Immediate past minister of power, works and housing, Babatunde Fashola, has urged Nigerian youth to change the narrative by telling and projecting their own story better.
“Your generation must tell your story better. You are doing a lot more than you care to speak about,” Fashola said at the BRF Gapfest3 tagged, ‘generational gap: youth inclusion and the leadership question in Nigeria’ held in honour of the former to mark his 56th birthday in Lagos.
According to Fashola, the youths are doing a lot to move the country forward, while most of the younger generations have moved ahead of the nation in creating opportunities for themselves.
Fashola opined that censorship was not necessarily negative; rather it helped to form the values of a society on what was acceptable and what was not.
“A society that cannot decide what is acceptable or what is good, and leaves everything to individual behaviour: individual behaviour has never worked. We must never take good governance for granted; those who take good governance for granted, do so at their own peril,” he said, as he charged the youth to manage their time with the use of tablets and other technology devices better.
On the generational debate, Fashola was of the opinion that every family is interested in their young ones, stating that everybody has a role to play in good parenting. “Young people are taking more responsibilities than they care to admit they have taken,” he said, charging young Nigerians to delegate less of their parenting role.
Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the Lagos State governor, commended Fashola’s dedication to youth development.
He stated that the theme of the BRF Gabfest will help Nigerian youth develop an insight into moulding the Nigerian society into what it ought to be and the inclusive role they are to play in it in terms of leadership.
“Our country and continent is at a point that the level of poverty is fast rising, unemployment has become a major challenge, insecurity is an increasing menace, and the nation and continent have been described as a gun powder waiting to explode. In the face of daunting challenges; the desired future we hoped for seems like a mirage and might continue if the youth choose to remain passive.
“More needs to be done to ensure inclusion of the youth in governance and politics. The youth are the map to our future and the future of our nation will continue to be highly insecure if we fail to secure the future of our youth. To successfully do this, we need to give them the right knowledge, tutelage, insight and platform that help the impact and development needed,” said Sanwo-Olu.
