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What do you think you have to offer in politics?

I will bring
honesty and good character to politics. People of good credibility
offer themselves to serve the people of Lagos State.

Lagos residents believe Fashola has performed well in Lagos, what chances do you have against him in the 2011 elections?

This question is
subjective; it depends on the benchmark of performance. If we all agree
that Lagos is the city of excellence, we will have to push the
benchmark up. If the benchmark is not pushed up we will have to come to
conclusion that you have just performed below average, compared to past
governors like Tinubu. The benchmark is to compare Lagos to beautiful
cities like Singapore, Dubai, which with the same resources perform
better. Look at the infrastructures; dilapidated, education system has
falling most of the classrooms has collapsed, state government lacks
formal economic policy.

Having been outside
the country for a long time. Do you think you are in touch with the
masses in the state? Do you know their needs?

The fact that I am
based abroad does not mean I do not come in contact with the people. I
come home regularly, my experience with people that reside in Nigeria
is not better off. I have been to Ejigbo, Oshodi and so any other
places. Most of these people reside in GRA, and do not bother about
people that live in these areas.

What do you want to change in the state if you are elected?

You have given me
the opportunity to access the 12 years continuous governance of AC
government. The government has been entrusted with people’s mandate has
shown with it. If we take a look at the quality of Infrastructure of
schools is it better? If am given the opportunity to get the PDP ticket
to run for the governorship election, I will change the trend of Ac
government that is bringing us down and liberate of Lagos from slavery.
I will bring honesty to government and bring Lagos State to shape. But
mind you we need to access the 12 years of the AC government.

You attempted in
2007 to pick the party’s ticket but was unsuccessful, what chances do
you think you stand now to emerge as PDP’s candidate?

I think PDP Lagos
as human beings should have learnt from the mistakes we made during the
last election, and be ready to correct it. Those mistakes were obvious;
we are also working towards solving the problems and create an
atmosphere so that we can have the opportunity to govern the state.

What should Lagosians except from you if you are elected?

They should be
excepting a listening governor, a man with track record, a man who is
celebrated abroad as one of great minds of our time. They should be
proud to have me as their brother, as a governor and expect a better
Lagos State.

Parents
and drivers who flout child safety while driving will soon be arrested
by officers of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC).

The sector
commander of the Lagos State Command of the Corps, Jonas Agwu during a
visit to NEXT on Wednesday said that though the command has launched
several awareness programmes to teach many Lagos motorists on the
proper safety procedures that apply when there is a child in a vehicle,
it has observed that a large percentage of parents and motorists still
carry children in the front seat, on their laps while driving and
without recommended car carriers.

Mr. Jonas announced that from Monday, August 23, such drivers and parents will be arrested.

“By next week
Monday we will arrest any motorist in Lagos that we see carrying a
child under the age of 12 in the front seat, on the lap.” He said.

He stated that the
reason the Command has decided to move to enforcement was because of
the large number of drivers who flout Child safety rules.

“With the Child
Passenger Safety campaign, the law provides that every occupant of the
vehicle should be strapped with a seat belt and we discovered that the
safety priorities of Lagos residents are not there. What we see on the
road is terrible. A pathetic case was on Sunday, a man who was just
leaving church and had his little daughter between his legs and he was
driving as if that kid were a co-pilot driving the vehicle.” He said,

“That is worse that
when the mother in the passenger seat laps the child. And we noticed
that this has become a vogue in Lagos, motorist don’t care for the
safety of the baby. The issue of car seats and booster seats seem
foreign to most Lagos drivers.” He added that despite several awareness
campaigns the occurrence was still high.

“We have done a lot
of talking and talking, done road shows, we’ve been to churches and
mosques but now it is obvious that awareness does not really stick to
Lagosians until when you take action. Call it ‘Operation Buckle Up’
directed towards the safety of the child passenger. Any motorist we see
private, commercial, government carrying a baby under twelve, or the
father turns the baby into an air bag. We will impound that vehicle. We
will not allow these kids to be exposed to danger by their parents. And
after the arrest we will impound the vehicles too. When we remain tight
with that enforcement, as school resume, most parents will complain but
we will impound such vehicles. That’s the new stand we want to take
concerning the safety of child passengers in Lagos. Most parents get
very rude telling you “Is it your baby?” By Monday we are not talking
awareness, we are biting.” He said.

Last Sunday tragedy

The sector
commander said it was regrettable, the accident that took place last
week Sunday which claimed 16 lives at Berger. Rather than trading
blame, traffic, safety and road management agencies should work in
synergy to forestall such tragedy again in Lagos.

“Our heart bleeds
at what happened on Sunday because our job is to prevent such accidents
but it’s a not a one man thing, it is difficult if you are saying
something and the public is not listening. When it happened on Sunday
our men could not could not do their jobs because motorists were too
aggrieved. My men got their in good time but the reaction of other
aggrieved motorists affected the response time. Once there is a crash
our first concern is not who caused it, but that can we save one life,
can we clear this hazard so that no other one happens.” Said Mr. Agwu.

The Deputy Corps Commander Sector and head of operation, H.U. Omeje
urged motorists in the State to take the issue of road safety serious,
obey traffic codes and avoid over speeding.

China
has become the second largest economy in the world, but not without
help from Nigeria which ironically occupies the 44th position in world
economy rankings. Having spent a total of N208 billion in the first
quarter of the year to import commodities from China, Nigeria is
currently running a very imbalanced trade relation with China and other
countries, a situation which experts find disconcerting.

“Such an imbalance
implies that Nigeria is not doing enough in the agro-industry and other
productive fields to develop a balanced trade with China. It is
dangerous to continue to exchange our natural resources for industrial
consumer goods, some of inferior quality,” Raufu Mustapha, an expert on
Nigerian foreign policy and a lecturer at the University of Oxford,
said.

China occupies the
number two position, US being the first, on Nigeria’s imports list.
Between January and March 2010, Nigeria imported about 2000 commodities
from China. In the same period, our country exported about 70 products
to China, earning N42 billion, more than half of which came from the
sale of petroleum products.

Other experts blame this trade imbalance on policy makers.

“Some of the
failure to ensure more mutually beneficial trade relations must be
attributed to the failure of Nigerian policy makers to build upon more
localised Nigerian-Chinese business networks, which in turn could
encourage growth in domestic industry and export production,” said
Sharath Srinivasan, who teaches African Politics at the University of
Cambridge.

Nigerian
government officials take a different stance. Josephine Tapgun, the
Minister of State for Commerce and Industry absolves the government of
Nigeria of any blame on this; but rather blames the citizenry, whom she
says prefer to buy foreign goods than patronize Nigerian manufacturers.

“Most of our
products are of high quality, but Nigerians would rather buy
sub-standard goods. If the Chinese do not find the market in Nigeria,
they wont be bringing in their products,” she said.

Ms Tapgun insists
that the bilateral trade agreement between the two countries does not
permit Nigeria to restrict the number of goods brought into the country
from China.

“There are no
restrictions. How do you force restrictions when we have a global
market? The issue is that Nigerians should patronise our own products.
It is a matter of national interests,” Ms Tapgun said in Abuja over the
weekend.

Curbing imbalance

A cursory look at
Nigeria’s imports from China shows that the goods are mostly finished
products while the exports are largely raw materials. For example,
Nigeria exported cotton seeds worth about N160 million, but spent
almost three times that to import finished products, spending as much
as N153 million on sewing thread.

In three months,
Nigeria spent N131 million on toothbrushes; N38 million on buttons; N54
million on pencils and crayons; and N33 million on plastic combs.

The minister of
state for Commerce and Industry says that Nigerians may be patronising
the Chinese market more than the Nigerian market because Nigerian goods
are not properly packaged.

“There are a lot of problems with our packaging, so much so that our goods are not acceptable to foreigners,” Ms Tapgun.

Experts believe
that the first step to causing a shift in the trade imbalance is to
address the current trade policies affecting the production and
exportation of Nigerian products, while looking to taking advantage of
the existing trade relations between China and Nigeria, and ultimately
Africa.

Mr Mustapha said
that while the trade imbalance is worrisome, the Nigeria-China trade
relations could be used to Nigeria’s advantage or a more mutually
beneficial relationship.

“China gives us an
opportunity to develop our country the way the west has not offered.
The new opening with China should be used to leverage transformation in
some productive and infrastructure sectors of our economy. If this is
done systematically, it should gradually bring down the trade
imbalance. We should place emphasis on the terms of trade. For
instance, insist on value for money. If we give them oil, we should ask
for things like a fast train from Lagos to Kano in return,” Mr Mustapha
said.

Meanwhile, the
minister of state says that the federal government is currently working
to review trade tariffs on imported goods, as a means to encourage the
patronage of locally produced goods.

“The government is
trying to review the tariffs on all imported goods, all with the aim of
discouraging the importation of goods and also to encourage local
manufacturers,” Ms Tapgun said.

The commercial attache of the Chinese embassy in Nigeria declined to comment on this article.

Part of what Nigeria bought from China in past three months:

Toothbrushes – N131 million

Buttons – N38 million

Pencils and crayons – N54 million

Plastic combs – N33 million

Resolution of zoning controversy

The distribution of positions in
the country is to ensure fairness and equitable distribution. It is to
ensure that people from every part of the country have a sense of
belonging, so that people are not unnecessarily marginalized. So it is
something that is there.

I am sure the kind of zoning you
are talking about is as it relates to the next presidential election. I
believe people are just overheating the polity by their continuous
debate over the matter and that is the position of the party on the
matter too. The other parties are not discussing it. They pick their
candidates from wherever they feel they have the best candidates to
represent them. So why are people trying to tie the hands of PDP in
terms of what it should do?

The chairman of the party has spoken and his words are the words of the party.

Anybody who is saying something
outside that is just trying to heat up the polity. It is clear that the
PDP rules have nothing against President Jonathan from running. By the
same token, the PDP constitution allows anybody from any part of the
country to run. So, why are people trying to restrict Nigerians to a
particular zone? The chairman has revealed that we have an arrangement
at the beginning in 1998/1999 and after that people have been running
for our presidential tickets from different parts of the country. We
are tired of all these debates .

PDP’s electoral challenges in Ondo State

A number of my people in the state
have been downcast since the last by-election in the riverine area of
the state. They feel cheated. They feel like they have been raped and
robbed. However, I have been talking to most of our leaders in the
state to see happened as a blessing. Eyes marvels at the person who
sees in every cloud some silver lining. I have said that sweet are the
uses of adversity. We lost there and our reaction is to see it as a
challenge, to see it as a process from which we should learn lessons
and ensure that those areas where doors were not properly locked and we
allowed thieves to come, we will now put double padlocks. We are going
to have series of meetings and re-strategize to guard against the
recurrence of things like this. If you are familiar with what has
happened over the last one year, in terms of history of rural elections
in the state, you’ll find out that the Labour Party went massively with
thugs and government machineries and with huge sums of money, bribing
people left and right and they totally over-ran the system there I
don’t remember the exact results there but, according to the official
results, PDP did not get up to 20 percent in that constituency. This,
of course, was a sham. We knew it was not right. By the time we went
for the House of Representatives elections in Akoko South- west and
Akoko South -east, we fared a little better and it was a tough fight.
The result was even still close, it was about 60 per cent to 40 per
cent.

We took that experience to Ilaje
in this last election. Again, we won squarely except for these seven or
eight units where they were able to sneak in. Of course, the result
came out very close again. So we are taking this as a process of
learning. We will learn as much as possible from whatever lapses there
were in this last election, so that we can be very strong in the
elections early next year.

His senatorial ambitions

I have said it to people several
times that, since February 2009 when we had this judgement, I have made
up mind that I was going to just be the leader of the party –
supporting the party and members to get back to power in Ondo State. I
have made up my mind that I have had enough of it and I will just go
back home and help and that is still the position. The truth of the
matter is that people have been calling me on phone and even physically
to try to encourage me to run. If I have the intention to contest to go
the senate, it is also too late right now because the primaries are in
about one month. I ought to be on the street campaigning now while my
posters ought to have been everywhere.

Nothing like that has happened.

Crisis within the state chapter of the PDP

There is no problem in the party
as such. The purported rift between Alasoadura and myself is not true.
What I have said is that there is a subsisting court order that brought
Mimiko into office. The gubernatorial election in Ondo State is in 2013
and it is rather too early to put gubernatorial ambitions on the front
burner now because it will be too divisive. There are about seven,
eight people who want to be governor. The party would be temporarily
divided along those lines, but don’t want to take such divisions to the
next set of elections. It is different from what will happen in Oyo
State or Osun State where may people want to be governors and they will
have primaries in the next three months and one person will emerge. In
our own case, we don’t have any primaries and if we allow the divisions
to prevail, then we will go into next year’s elections divided into
eight places and that will not augur well for us . So I have always
preached that people should temper down their ambitions so that we can
go into these elections with common purpose and strength. This has not
gone down well with some people and it has caused some minor friction
which is being overblown in some quarters.

On electoral reforms

Reforms are desirable and they
will always be desirable. We must not run away from the fact that our
democracy is still young, compared to other democracies like that of
the USA. We will continue to reform. My prayer is that in 2011, the
elections will be better than those in the past. Right now, the issue
of settling litigations before the swearing in of election winners are
very much desirable. Six months to the next elections, a number of
governorship cases are still in court. It is ridiculous and it should
embarrass any set of people.

New voters register

People have expressed misgivings
about the costs put forward by INEC. You cannot put a cost to things
that will benefit the people of the state. However, the exercise must
be technologically correct and efficient. We need electronic voting
machines in all the over 17,000 polling units in the country and
commensurate effective security apparatus must be deployed to prevent
stealing and vandalisation of the machines.

It really is
difficult sometimes when we pay attention to issues that would have
been insignificant. This is not because they are not important, but
because we should have been so used to doing them that the entire world
would be saying “it is their culture” or “that is how they behave”.

Unfortunately, what
the world refers to as our culture is heart rendering. This includes:
corruption, 419 and Italian prostitution, amongst other vices. I have
three sisters and I remember my mother telling them, “Please, close
your legs; sit like a woman” or “If you don’t want to come to the
kitchen, your husband will get satisfaction in another woman’s
kitchen”, “A dirty woman must definitely drive her husband out of the
house” and so on.

This is our culture
and they form part of what I looked out for in my wife, guided by these
noble lines from the Bible: “a wife of noble character who can find,
she is worth more than rubies.” So I can confidently say it is the
culture of women the world over. It is the way God created women, to be
in charge of the home, to be virtuous women, wives and mothers.

Unfortunately, a
lot of our girls these days do not mirror the above noble qualities and
a friend of mine, who is yet to be married, said, “Men, there are no
wives around anymore, only girlfriends” while trying to explain away
his unmarried state. Another jokingly said, “Senator Yerima could not
find virgins in Nigeria anymore, that is why he went to Egypt”.

Well, I had to
quickly point to him that, in spite of the gloomy picture, there are
still women of noble character around. But I must confess, they may go
into extinction if we do not make deliberate efforts to retrace our
steps; we are not Americans.

A lot of women and
to my amazement, some men inclusive, are “taking Panadol for another
man’s headache” with this women liberation and girl power programmes.
Liberate the women from where or whom?

For Christ’s sake,
a woman is a woman and a man is a man. You cannot undo what God has
done. Some women have neglected their duties, pursued careers, selling
themselves in the process to different men and now end up buying one
lazy, shameless boy and really wed and weld him down. The boy is not
able to play the role of the man because he is not the bread winner. He
now, in turn, engages in extra-marital activities. He now satisfies
himself with other young girls outside and the vicious circle continues
– he does not stay at home, to avoid being hen-pecked; the wife too is
busy trying to maintain her status. With house helps, DSTV, Internet
and wild friends, our children are becoming American-Nigerians, a
confused race, lacking proper home training.

One woman, however,
provided a counterpoint recently, while I was trying to ginger her to
donate during a launching programme after a man had donated. I reminded
the audience that “what a man can do, a woman can do better.” But when
she took the microphone, she said she was taught that “what a man can
do, a woman should not bother”. I treat my wife like a queen because
she treats me as a king and we are teaching our children exactly these
same attributes. Girls should be trained to be wives and mothers, while
the boys should be disciplined into responsible fathers.

I remember a lecturer discussing a book where one author insisted
that if you buy a ball for your male child, buy a ball for the female
too and that if you asked the girls to join their mothers in the
kitchen, do the same to the boys. The teacher ended her lecture that
day with these very wise saying to the ladies in the class: “if you
want to pass this course, give me back exactly what you have in this
book. But if you want to maintain, retain and sustain your homes,
please do not follow these oyibo people.”

The chairman of the
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Attahiru Jega, has
solicited the cooperation of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in
the upcoming voters’ registration exercise and the 2011 elections.

Mr Jega made the request yesterday when he paid a courtesy visit to the director-general of the corps, Maharazu Tsiga.

The chairman said
that corps members were the leaders of tomorrow and so a very strong
partner in the “Nigerian project.” “We need patriotic, selfless and
energetic stakeholders for the voters’ registration and for proper
elections next year,” said Mr Jega.

Better treatment

Mr Jega assured the
NYSC management that, under the new commission, issues like the late
payment of corp members’ allowances and other logistical problems,
would be a thing of the past. He said the commission would be happy to
sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the corps, to serve as a
guideline for subsequent engagements between the two organisations.

Mr Tsiga assured
the commission that its request would be promptly approved, but
requested that additional resources be included for corps members’
safety and comfort.

He asked that
identity cards be prepared, to avoid impersonation by fake corps
members. He also appealed to the chairman to ensure that vehicles are
provided for the members so that they can easily locate their duty
posts.

The INEC chairman
also solicited the cooperation of the Radio, Television and Theatre
Arts Union (RATTAU) to assist the commission in mobilizing Nigerians to
come out and register. He said the commission needed the cooperation of
the media so that its activities are not jeopardized.

Owing to
indiscriminate dumping of refuse in the channelized Ogunpa River during
the night, the Oyo State Ministry of Environment and Water Resources is
proposing to raise a team to watch over the river at nights.

The state
commissioner for environment and water resources, Majekodunmi Aborode,
who disclosed this in Ibadan on Thursday, said he had discovered that
residents around the channel hide under the cover of the night to
litter the river with refuse. The river has occasionally wrecked havoc
in the town, when its clogged channels filled with rainfall.

According to the
commissioner, security men from the ministry currently parade the
stretch of the Ogunpa channel on two shifts, between 6.00am to noon,
and noon to 6.00pm, to prevent dumping of refuse into it.

“The indiscriminate
dumping of refuse in the Ogunpa channels is done after 6.00pm when
people are not supervising. I have realized that we need to operate 24
hours. But there must be adequate security for men who will do the
night job,” he said.

Abusing the environment

The commissioner
and his team were also out yesterday to compel traders who display
their wares on the newly expanded Dugbe-Queen Cinema Road to remove
them. Mr Aborode regretted that despite the huge amount the government
had spent on the project, the people still abuse it

“We have discovered
that the only language our people understand is that of legislation and
enforcement,” he said, as he promised to make the exercise a regular
occurrence.

The commissioner
also informed that the state was still searching for a balance in the
area of environmental protection and management, saying, “we are not
where we are supposed to be. We are still in search of balance”.

The U.S. military
is on track to cut numbers in Iraq to 50,000 by end August, when the
7-1/2-year combat mission launched by former President George W. Bush
ends and operations switch to assisting Iraq’s armed forces.

The 4th Stryker
Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, the last brigade mainly focussed on
combat, handed over to Iraqi forces on August 7 and pulls out this
week. Its 100-strong “trail party” will leave in three days after
turning over facilities.

Another 6,000 U.S.
soldiers still need to leave by transport aircraft or by road before
August 31 to reach the 50,000 figure President Barack Obama promised
U.S. voters would be left ahead of a total withdrawal by the end of
2011.

“My personal
experience is it was worth it. We paid a huge cost,” said Staff
Sergeant Christopher Hush from the First Battalion of the 116th
Infantry regiment which headed to Kuwait earlier this week.

There will be
little actual change on the ground come September 1 when all six
brigades left in Iraq officially become “Advise and Assist” units, said
Major General Stephen Lanza, the U.S. military spokesman in Iraq.

Most U.S. military
units began switching their focus to training and assisting Iraqi
troops and police over a year ago when they pulled out of Iraqi towns
and cities on June 30, 2009.

U.S. forces have
not been legally able to conduct unilateral operations in Iraq since a
bilateral security agreement came into force in January 2009, and the
U.S. military began a steady cut in troop numbers, from a peak of
176,000 soldiers.

“Every soldier is a
combat soldier. It’s about the change of mission. It doesn’t change who
we are or what we do,” Lanza said. “You won’t see this big change on 2
September.”

Milestone in war

The end of the U.S.
combat mission in Iraq will still be a milestone in the war that began
in 2003 with the invasion to topple Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein,
whose long rule was marked by an eight-year war with Iran, the invasion
of Kuwait and economic decline and diplomatic isolation.

More than 4,400
U.S. soldiers have been killed, while at least 100,000 Iraqi civilians
also died, according to various counts, in fierce warfare unleashed
between majority Shi’ites and minority Sunnis who dominated the country
under Saddam.

Overall violence
has fallen sharply since the height of sectarian slaughter in 2006/07.
But Sunni Islamist-led insurgents still carry out attacks and Iraq is a
fragile place.

Its leaders have
not resolved a number of politically explosive issues, such as tensions
between majority Arabs and minority Kurds, and reconciliation between
Sunnis and Shi’ites.

Nor have they been able to form a new government five months after a national election that produced no outright winner.

Tensions have been
stoked by a steady stream of suicide bombings and other attacks by
insurgents trying to exploit the political vacuum ahead of the end of
the U.S. combat mission.

Nevertheless,
Iraq’s tentative experiment with U.S.-imposed democracy holds the
potential to upset political power balances throughout a region
accustomed to autocratic governance.

Much of the U.S.
war materiel and many of the soldiers leaving Iraq are being redeployed
in Afghanistan, where NATO forces are fighting a resurgent Taliban. The
50,000-strong force left in Iraq will remain formidable — almost twice
the size of the U.S. deployment on the Korean peninsula.

Obama has said not
a single U.S. service member will remain in Iraq come January 1, 2012,
even though it will be impossible for Iraq to stand up its own air
force and be ready to protect its territorial integrity on its own by
then.

Yet the U.S. public is weary of war, and any decision to remain longer in Iraq would likely be highly controversial.

The war in Iraq has gone on longer than the U.S. Civil War, World War One and World War Two.

Grace Folashade
Bent (PDP Adamawa State) has been honoured by former councillors from
her constituency with the Best Senator award.

She was honored by
the Old Councillors Forum, of Ganye Chiefdom. The forum comprises of
councillors from different political parties in Toungo, Jada and Ganye
council areas. The event took place at the Gangwari square, Ganye
council area, in Adamawa South senatorial zone.

Mrs Bent, a
Yoruba-born lawmaker, is married to a retired army officer from Numan,
in the zone. She has been representing the zone in the Senate since
2007, and wishes to continue.

Although she was
the only nominee for the award, Chairman of the occasion and former
Majority Leader of Adamawa State House of Assembly, Usman Bindau, said
the choice of Mrs Bent for the award was not misplaced, pointing out
that the senator excelled in many areas where past representatives of
the constituency failed.

Informed choice

He added that her
contributions to the Senate and her oversight functions as Committee
Chairperson on Environment are other attributes that informed their
choice to honour her.

Chairman of the Old
Councillors’ Forum, Usman Bobbo Koma, added that the choice of the
senator for the award was done to appreciate and acknowledge her
strides in the current democratic dispensation.

“As a member of the
National Assembly, Bent has continued to offer purposeful and effective
representation, as well as ensuring the zone enjoys dividends of
democracy accruing from the federal government,” Mr Koma said. “Since
we have been voting representatives into the National Assembly, the
southern senatorial district has never witnessed a senator who has
performed his/her function of representation diligently, as
demonstrated by Bent.”

In her acceptance
speech, Grace Bent, who began by singing a Hausa Christian chorus, said
the award was a further challenge to her abilities.

“I see this award being given to me today by the Forum of Old
Councillors as wake up call,” she said. “I thank you all and I shall
not let you down. I am elated and overwhelmed by the momentous
reception accorded me today by the people of Ganye Chiefdom.”

The Young African
Leadership Forum, initiated by US President, Barack Obama, is perhaps
one of the most endearing decisions taken by the U.S government to
support the talented African youth who are distinguished in various
fields. The forum recently brought together some 120 promising young
Africans from over 40 countries to the White House, to meet with the
U.S. president.

The four-day event
was organized by the U.S Department of State, in collaboration with the
White House. Discussions ranged from economic empowerment, HIV/AIDS and
governance. Key points made include: the fact that African youth have
the potential to facilitate social transformation in their individual
countries. Secondly, change must start from the mind set and it must
have a clear focus. Thirdly, change consists of small steps with
symbolic victories.

As an African, I am
glad that the American president has demonstrated genuine interest in
Africa and her emerging leaders. He also has deep knowledge of the
challenges in various problems within African countries. It is for this
reason he invited delegates from across Africa to share their vision
for Africa and explore the role the U.S can play in the actualization
of such. I see this as the beginning of a strategic partnership that
could bring about the change that we all hope for.

Nigeria should
consider the possibility of holding a similar forum, bringing together
youth and the leadership of the country to discuss issues that affect
the development of our country. Youth in Nigeria have been excluded
from governance and this is contributing to the dangerous political and
security situation in the country.

Furthermore, it is
imperative that Nigerian youth have good role models to inspire them
towards greatness. But, unfortunately this is not always the case
because most of our leaders are far from good role models. They lack
integrity and the capacity to mentor young people into selfless
leaders. Thus, while the youth constitute a significant part of the
country’s population, their influence in the polity is limited to
mediocre roles, not entirely by choice, but because this arrangement
serves the best interest of mostly first and second generation
politicians, who have maintained a solid grip on power for decades.

As part of my
contribution to youth in Nigeria, I intend to provide education that
will inspire young people to pursue their dreams and aspirations for
this great country. I witnessed the significant role youth in America
played in making history through the election of the first African
American president in America and I have no doubt that youth in Nigeria
have the potential to facilitate social transformation. But, they have
to believe.

Change is not easy

As Mr Obama has
reiterated on numerous occasions, change does not come easy. It entails
sacrifice, commitment, patience and more. As innovators for change, we
must first have a clear focus or vision. Subsequently, we should start
with small actions that translate to symbolic victories. Also, we
should always manifest change in our attitude. This may include: our
attitude towards other Nigerians, the environment, and governance.

Finally, no
external entity can give Nigerians the country of our5 dream. It is
only Nigerians that can bring about the change we want. I say to youth
in Nigeria: when are you going to be tired of being tired and do
something?

As one of the delegates to the Young African Leadership Forum, I am proud to be a Nigerian and I am also proud to be African.