President of the National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN), Solomon Adodo has highlighted one key attribute that no one can take away from President Muhammadu Buhari.
In an exclusive interview with TheNewsGuru.com (TNG), the newly inaugurated NYCN President, while reeling out his vision for the youth council under his leadership, said the key attribute no one can take away from Buhari is his fervent knack for integrity.
“The government has been making very sincere efforts. I can tell you that. One thing you cannot take away from President Muhammadu Buhari is his fervent knack for integrity.
“He has been known for that for over three to four decades since he launched into the leadership limelight of our country, Nigeria,” Adodo said.
The NYCN President said President Buhari meant well for Nigeria, but that integrity alone was not enough to develop the country.
“That integrity, you cannot take it away from him. He means well for Nigeria. He is a true patriot. But that is not enough to develop Nigeria,” he said.
Adodo stressed that Buhari had been making deliberate efforts to turn around the fortunes of the nation, but that for lack of some groundworks, the impact had not been felt as it ought to have been felt.
He said Nigerians, especially the youths have not been prepared adequately, and that the youths were yet to embrace and key into the development agenda of the President.
Recall Adodo and his executive team were inaugurated recently at the International Conference Centre (ICC), Abuja, where the former President of NYCN, Comrade Olayemi Success, Secretary General of Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP), Willy Ezeugo, and other dignitaries were in attendance.
While speaking with TNG on Thursday during the explosive interview, the transcript of which would be published later, Adodo laid bare his mind.
He said that the Nigerian youth was yet to embrace and key into the development agenda of the nation was the reason in some circles, people would say some Nigerian youths are lazy.
“I will always say, when the input meets what is required for the output, you will get the output. You have a television, and they did not connect the wiring system properly, if you go and connect the TV, instead of it to bring you power, it might bring you power temporarily that you see your screen and everything, but after a while, because of the erratic connection, your television is blown up that it might even result in a fire incident, and so on and so forth. And the whole purpose of it is abuse. Then you have to go and buy another TV again.
“The government has been making very sincere efforts. I can tell you that. One thing you cannot take away from President Muhammadu Buhari is his fervent knack for integrity. He has been known for that for over three to four decades since he launched into the leadership limelight of our country, Nigeria. That integrity, you cannot take it away from him. He means well for Nigeria. He is a true patriot. But that is not enough to develop Nigeria.
“Like a collection of essays I read by my erstwhile Vice Chancellor now of blessed memory, Prof. F. S. Idachaba, it is titled Good Intentions Are Not Enough. Mr. President has these good intentions. Mr. President is working towards achieving all of these, but the people that he is working for are not prepared. So, if they are not prepared, how can we achieve success.
“It’s just like the TV system I told you. You have a system of erratic connections of wires, and then they bring the TV, which is good intention for you to have something to entertain yourself, educate yourself and all of that, but the connections are poor. So when the good intention of giving you this television and illumination and all of that comes, and it’s connected to the poor preparation, the TV will blow off. That is what is happening.
“Mr. President has good intentions but the groundwork is not there. Nigerians have not been prepared adequately. The youths that should embrace this and pick it up have not been prepared adequately. That is why in some circles, people will say Nigerian youths are lazy, then, someone would say some are lazy. In another circle, they will tell you that Nigerian youths are unemployable, they will now tell you that some are unemployable. In other circles, they will tell you that Nigerian youths are not even willing to take up jobs, and so on and so forth. All of these is because, whether we like it or not there is that place of preparation.
“I always see, a child who wants to walk, must first take the stuttering steps; those few steps, you do like you want to walk, then the father says my child wants to walk, and he holds the child up, and then gradually the child takes one step and two steps. In time, the child develops confidence, and can take multiple steps at a time, and then soon, the child is running, and then soon, the child can even travel when the father is not even there. But the child must first show willingness to walk. So no matter how much a father wants a child to walk, if the child does not show that willingness, the child cannot walk. No matter what the father puts in, the child cannot walk. The father might put rods, iron rods beside the child’s leg for the child to stand and walk, if the child refuses to walk, he cannot walk.
“Mr. President has been putting enough, putting this policy, that policy… several policies, programmes and projects have come up. We have had the Anchor Borrowers’ Program yielding results, but the results have not been optimal.
“We have recorded progress. We have. Let’s be frank with ourselves. We have recorded progress. The government has recorded progress.
“We are not here to praise-sing government neither are we here to condemn government. We are here to balance issues.
“Where the government is making good efforts, we cheer them up, we push them, we propel them to do more.
“And when the government is failing, we tell them, hey, you’ve got it wrong here. What can we do to make it better? These are the things we can do to make it better,” the NYCN President said.
He further said, “So, the government, we have made some levels of progress. But these amount of progress have not been appreciable enough. If they were very appreciable, then we could have said we have solved all of these.
“Now, since these progress have not been appreciable, we now ask ourselves, what is at the base? What are the underlying factors? I can tell you the principal underlying factor is that the Nigerian youth has not been adequately prepared.
“Now, what the National Youth Council is supposed to do, when you want to build roads, first of all, you have the earth moving equipments that go there; they break down the rocks, they pulverize everywhere, they level it, and all of that. Then, rollers and the rest come in, and then you can now lay coal tar, and the road is tarred. Now, if the rock sediments are not broken down, no matter how much coal tar you pour, it will just become a decoration.
“That is what is happening. We are the rock sediments, the youths, we are the base, we are that potentials, we are the treasure, we are the foundation, but when one stone is not placed in order upon the other stone, then, how can the building stand? We are all stones for a building, but then this one is placed in this one, the other is placed in the other manner, there is no masterful work.
“So what the National Youth Council has come to do is to place that masterful work, pulverize, break down everything so that when government policies, programmes and projects come, we can easily assimilate, absorb them, we can digest them, we can masticate them properly.
“They will become ingrained in the system we have already put in order, and then if you put one, you get exponential results.
“But when you have structures that are not well ordered, if you put one, you will get diminishing results”.
Adodo went further to say, “It is not as if the government is not getting results, but the results are not commensurate to the efforts being put in because of that place of preparation of the youth.
“So, we have come on board to assist Mr. President. We have come on board to partner with government at all levels.
“When I say government, I mean the federal government, state governments and local governments.
“We have come on board to make life better for the Nigerian youth. We have come on board to develop Nigeria. We have come on board to create jobs. We have come on board to grow the economy of Nigeria. We have come on board that our GDP should shoot very high.
“We say this with every element of consciousness”.