Former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Thursday challenged Nigerian youths to engage in activities that would change the African narrative.
Obasanjo submitted that such participation would also guarantee a better future for the young generation as it would not allow those who are messing up their future to succeed.
He spoke in Abeokuta, Ogun State, during the third edition of the presidential youth mentorship retreat organised by the Youth Development Center of the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL).
Speaking on the theme “Removing Barriers against youth,” Obasanjo noted that “in most parts of Africa, there are visible barriers and not so discernible barriers militating against the actualization of the latent potentials of the African youth.”
Obasanjo who was represented by the Deputy Chief Coordinator of OOPL, Dr Ayodele Aderinwale, said the biggest obstacle to effectively removing the barrier “is the attitudinal disposition and orientation of the young people.”
He challenged youths to, as a matter of strategy, never allow another person to determine or shape their space in society.
According to him, if our youth can be desperate enough to agree to trek through the desert to get menial jobs in Europe, that energy, that spirit, that fortitude should be channeled to eradication both physical and mental barriers.
