Kunle ADELABU
-Get N1million grant for business idea
-Charge Lagos Govt on Agro-economics empowerment
-To train 100 youths on skill acquisition.
It was yet another storming session at the annual Ikorodu Division Youths Summit as youths in the division converged for the second year running at the main hall of the prestigious Ikorodu Town hall to brainstorm on self-development and their roles in the community.
This year’s edition was themed, “Youth: Catalyst of positive influence in community development”.
Mr. Kuye Lanre Kamorudeen, the Deputy Registrar (Information) and Public Relations Officer, Lagos State Polytechnic, spoke on the topic, “Education and Career Development, while Dr. Surajudeen Mudashiru, an Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, LASU, spoke on “The role of the youths and action demands” and Mr Bayo Oteju, Senior Legislative Aide to Hon. Babajimi Benson and an author, spoke on “Youth: Catalyst of positive influence in community development”.
Over 500 youths attended the summit from the one Local Government and five Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) in koroodu Division of Lagos State, Southwest, Nigeria.
Discussant at the summit were Abayomi Ojekunle, Seun Elesho, Azeez Jimoh Olosugbo, Olawunmi Adeola, Jide Adeyelu and Oke Godwin Olaoluwa.
In her keynote address at the summit, Ms Bisola Olusanya, Special Adviser to the Governor of Lagos State on Agriculture, stated that she stands for Ikorodu division and will be the voice of the Ikorodu youths in the State Cabinet.
She stated that the society will be better for it if youths are empowered while she also charged the youths to change their perception of saying that they deserve anything rather than work for it.
“I want to tell you today (IKorodu youths) that I stand for the Ikorodu youths.
“We are just two from Ikorodu division in the state cabinet, although, Mrs Benson is from Ikorodu, but she is representing Ikeja. We are going to make our voices heard in the cabinet on issues affecting our people”, she assured the audience.
“By empowering the youths, we make our society better and stronger”.
Ms Bisola, who stated that youths are accelerators for change, charged them to always work for what they desire and stop saying that they deserve anything.
She added that youths can attain greatness and get desired recognition only by bring up intelligent contributions and conversations.
Olusanya also stated that youths need character development and mentor to emulate and sue in setting their own standard and achievements.
She also enjoined them to engage in reading books to develop themselves.
In their respective papers at the summit, guest speakers advised youths to embrace volunteerism and always be ready to give back to the society without expecting anything in return.
They also charged youths in Ikorodu Division to be hardworking, cultivate the habit of writing all their goals, have a good vision, and always note that money doesn’t start business.
According to the resource persons, Ikorodu youths should always strive to have either a good formal or informal education and must expose themselves to different entrepreneurship skills that match up with the 21st Century needs and also develop a good entrepreneur mindset.
In addition, youths were urged to live with integrity and be conscious of making right decisions that will enhance community building, develop good future plan and always check on their target goals, be prepared and be ready to mount leadership positions and always be good catalysts that leaders can hand power over to, while they were also cautioned to move away from temporary gratification and rather concentrate on their future and not what they can get immediately.
The speakers also reiterated that youths in every society, especially in Ikorodu Division, must leave their comfort zone, have a good knowledge, skills and attitude which are prerequisite for personal development.
They also cautioned youths to stop complaining, or limit themselves and to be positive minded, noting that youths must be good catalysts for community development so as to allow the leaders to leave the stage for them and that they must prove to be drivers of positive change and community development.
According to the organisers, other resolutions from the summit are:
“That there is need for youths to always re-strategize, re-orientate themselves, support fellow youth, top-up their integrity, and be a positive influence to the society.
“That leadership is about influence and Ikorodu Division youths should constantly prepare themselves for leadership role and always influence one another positively.
“That youths need to think differently and search for ways they can impact positively on the society.
‘That youth organizations must strive to possess some certain set of values that will help them in producing more leaders.
‘That youths should remain focused on what is needful and right and create conducive environment for themselves to stop being tagged “Lazy”.
It was also pointed out at the summit that:
“Youths must have integrity, self-discipline, and good character which can take them far in life.
“To achieve peaceful co-existence in the community, both the leaders and youths must cooperate and come together to take important steps and become agents of positive change.
However, the summit was not all about challenging youths as the speakers also charged government and leaders to discharge their duties and provide an enabling environment for youths to operate positively.
They charged that:
“Government and leaders must be interested in guiding and mentoring youths which, according to them, is a fundamental part of their roles in the society.
“Government must provide a good enabling environment that will be useful and friendly.
“Government must make good policies that will be favourable and comfortable for the youths.
“Provide platform for investing in useful ideas and always empowering the youths and continuously prioritizing youths in their agenda.
Furthermore, participants also agreed that:
“Ikorodu must rise, while its indigene must be the catalyst. An average Ikorodu person must, as a matter of necessity, be part of the decision makers when it matters.
“Youths must avail themselves to personal development so that they can bring recognizable values to the table to give them the opportunity to be noticed.
“That youths should create more space for actions and less for talk. Creating many whatsapp and facebook platforms cannot drive the change we all seek. Only actions create a chain of reactions.
“That platforms like this forum (the summit) is one of the steps in the right direction, but that the movement (Ikorodu Division Youths Movement) should escalate this idea to a more sustainable impactful event”.
More so, the stakeholders and guests requested that government should establish a modern IT Hub for youths in Ikorodu Division, as well as stadium and E-library among others for their personal development.
Demonstrating the charge to the youths in practical term, one of the speakers, Mr Bayo Oteju, committed one million naira loan as start-up capital for any idea within the division that’s worth sponsoring.
He also donated N25, 000 to a participant for his business registration.
Barr. Adeola Olawunmi, Chairman, Ikorodu Division Young Lawyers, speaking at the summit, posited that:
“The youths should take advantage of the NotTooYoungToRun initiative with legislative backing and use it as a tool to actively engage in politics and governance”.
He also stated that youths as leaders in their own rights must begin to contribute actively to the development of local communities; learn to volunteer and give services to the society and shun the cancerous idea of immediate gratification.
The summit also charged the Special Adviser to the Governor on Agriculture, Mrs Ruth Olusanya, to act as a point of contact to the government by advising the government, as her position dictates, to buy into the idea of sponsoring 100 youths in the Agriconomics initiative to create a farm settlement that can breed young millionaires in Ikorodu division and create another economic opportunity.
The organisers of the summit also revealed that 100 youths are to be sponsored for different vocational trainings as part of the major agenda of the Ikorodu Division Youth Initiative Movement.
It was also anonymously agreed at the summit that youths in Ikorodu Division should be ready to explore the abundance opportunities within the division and take charge of leadership responsibilities that will provoke sustainable community development and further benefits the entire Ikorodu Division in particular and Lagos State at large.
It was also resolved that members of Ikorodu Division Youth Initiative Movement should ensure that subsequent editions of the Youth Summit must be better than the previous ones and the youth body should engage in community projects that will be geared towards sustainable community development.
