Title: GOVERNOR OF LAGOS STATE, ON THE OCCASION OF THE YORUBA YOUTH CORPORATION CONVENTION Date 2009-08-14
Delivered at THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Delivered By HIS EXCELLENCY, MR. BABATUNDE RAJI FASHOLA, SAN Speech Content PROTOCOL
It is always an exciting and a fulfilling experience for me whenever the opportunity presents itself to interact with Nigerians in the Diaspora. It is more significant when the groups are potential leaders of the emerging generation of which I am privileged to be a part. I am therefore delighted to join you all, my brothers and sisters of the Yoruba Youth Corporation, North America, as you hold yet another convention as a mark of celebration of the Yoruba youths based in the United States of America. I bring greetings from our homeland, Nigeria and from our people in Yoruba land. E ku ojo meta, e ku igba kan ri, e ku ise o, se gbogbo wa la n gburo ile o. Mo gbadura pe gbogbo wa la o kore oko dele o. (Amin).
It is obvious that a great work of fellowship, partnership and reunion is being done by your group. Let me therefore congratulate the President of the Yoruba Youth Corporation, Seyi Ogunlusi, the Vice-President, Eunice Ogunleye, the Secretary General, Bukky Ajetumobi and the entire membership of the association for their thoughtfulness in putting this event together. You have been building up one another, rekindling the sense of communality and fellowship for which the Yoruba nation is known. I am particularly happy with the choice of the theme for this year’s convention”. Remembering the past, shaping the future of our youths”, which is apt and appropriate, especially against the backdrop of your present status in a country that is not native to you and in view of the present global challenges that pose some threat to our dreams and aspirations. It will be a great disservice to our sense of history if we do not reflect from where we were coming from. In fact, most times, it would be difficult to fashion out a clear cut road map for the future, if the past is neglected or forgotten. We would not be able to assess what were our failures and successes and how we can correct those failures and improve on the successes. As young men and women, just as a writer says: yesterday is a spent cheque; tomorrow is a promissory note, and today is a spend-able cash. So it is how we spend today that will determine our tomorrow. There is therefore no appropriate time than now, to give yourselves a wake up call to learn the lessons of history as a lever to propel you into the future. Undoubtedly, the convention should be used to remember the past challenges facing our youths and at the same time proffer reasonable suggestions on how some of the challenges could be tackled in our efforts to shape the future of our youth.
The second reason why the choice of the theme of this year’s convention unarguably, is so timely, could also be linked to the cautious excitements currently sweeping the world with the victory of Barack Obama as the first Black President of the United States of America and the world-wide reaction to his call for change and hope. Young people all over the world have identified with his message. Africans and Nigerians at home or abroad cannot be indifferent to this phenomenon. Like every society, there are a number of reasons why issues of youth unemployment are more sensitive than adult unemployment. It is my honest belief that once our youths rise up to the challenges of taking their own destinies in their own hands by defining their own future through right education, appropriate and relevant skills acquisition for the right jobs, it would not be difficult for them to secure gainful employment or be engaged in skills acquisition programs and become self-reliant, self-employed and even employers of labour. In consonance with our decision to engage all stakeholders in building a New Lagos, the present administration in Lagos State during its celebration of 800 days in office last week focused on how our youths could be more empowered to be economically independent, financially self-reliant and thus become useful to themselves and the society in general.
Since our assumption of office, Lagos State Government had on many occasions and in different capacities be implementing programmes that are youth-specific. From providing educational opportunities through bursary awards and scholarship to provision of free text books and rehabilitation of classrooms to make them destinations for learning and work, we have been redefining the future of many of our youths. From poverty alleviation through employmen-generation projects to empowering them through skills acquisition centres, we have reduced the number of unemployed graduates and school leavers. For instance, cheques were presented to 5,000 beneficiaries in collaboration with 5 approved micro-finance banks and various skills and vocational training centres across the state were established.
This according to the philosophy of our government will change the socio-economic face of different communities in the State that has become the melting pot of all nationalities in Nigeria and big brother to all the states. Before I conclude, I would urge all of you to see your sojourn in this foreign land as a pilgrim on a journey “Awon Babawa so pe, ajo ko le dun k’onile ma rele”. You must have a deliberate plan to return home one of these days. As an agglomeration of associations, I urge you to foster love, cooperation and unity among yourselves. Remember you are supposed to be your brother’s keeper. Always keep in touch with events happening back at home and seek how you can make your own contributions. We have no other country and like the Americans, we must be proud of it. Nigeria needs your contributions, Lagos needs your contributions. Our government has a deliberate policy to attract all our people in the Diaspora to come and invest in Lagos or use their expertise to help develop our State. We guarantee their investments with high net worth. Let me also use this forum to call on leaders of various associations, opinion leaders, experts as well as some social advocates to collaborate with the Nigerian government in projecting the image of our nation in a very positive light. Let us shun negative activity that may bring the name of your family or that of the Yoruba race into disrepute. “Oruko rere san ju wura (dollar) lo”. I am sure that as you work or study hard and keep yourselves on the right side of the law of this land, your dreams would be fulfilled; keep your eyes on the ball and follow your dream, the future belongs to the youths and the future is now.
Once again, I congratulate the President of the Yoruba Youth Corporation, Seyi Ogunlusi, the Vice-President, Eunice Ogunleye, the Secretary General, Bukky Ajetunmobi and the entire membership of the association for the success of this occasion and I hope that the decisions agreed at this convention would be fully implemented to the empowerment of our youths, the development of Yoruba Race and Nigeria and to the glory of God. Thank you for listening. I wish you a successful convention. A o kore oko dele o (Amin).
MR. BABATUNDE RAJI FASHOLA (SAN) GOVERNOR OF LAGOS STATE 14TH AUGUST, 2009
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