At least 80 students from the university of Lagos and some national youth service corps members were, on Monday, trained by Riteonthebeach Initiative to identify areas to enhance their skill sets and make them more competitive in the labour.
The initiative termed ‘Future Proof’, was a social enterprise by pop beach club, which sets up recycling ecosystems in coastal communities that lack disposal infrastructure and have high rates of pollution and poverty.
Local youths were trained in green jobs, environmental services, and entrepreneurship to work in the coastal areas of Lagos.
Speaking at the symposium, the deputy vice-chancellor of the university of Lagos, Prof. Ayodele Atsenuwa, stated that the event was about addressing environmental challenges on beaches.
The law professor said there was a gap in the enforcement of environmental laws.
She said, “I always emphasize to people that enforcement is not the only thing that law does in terms of punishing when people have done something wrong.
“Enforcement is about making sure that the standards of the law are adhered to, but that’s not the work of the state alone. That’s what all of us are responsible for.
“If the law says that we should not dispose of waste along certain standards, we all are supposed to modify our behavior. The definition of law is that it prescribes standards, norms, rules, and regulations that are supposed to assist people to redesign their behaviour.”
The convener of Riteonthebeach, Mr. Akintunde Disu, said it was a private initiative aimed at preserving the beach environment.
He said, “Our target is the youth, and what we are about is empowering the youths; we are training the youths, allowing them to see what is going to arise due to global warming and we are giving them the training and the tools so that they can find their solutions to this problem.
“We are trying to get them ready so that by the time the trouble starts coming up they will have solutions and those solutions can be turned into opportunities for them.”
On the achievement of the initiative, it had given 100 scholarships, provided 20 jobs and removed over 150,000 bottles of plastics from the beach.
