By Ige Adekunle
Sango-Ota (Ogun) – The Octagon Nigeria, an NGO on Saturday said it had given scholarship of N1 million to children of widows in Ado-Odo/Ota Local Government Area of Ogun.
Mr Olatunji Egbewunmi, the founder of NGO, disclosed this at the 3rd Anniversary Lecture/Award ceremony organised by the organisation in Ota, Ogun.
The lecture was entitled: ”The Role of a True Leader in Economic Development”.
The Octagon Nigeria was established in 2014 with a mission to support the plight of the vulnerable segment, especially widows and their children, to become productive in the society through advocacy, economic empowerment and human rights programmes.
Egbewunmi said that 10 children of widows benefited from the scholarship programme.
He said that the initiative was to provide qualitative but free primary and secondary education for gifted children of the poorest widows in the country.
”To build a credible future for African by ensuring every child has access to free education,’’ he said.
Dr Harrison Edo, the guest speaker, lauded the initiative and urged other NGOs to emulate it.
”Nigerians do not need to wait until they have huge funds before they can contribute to the society,” he said.
Edo, who is a financial expert, noted that it did not matter the position people hold in the society either as president, minister or governor, they would be remembered only for the service rendered, not the money spent.
He said that the current economic recession called for national sacrifices from all Nigerians irrespective of political leaning, adding that it should start from the leaders.