By Oluwatoyin Onigbanjo
Lagos – A renowned comedian, Atunyota Akporobome, popularly known as Ali Baba, on Thursday tasked Nigerian youths to be involved in the lucrative business of fashion designing and stand-up comedy.
The comedian told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that being involved in these businesses would do youths a world of good, than waiting for white collar jobs.
Ali Baba gave the advice on the sidelines of his Jan.1 Concert, in Lagos.
The comedian said that the show featured a sewing class, where three winners emerged after successfully making clothes within three hours.
“We also organised a `Spontaneity Show’, which featured no fewer than 10 comedians, to make jokes from topics thrown at them on the spot by the audience.
“Judges were appointed and the winner of the comedy session was awarded a brand new car, while the best clothes, sewn within three hours, among the contestants, won N300, 000 and a new sewing machine.
“Comedy business is inborn; and youths who are gifted in it can use it to create wealth, not only searching for white collar jobs by all means.
“The same goes for fashion designing.
“We partnered with renowned operators in the business like Mai Atafo, who said that the potentialities in the country’s fashion sector is yet untapped,” he said.
In a related development, Mrs Omolara Aromolaran, the Chief Executive Officer, Crown Natures, a garment manufacturing outfit, encouraged youths to create jobs for themselves in the textile sector.
Aromolaran told NAN that there were opportunities to be exploited in the garment manufacturing segment of the fashion designing industry, as Nigeria still imported 80 per cent of its clothing items.