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By Oluseye Ojo
A Professor of History, Olutayo Adesina, of the Department of History, University of Ibadan, has said the time has come for Nigeria to start building a self-sustaining economy that can provide employment for the youth.
He gave the charge in a paper, titled, ‘Contemporary Yoruba Elites and the Bystander Effect’ at a public lecture on Yoruba historical conversation, organised by the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) Commission and the Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan, held at Wole Soyinka Theatre Hall, UI, yesterday.
Adesina stated that Nigeria owes its youth a more prosperous life, which all and sundry must insist on.
According to him, “The resources available to us are immense. On the continent of Africa, we have the hardest-working, most resilient, intelligent and ambitious youth population. They are extremely bright and globally competitive.
“At this stage of our development, we need to start building a self-sustaining economy that can provide employment for our children. Let us generate knowledge of progress and development.
“It is incumbent on all of us to wake up, empower our youths and redirect their minds towards driving sustainable development, thereby reducing poverty in this country.
“Let Yoruba land lead and encourage other regions to wake up. We should no longer allow those who attain high office through forged documents to dictate the direction of our youth. Let us stand together to steer this and support the younger generation with our strength and spirit.
“After all, Israel has transformed the desert into farmland, generating electricity from its expressways. China has advanced; its youth study abroad and return home.
“However, our own circumstances continue to raise further questions. What do our higher educational institutions teach? What do we do with the knowledge produced? We have the knowledge, resilience and the can-do spirit. All we need now is to innovate and ignite new ideas that will take us beyond the ordinary.
“To motivate effort and foster extraordinary capacities, we must boost finances and enhance our productive processes. We need to act now.”
Adesina stated further that the country is now at a turning point in its history. Nigerian, he said, are at a point at which they need their governors to begin governing and shun showmanship and brinkmanship.
The Director General of DAWN Commission, Dr. Seye Oyeleye, in his welcome address, said the Yoruba Historical Conversation, which has been holding for a better part of one decade, was initiated to “connect our past to the present in order for us to have a future.
“When we talk about Yoruba Historical Conversation, what we are trying to do is to remind the present generation of our history, teach and lecture them; let them even interrogate our history. That will then give them the conviction that the Yoruba were once proud people, and going forward, they will be able to lift their shoulders that they are from a proud race.
“In the past, the government removed history from schools. Thankfully, they have returned it. But, we have been filling that gap over time, saying that as much as possible, though the government made a mistake in removing history, as a regional commission, we took it upon ourselves to teach the young ones our history.
‘If you don’t know your history, indeed, you cannot have a future. One of the most important subjects when you go abroad in the countries that we call saner climes is that they teach and cherish their history.
‘This is what we do when we bring notable historians and academics, who have graced the platform of Yoruba Historical Conversation to come and tell us about who we are, who we once were and where we ought to be as a people.”
