State, Senator Hope Uzodinma, has tasked Nigerian youths on the need to
become creative thinkers and developers of ideas as part of their
contribution to the diversification of the nation’s economy.
Uzodinma gave the advice on the occasion of the International Youth Day
organised by the Catholic Youth Organisation of Nigeria (CYON) of the Holy
Trinity Parish, Maitama in Abuja.
According to him, “What rule the world now are ideas and these are
conceived by people. Once they are conceived and marketed, people will
buy into them. So, as you grow, you don’t just rely on the service sector
of the economy as the only way of being employed.
“You must strive to see how you can become creative thinkers. You must
conceive ideas even as individuals or groups. I urge you to develop ideas
so that you can get our buy-in. Through that medium, we can have an
economy that will easily be diversified and our nation will be better for
it.”
Uzodinma said the youths could decide from the outset of their career
development to become very enterprising by being self-employed and grow to
be employer of labour, adding “we want to go into a real society where
young men and women will be seen as not only relying on heritage alone but
also having a way of contributing their own quotas, individually or
collectively, towards national development.
“This is the kind of society I want us to see because the reality of today
is that what is in the coffers of government is not enough to take care of
everybody’s interest. So we have to expand; we have to expand the scope of
existence and engagement.”
He stated that this could only be done if the youths challenged themselves
and began to conceive ideas that would allow production from point of
conception, through design and engineering, to Implementation.
Uzodinma said that this would give birth to a jumbo economy, explaining
that “these are the kinds of motivated young men and women I want to see
in our society.”
He specifically called on Catholic youths to distinguish themselves by
drawing motivation from the orientation of the Catholic Church and the
provisions of the canon regulations, stressing also the need for them to
be liberal, showing love to neighbours, eschewing violence and designing
roadmaps to economic and political leadership.
According to him, “You can from today say; this is what I want to be in 20
years, and you design what you want to be in 2 years that will help what
you will be in 5 years, that will now move into what you will be in 10
years and you see yourself going there.
“Periodically, you take a review (have I really accomplished what is
expected of my road map, which is the guide?). We call it a developmental
template. You should put it in place for yourself and then use it as a
guide because, actually, we must now begin to allow participation for the
second-tier leadership.
“It is my view that we are rolling over leadership too much. People must
come to the dancing arena, dance easily and within a short period. Let it
be a beautiful dance and then give space for the younger once to come, so
that, over time, those that danced before us will go into the advisory
role and begin to advise the society, the leadership and the government on
what they think.”
He reminded the youths that the world had become a global village and
warned of the possibility of their being left behind if they failed to do
what others were doing.
According to him, “You must begin to look at people in South-Africa. What
are the young men and women doing that are being acclaimed all over the
world? What are the youths in England doing?
“There is no need to use a local model as the basis for your developmental
comparison. You should pick the best: go to the apogee of development and
look at those who are there, the participants, and then go through their
history, find out how they manage.
“Then you can now domesticate how they managed in their local
circumstances and also use that as a climbing ladder and you will be home
and dry. There is no rocket science to it. It is commitment and
dedication. Once the idea is there, you bring it out, baptise it, and
sooner than later, it starts getting communion according to the Catholic
Church.”