Okebukola Tasks Leaders on Youths Participation in Democratic Process, as Anchor Varsity Produces 23 First Class Graduates

By Funmi Ogundare

Former Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC), Prof. Peter Okebukola, yesterday called on political office holders to promote an enabling environment for young people’s participation in a broad range of process, as well as ensure that young people’s skills and capacities were harnessed to participate actively in the democratic practices at the local, national and global levels.

Okebukola made this known at the maiden convocation lecture of Anchor University, Lagos, which graduated a total of 63 students with 23 bagging First Class honours in different faculties.

Okebukola who spoke on the topic, ‘Re-engineering the Youths for Leadership Imperatives and National Development’, noted that despite the fact that Africa was plagued with oldest political leaders, young people must realise that leadership will not be given to them on a platter of gold.

According to him, ” before you say I am not too young to run, remember that a leader without character is useless to himself or herself and everyone else. Obafemi Awolowo, Nnamdi Azikwe and Sir Ahmadu Bello were not just young, they worked hard to achieve their feats.”

He said all stakeholders including religious institutions also had roles to play in developing the youths for leadership, adding that the church should encourage them to harness their God-given talents towards contributing their quota to national development.

” There is no better institution to trigger a revival of values in our young people than the church, they must create platforms for youth engagement. We are greatful for the Deeper Life Bible Church’s 2020 conference where young people were encouraged to emerge beyond the current challenges and live beyond overwhelming societal, economic, cultural and generational limitations, Okebukola stressed.

He expressed concern about the erroneous notion of the leader being President Buhari alone, saying that Nigerian leaders are no longer leading by examples and with the fear of God.
“Now that the exact opposite is playing out, that is bad examples are given by the leaders to the youths, a national reorientation is urgently needed and more importantly to pray to God to heal the land.”

Okebukola who is currently on the council/board of regents of six universities across the world including the Pan African University owned by African Union, Addis Ababa, enumerated the pathways to re-engineer the youth for leadership such as through quality education, re-engineering the curriculum at all levels and its delivery, massive overhaul of school facilities as well as rethinking teacher education.

Addressing journalists earlier, the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Joseph Afolayan said the institution in the last four years was committed to the vision of being a citadel of learning for holistic human transformation band development, adding that it has continued to emphasise godliness, hard work and courage as reflected in its moto.
He said since the establishment of the university, they had ensured relationship and linkages with institutions in other countries to gain global relevance.