Olamide Babatunde
Ooni of Ife, Enitan Adeyeye Ojaja ll, has initiated a royal awards ceremony for 100 Nigerian youths. The awards, he said, will recognise and celebrate hard working Nigerian youths who have distinguished themselves in various endeavours.
He said it will boost their self esteem and make it easy to ask for their rightful place within the economy in a very appropriate way.
He said: We are nurturing the self esteem of the average youth so that leadership can register with them as something that they have to demand. We are giving this award so that they can be closer to leadership in public and private sectors.
The monarch has advised that young ones keep to mentorship which is key to growth.
“If you don’t have it, it is like you don’t know where you are going. Mentorship is very key. You can’t just wake up and say I want to hammer. Nigerian youths have the social media as their biggest tool so we want to hear the success stories and prepare the grounds for those coming behind.”
The highly profiled selected awardees between the ages 19 and 39 were picked from across all tribes and professions following their campaign trail and how impactful they have been locally and globally .
Speaking on sustainability of the initiative, the monarch said he would empower the awardees by creating a forum that will run for a year. With this model he can keep in touch, enabling follow up on progress and further development of each awardee.
“I will use my office to open doors for them with other monarchs. We will see how we can add value and improve them until a year after when they hand over to the next set.
“The essence of the ceremony is to project Nigerian youths as ground breaking success stories who, according to the monarch, are been sold in negative light.”
He said many of the youths are doing well and need to be celebrated for their achievements.
“We want the world to know about their accomplishments because they are strategically placed all over the universe. I will champion how to take them to political leaders, professionals in the private sectors. They must see and know what these young ones are doing,” he said.
Commencing the week long celebrations in Lagos, he urged the youths to continue to strive for great things with a positive mind that will leave behind legacies for the African continent.