Nupe Foundation Lecture titled “Who are the Nupes,” Dr. Idris Shaaba Jimada and the special guest of honour, Dr. Muazu Babangida Aliyu have urged the Nupes to imbibe the values of the Nupe people which made them the cradle of Nigeria unity.
The guest speaker, Dr. Jimada of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria said the industrious nature of the people called Nupe had made them unique as the Nupe land has remained the binding force between the south and the north of Nigeria because of her central location.
He said that Nupe people known for their communal living were dynamic people with innovation, creativity, intellectual insight, disciplined and hardworking whose works predated the coming of the Europeans.
Also speaking, the governor of Niger state, Dr. Ahiyu said the Nupe people were known to be accommodating and always ready to receive visitors, adding that the virtue was what was needed in Nigeria today to tackle the challenges facing the nation.
He said that the recent change by President Goodluck Jonathan of the security advisers and Minister of defence has shown that he was responsive to the yearning of the people.