The National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN) has commended the Arole Oduduwa & Ooni of Ife, Ooni Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi Ojaja II for speaking truth to power and insisting that national security and development won’t yield needed result without youths inclusion.
NYCN President, Amb Sukubo Sara-Igbe Sukubo in a statement, Saturday urged the Federal and state governments to do more to tackle the tension in the country.
Amb. Sukubo said he watched and listened to the Royal Father of Nigerian Youths and was elated that the Ooni, who is the Co-chairman of the National Council of Traditional Rulers of Nigeria (NCTRN), before almost all Nigeria leaders at the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Abuja said “the demography of this country is above 50 to the age of dependency is less than 30 per cent.
“But between the age of 18 and under 40, we have them in numbers of more than 70 per cent. And we are talking about security here. Who are the active participants whenever we have a breakdown of law and order? It is the average age of 18 and 39, and that is the truth. Are they ghosts? Are they invisible? The answer is no. They are human beings.”
According to Amb. Sukubo, who also doubles as the Secretary, NYCN Board of Trustees (BoT), Ooni said “let us be very truthful in this country. Look at this beautiful building; as beautiful as this building is, if the foundation is wrong, the entire building will collapse because the foundation has a problem. In this gathering, the Senate President mentioned the key factor – the collapse of local government. It has collapsed. Let us be very truthful to ourselves, it has collapsed completely.
“That is the only arm of government that is the foundation of this country; you don’t have any other foundation. We are only building on a castle that has completely broken down. It is under the local government’s constituency. They are underfunded; you don’t even reference them for anything; you don’t even care about their administration. Where did we get it wrong in this country? We all have faults – all of us here.
“They (youths) are getting more emboldened. They are now very bold and they are ready to face anybody because they are hungry and they are angry. Let us change our strategy. Let us change our style. Let us engage a lot of very relevant youth organisations; that understand the local government administration and governance within every district and locality of this country. It is very important for us to continue to engage them in every programme we do in this country.”
Amb. Sukubo, who expressed joy that the warnings came from the Royal father of Nigerian Youths to the political elites, said he cannot agree less with the Ooni of Ife that “our dear country Nigeria is the binding force for every one of us. We don’t have any other place. The nation belongs to all of us. And we must all raise to play our part for meaningful development.”
The President, in a statement, urged government at all levels, political leaders and other stakeholders to listen to the voice of wisdom, Ooni Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi Ojaja II and engage Nigeria Youths meaningfully to tackle the myriad of problems thwarting the growth of Nigeria.
He also lamented that a huge number of Nigerian youths are jobless and the government whose responsibility is to create enable environment for additional jobs creation has abandoned the youths. “So how can we make progress?
“Our leaders must know that they are there because we want them to, they should lead like men of faith, conscience and with undiluted patriotism. Above all, their programmes, projects and policies should be deliberately for the engagement and empowerment of Nigerian youths. All these are what will bring the country out of the woods.
“We have the number, the energy and even the know-how. All that we require is that enabling environment and inclusion. We are the future of this country, so the government need to create that enabling environment for effective nurturing. This is important because a country that fails to plan for its future, plans to fail in future.”
NYCN commended the Ooni for speaking truth to power and assured him of millions of Nigerian youths support, prayers for more wisdom, long life and prosperity.
“We appeal to Nigerian youths to remain calm, for this turbulence too shall pass. We also urge all royal fathers, professional associations, business tycoons and other stakeholders in the project Nigeria to emulate the Ooni of Ife and without fear, speak truth to power, so that we can build a nation that we will be proud of,” he said.