 Still in the news, the winners of this year's Facebook Community Accelerator Program have been announced and they include nine Nigerians. In total, 13 leaders from Nigeria, South Africa and Kenya will receive training and mentorship. They will also get up to $50,000 in funds to invest in an initiative that extends their community's positive impact. The winners include an advocate of the protection of children from sexual abuse, a founder of a community of natural hair lovers and someone who helps students prepare for UTME. They emerged out of more than 13,000 applicants who entered the competition. One of the winners of the Facebook Community Accelerator Program who is joining us this afternoon is Pita Ogudoro. He runs a community for Nigerian teachers who aren't receiving good training from their employers. He's focused on helping them get the skills they need to make Nigeria's education system globally competitive, one teacher at a time. And of course I would say good afternoon, thank you for joining us, Mr Ogudoro. It's my pleasure to join. And congratulations, first of all, on your win. But first of all, tell us how the awards started and what did you have to do to get recognized by Facebook? This effort that took me about close to five years now, I created that platform in 2016. Soon after I returned from the United Kingdom and several other countries around the world where I had gone to do research to get a knowledge on how to improve the education system in Africa. But when I met frustration in the hands of government officials here, it prevented me from making that knowledge available. I decided to use a different platform to share my knowledge. And so Facebook took notice and have decided to give recognition to them for that I have made. That's how it got where we are. So it's a country that refuses to give recognition to its own, but America has a large heart and they think that we should not go on to recognize. Details are critical for national development. Without us, you can run classrooms that will make the difference at all of what's happening. Absolutely. Let's now talk about it here in Africa and the teaching profession here in Africa. What does this award tell us about teaching profession in Nigeria, considering the figures from South Africa and other African countries? Well, we must know that Nigeria, indeed, is a giant, but it's a giant that has been sleeping for a very long time. But our people are fantastic. And so if we look at the lineup with respect to the number of people who got this year's award, of the 13 people they selected from Africa, nine of us came from Nigeria, and for me, particularly as a teacher, it's a recognition that I find very helpful because it's going to enable me to work with relevant agencies of government and private sector organizations to improve that budget so that we can run better classrooms that will empower children to become globally competitive. So that's probably the way I want to look at it. We are wonderful people, but we live in a country where politicians are making life difficult for all of us. OK, all right, two more questions. I want to ask also about $50,000 in funds, which is part of the story. What are you going to be doing with these funds? And what more invest or where would you channel this Facebook financing into? Well, for my community, the major project of Facebook would be happy to see us do is a project that will involve me undertaking a learning tour of the Scandinavian region. And when I say Scandinavian region, I'm talking about Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and they're on the best education system in the world. So by January, I'll be getting out of the country to understand what they have done to get to where they are and then bring that knowledge back home to improve the quality of teaching and learning that happens in the Nigerian space. That sounds very interesting. Final question. What would you advise other teachers in pretty much similar level as you are to start doing in order to maybe gain more recognition or improve on, you know, their careers and their journeys through teaching? Yeah, improvement of their skill on a regular basis and they are on ongoing basis, not stopping lifelong learning is the way to go. And even though we are not very much appreciated in our country, we must know that the contribution we are making is a contribution that cannot ultimately go unrewarded. When I started doing this, I had no intention of using it to seek this kind of attention, recognition or reward, but it has come. So anybody who does anything useful to society, should know that one way or the other, I will intervene and the recognition and other benefits will come. Extremely proud of you. Thank you very much for your work and for the service. So you're giving to kids out there and to the education sector here in Nigeria. And of course, looking forward to speaking with you when you're back from Finland or whichever country you choose. Thanks once again for joining us. Absolutely. Hello, hope you enjoyed the news. Please do subscribe to our YouTube channel and don't forget to hit the notification button so you get notified about fresh news updates.