The Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, has tasked youths in the country to explore their talents and collaborate together so as to begin to drive the much-needed development, declaring that youths had a key role to play in leading the desired change in the country.
The foremost monarch made the call at the launch of the Royal African Foundation targeted at addressing a wide range of issues affecting youths, including leadership, poverty, social inclusion, inequality, among others.
The Ooni, while launching the Foundation at his palace, said it was part of his efforts to give youths a viable platform to explore their talents to their benefit and the society at large, affirming that the Foundation would stop at nothing to ensure that they were adequately equipped to take on the enormous task.
He noted that despite his involvement with several foundations with a bias for youths, the Royal African Foundation was close to his heart and that was specifically initiated to enhance youth emancipation and engagement.
“What we are doing at the entire Royal African Foundation is actually in tandem with the belief and the trust system of the Royal African Youth Leadership Forum which has been running for the last couple of years. For me, it is an initiative that I will go all the way and do anything that is meaningful within the confines of my capacity and capability to get the best out of it.
“We have a lot of youths that are out there that can perform wonders, they only need self-esteem to get a lot of things done. They are called leaders of tomorrow, but I don’t belong to that school of thought anymore, they are leaders for now.
“They are right now the current leadership structure particularly in the area of governance and politics. We need to instil a lot of discipline and moral values, the content of their character is more paramount to any other thing,” the monarch stated.
Speaking further, Oba Ogunwusi said it was gratifying for him that the launch of the Foundation coincided with his sixth anniversary on the throne as the Ooni of Ife, adding that the launch of the project no doubt had a significant meaning.
“It is another red-letter day for me because this initiative is very strong and also it’s an initiative that I am very passionate about because it is a platform that definitely will emerge out of various platforms because Royal African Foundation is actually deeply rooted on five pillars which are the bedrock of my existence on this throne and that’s what I stand for.
“Today I am very glad that we are now officially launching the Royal African Foundation because this is in collaboration with my 6th-year coronation. It has a significant meaning,” the monarch stated.
The Executive Director of Royal African Foundation, Olusola Owonikoko, said the initiative would focus on five pillars, including Leadership and Governance; Technology and Innovation; Creative Culture, Academic Excellence.
According to Owonikoko, what the Foundation is doing is to bring all youths together to know themselves, at least in the short-term, begin to create ideas together and design programs together with local, state, and national reach.
“No one person will be able to change Nigeria at once, we all have to come together and collaborate. But we don’t have such a prestigious platform that has given us an open cheque to work together and that is what the Foundation is already doing; bringing people together to partner with us so that we can all bring our bits,” the Executive Director explained.
Also speaking, the Chief Executive Officer of the Ooni of Ife Global Outreach, Dr Ayobami Oyedare, said the timing of the launch of the Foundation was auspicious as youths were in dire need of a platform to blossom and thrive for national development.
“I believe this Foundation is rightly positioned to give young people in the 21st century of Nigeria and Africa the opportunity to thrive, blossom, and use their engagement to change the narrative of the country and the continent,” he said.
President, National Youth Congress (NYC), Blessing Akinlosotu, welcomed the idea of the Foundation, assuring that his organization was ready to explore all areas of partnership for the development of youths in the country.
Inya Lawal, president of Ascend Studio, earlier in his remark, expressed her optimism, stressing that the Royal African Foundation would go a long way to enhance youth development in Nigeria, especially for young women.
Lawal, who will be spearheading a key project for the Foundation known as Women-Owned Micro Business (WOMB), said the idea was to empower women in tertiary institutions which is very important to the goal of empowering women generally.
“The idea is to start with women by giving them the structure and the resources they need from the university so that by the time they are done with school, they already have the structure they need for their businesses,” she said.
“The goal is to empower 6,000 women yearly and just like the saying that if you empower women, you empower the community, if we empower 6,000 women yearly and they empower their communities, it’s the way to go for economic prosperity,” she added.
YOU SHOULD NOT MISS THESE HEADLINES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
FALSE! Yoruba Not An Official Language In Brazil
Claim: A national newspaper and multiple online platforms claim Brazil has adopted Yoruba as its official language and that the language would be included in primary and secondary schools curriculum.
Verdict: The claim is false. The content of the article published by these online platforms is not new; it has been recirculated several times and has been debunked.Ooni tasks youths on collaboration to drive change
Ooni tasks youths on collaboration to drive change
and then