By: Yemi Alesh
The Vice-President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Professor Oluyemi Osinbajo, stormed the Univeristy of Ibadan on Saturday, October 27th, 2018 to deliver the 2018 Sigma annual public lecture.
The sigma public lecture which held at the International Conference Centre was graced with the presence of many dignitaries, including the Deputy Governor of Oyo State, Otunba Moses Alake Adeyemo; Dr. Wale Babalakin, SAN, OFR, a leading Nigerian lawyer and chairman of the occasion and the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Administrative), University of Ibadan, Professor Kayode Adebowale who represented the Vice-Chancellor as the chief host of the occasion.
In his public lecture titled, “Developing the Nation through Youth Empowerment”, Professor Osinbajo spoke at a length on the continuous increase in government revenues from the year 1980 to 2010 and an increase in poverty rate despite government revenues. According to his analysis, in 1980, 17.8 million Nigerians were in abject poverty. The statistics moved up to 39.2 million in 1992. In 2004, there were 68.7% Nigerians in abject poverty and in 2010, the statistics was at the heart-rending figure of 112.47 million.
Encouraging the Nigerian youths to rather seek solutions than emphasize the problem, the Vice-President said, “The time has passed for us to play the blame game. Now is the time for us to find a way to reposition ourselves.”
He suggested youth empowerment as a viable solution to the problems of poverty and unemployment in Nigeria. “There is no way, really to develop the nation without developing the youths”, he added.
The Vice President said that grand corruption, which involves taking money out of the government treasury, is the major drain to the country’s resources and the obstacle to national development.
He however recommended dealing with grand corruption and investing more in infrastructure as viable solutions to national development. According to him, ” you can do more with less if you don’t steal the money.”
The Vice President also mentioned that the future of the country lies in investment in agriculture and technology. According to him, some youths are already engaging themselves in this sector and have been able to generate income for themselves and create jobs for many others. He cited ad examples the invention of the payment method, Paystack by two Nigerian graduates; Andela which trains software engineers and Farm Crowdy, an organization, that links prospective investors with small from holders.
Professor Osinbajo also said that Federal Government employs about 500,000 graduates every year through the Graduate Employment Policy but that since that is a far cry from the total number of graduates produces by the country, youth empowerment is encouraged.
On a final note, he said the country has embarked on a shift in towards what he called, STEAM, meaning, Science Technology, Engineering, Agriculture and Mathematics, as a necessity for development.
“To young people, I must say you must take your leaders to account. You must be vigilant. The efutute truly belongs to you but you must be vigilant that the leaders you put in power use that power to the advantage of the people of Nigeria “, he added.
