The six Nigerian students that
will represent the country at the Africa Robotics Challenge (ARC) in South
Africa on September 28 have cancelled their trip to the country for safety
reasons.
The students announced the
cancellation of their trip at a news conference on Monday in Lagos, saying that
the organisers had failed to guarantee their safety throughout the duration of
the competition.
The students are: Tirenioluwa
Shobande, 18, a 100 level Systems Engineering student of the University of
Lagos (UNILAG); Ifeoluwa Aigbiniode, 15, of Yaba College of Technology
Secondary School, and Jeffrey Nwafor, 15, of S-TEE International School.
Others are 19-year-old Kolawole
Olatunji, a 100 level Computer Science Education student of Lagos State
University (LASU), Toluwanimi Akinola, 15, Dansol High School and Aromolaran
Dominion, 14, Supreme Education Foundation.
Remi Willoughby, the national
coordinator, said that the organisers had informed her of their inability to
provide adequate security and guarantee the safety of the students while in
South Africa.
She said the organisers hinted
that while in South Africa, the Nigerian competitors would neither disclose
their nationality nor will they be able to go out for sight seeing for the
duration of the competition.
According to her, the host says
that the event will not be given publicity and that no one else will be invited
to witness the competition.
“This competition we are supposed
to go for is Africa Robotics Challenge, it is a product of first Robotics
Challenge which we have been going for in the last few years,” Willoughby said.
“We planned to go to South Africa
for this robotics competition which is basically supposed to be for few African
countries and would have held on Sept. 28.
“However, we will not be
attending because of the situation in South Africa currently.
“And the fact that I cannot
personally guarantee the safety of the students while there, and with our host
telling us that even if we come, it will not be announced.
“That we have to come quietly and
we will not wear our Nigeria T-shirts and that the bus that will convey us will
not display our logo of Green, White, Green, so how can we proudly showcase our
country?”
According to her, beyond the host
not guaranteeing safety, there is the need to support our brothers and sisters
who have not been treated fairly in South Africa.
She added that attending the
competition would also be like betrayal of trust; we are also glad the parents
of the students agreed that it was not safe to make the trip.
“So, we decided it was not the
best thing to risk the lives of the students at this time in the name of a
competition,” she said.
Aigbiniode, one of the students,
expressed disappointment over the situation, saying they had worked hard for
the competition.
She, however, said it was not all
disappointing moments “because we learnt the process of building and developing
a robot.”
She said that the competition was
basically on first tech challenge and on space mission .
For Tirenioluwa, Robotics is like
any other game or competition that brings people together no matter the race or
tribe.
“I see robotics going very far
not only in the aspect of being a game but helping different countries to solve
issues and develop technology,” he said.
“It is a great era for us to
expand to prove to the world that African countries have advanced in technology.”
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