The co-founder of Peter Kayode Foundation, Mrs Thelma Kayode Bello, has charged Nigerian youths to harness their potential and creativity to drive progress and development as well as solve problems facing the country.
Mrs Bello spoke at a one-day seminar on opportunities for creatives in Cross River, organised by Peter Bello Foundation, tagged, "Calabar Photo Walk 2026," and held at Prof Eyo Ita building, Marian Road, Calabar.
Speaking at the event attended by hundreds of young leaders and social entrepreneurs in Cross River State and the guest speaker and founder of Africafixers, Obaji Akpet among others, Mrs Bello called on youngsters with passion for creative roles to always attend trainings and be ready to be mentored if they must excel.
"Don't give up, try a little better, you can carve a niche here but first find out what you can do and perfect it.
"Go for trainings, be mentored and ready to burn the candle when you have to and you will excel," she advised.
On the essence of the event, the Foundation's co-founder, informed that it was in memory of her late son, Captain Bello, who though spent 26 years on earth, achieved various feats as a photographer, an actor, chemical engineer and pilot before the ill-fated aircraft that claimed his life.
According to Bello, the Foundation seeks to encourage young ones to live their dreams as the deceased did in his lifetime.
Delivering his paper titled "Think Global, Shoot Smart", Travel journalist, photographer and media entrepreneurObaji Akpet posited that with the advent of technology, young people’s ideas could reach a global audience, urging them to take advantage of this.
Akpet, who is the founder of Africafixers, a logistics roviders to journalists, corporate organisations and independent filmmakers across over 40 Africa countries said by 2030, there would be 10 billion people on the planet and it was expected that 80 per cent of the new people would live in Africa and Asia. Thus, ‘’we have to find new ways of coping with the change. I think is that the issue of innovation is important.’’
According to him, youth make up 65 per cent of Africans, adding that this portends great opportunities for youths to look for more creative ways to address the continent’s socio-economic needs.
Akpet who revealed that he only succeeded in three out of nine business ventures he attempted in his early days, stressed the need for creatives to take advantage of vistas of opportunities aimed at enlarging their scope instead of depending on civil service jobs and politics.
While encouraging creatives to be reliable and deliver on deadlines, if their patronage must soar, he urged participants to 'think global and shoot smart.
He expressed confidence that the youths would leverage technology to harness their creative potential for economic development.
Cross River Commissioner for Information, Dr. Erasmus Ekpang, averred that the creative sector remains apt in the socioeconomic development of any nation with vast opportunities that are capable of harnessing the creative habits in youths as well as transforming imagination to real industries.
Director-General Cross River Microfinance Entrepreneur and Development Agency (CR-MEDA), Great Ogban, while applauding the Foundation for keying into the vision of the state, affirmed that the governor, Prince Bassey Otu, has continuously demonstrated his passion for job creation and enterprise development.
"As an Agency we do that with the opening of our Entrepreneurship Development Centre in the state where we let you know that talent is not enough, you need education, knowledge to fine-tune it, right network to get the platform you need and we also provide access to finance which the governor has made funding easy in the state.
On his part, Community Lead of Wiki Niger Delta, Michael Diala, reasoned that a lot of time, the region's history and culture are under represented globally, hence the need to take ownership of stories of the region while galvanising young people to start creative contents.
"We need to create stories that project our rich cultural heritage and specifically for Cross River creatives, we want to see that they own their stories and project it to the world using our platform," Diala said.
A photographer, Otome Onoge-Kajogbola, who spoke on "Creating the intentional image," argued that there is a difference between taking pictures and creating an image, maintaining that in order to create an image, you have to put a lot of visual elements into it.
According to her, intentional image is created with purpose, emotion and direction, makes your work stand out, answers a question, sparks conversation and addresses issue.
The event which featured talks by some alumni members also provided the exhibition of photographs taken by the late Captain Bello.
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