ABIODUN NEJO
Founder of Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti (ABUAD) Aare Afe Babalola (SAN) and the Chief Executive Officer of Channels Television, Mr. John Momoh, have decried the negative impact of ethnic politics and youth unemployment on the nation’s development.
They are of the view that leaders should,as a matter of necessity, stem the tide of ethnicity and make concerted efforts to develop and reorientate the youth towards believing in themselves and harnessing their potentials to take them and as well the nation out of poverty.
Babalola and Momoh spoke at ABUAD on Saturday at the institution’s 2018 Convocation Lecture entitled: “Deconstructing The Nigerian Conundrum As a Panacea for National Cohesion and Transformation”, delivered by Momoh.
According to them, the poverty level among Nigerians and the rampancy of crimes will continue to soar until leaders focus attentions on how best to harness the potentials of the youths and refrain from fanning the ember of ethnicity to win elections.
In his address, Babalola said that the country was at present facing the crisis of unemployment due to that widespread belief that only those on government payroll could be successful.
“Nigeria is in crisis of unemployment today because graduates only think of getting employments with their certificates. Instead of this, think of what you can do on your own to help your situation.
“What I believe should be in vogue now is Private Public
Participation, because government can’t employ everybody. Don’t think of how much you can earn from government, but what you can make on your own. This accounted for why everybody sees politics as a lucrative business.
“Ngeria is a country of nations, with diverse interests and people, so the only thing that can bridge the gap is functional education. If we can have three or four schools like ABUAD, Nigeria will be better for it”, he said.
In the lecture, Momoh lamented how Nigerian leaders from independence had been relying heavily on ethnicity to win elections, saying this had caused serious erosion of national integration efforts of the Federal Government.
The broadcast journalist, who said the Federal Government upon realizing the destruction such tendency had caused to the nation instituted the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme, lamented that politicians still frustrated government’s efforts through consistent reliance on ethnic divisions to win elections.
He said: “If we look at what is happening to us today, we will see that ethnicity is a negative value. It has contributed nothing but disunity in diversity, as ethnic groups are closer and their interest are of priority than national interest.
“The only way we can navigate out of this conundrum is by finding a platform where
national interest can be promoted and this will start with harnessing the potentials of our youths”, he stated.
According to Momoh, the nation’s socio-economic and political problems could be resolved if government chose place high premium task on
developing the youth population, by making them healthy, educated and
productive.
“In trying to find solutions to our crisis, it is important to
emphasize the significance of our youth population. If nation’s youths are educated, healthy and productive, be assured that the nation will
grow. If other variables are added, be confident of a prosperous future for Nigeria.
“Mark Zuckerberg was 19 when he founded Facebook, the networking site. Bill Gates founded Microsoft at 20, Steve Jobs was 21 when he
invented Apple, Google’s Larry page was 25, Larry Ellisson of
Oracle was 32 when they started. So, our youths must be audacious to face challenges,” Momoh said.
