By Sunday Ani, Lagos
The senator representing Lagos East Senatorial District at the National Assembly, Tokunbo Abiru, has charged Nigerian youths to ensure that they take an active part in building the country.
SenatormAbiru, represented by Segun Oladapo Oscar, made the call at the formal inauguration of the Speaker of the Lagos State chapter of the Youth Assembly of Nigeria (YAN) in Lagos. The senator urged young people to go back home and build their communities, stressing that effective nation-building starts when everybody goes back to his community to contribute his quota in development.
In his opening remarks, the National President of the youth group, Shuaibu Sani, described the event as epoch-making, considering that the youths occupy a sensitive position when it comes to making things happen politically, socially, economically, educationally and many other respects.
He noted that young people, both in the past and present, have been doing everything practically possible to ensure that they carve a niche for themselves and leave enviable footprints in the sands of time. He stressed that such lofty ambition could not be achieved if they continued to remain in their comfort zones.
He charged them to go into the field and make things happen.
‘The government cannot provide white colar jobs for all the unemployed youths, so we must develop the entrepreneurial spirit to be self empowered economically. Only then shall we be able to resist the temptation of not being used by the political leaders and make a difference in our society,’ he said.
He charged the youths to make positive use of their numerical strength in enthroning good governance.
‘Youths make up a larger part of our population. Democracy, they say, is a game of numbers. If that is true, then our numerical strength shouldn’t be thrown overboard. We must deploy it to ensure that we promote good governance. And in doing that, we must pay attention to leadership across the board. Our emphasis should not only be on political leadership, but across the board. If we do that and begin to sanitise the system, I believe, we will make things right,’ he assured.
Sani lamented that Nigeria is in crisis simply because the culture, norms, values and cherished tradition of the country’s forebears have been abandoned. ‘Unity and harmonious existence should be our watchword, that is the essence of forming the youth assembly,’ he noted.
In his acceptance speech, the newly-inaugurated Speaker for the Lagos chapter of YAN, Agbotan Oluwatobi, promised that the new leadership would strictly pursue agenda and productive issues that matter in the life of the youths in the state.
He also charged the youths in the start to get ready to take up positive responsibilities as his leadership would ensure that their talents are fully harnessed.
