Nigeria @60: Sanwo-Olu mentors 60 future leaders on nation building

By Benjamin Omoike

•Urges Nigerians to define role in greater Nigeria project

As Nigeria marks her 6oth Independence anniversary, Lagos State governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, on Thursday, mentored 60 future leaders drawn from various public and private schools across the state, stressing that Nigeria will remain great and be greater, if every citizen plays and defines his or her role in nation building.

The governor noted that the strength and attributes the nation has rest in the ability of the citizens to define their roles in a great national project.

Speaking after monitoring pupils of private and public schools at his official residence in Marina, as part of the Independence Day celebration, Governor Sanwo-Olu urged Nigerians to continue to remain bigger and stronger together, saying there is so much strength and opportunities to continue to develop and forge ahead as a nation.

He said: “It is really to reflect on the theme for the 60th anniversary, for the diamond anniversary of Nigeria, which is togetherness.

If there is anything that we all need to learn from, it’s the fact that in our last 60 years, there has been so much division among ourselves, there has been so much reasons for us to want to believe that we are not meant together, but at the end of the day, it is really the strength in our togetherness that is the strongest strength and attributes that we can have.

“We probably are different parts of a whole being, somebody holds the head, some hold the leg, some hold the hand and so if you remove any part, there will be some incompleteness that will be seen.

“So, it is a fusion of all of us all together and I am a strong believer that in that togetherness, we can continue to review, realign, redo, but let us also continue to remain bigger, stronger together.”

Harping on the need for Nigerians to define their roles in the great nation project, Governor Sanwo-Olu added: “Nigeria is a massive, big country and that strength we have, can be channeled positively to other things.

We know there are challenges, Nigeria has been like a sign-wave, it has ups and downs, but at the end of the day, we have to see the trajectory of growth.

We need to search our inner souls to see how differently we can do things that can make Nigeria bigger and better than we found it.”

The governor, who also took the pupils down memory lane, on how the country has fought for her Independence, expressed optimism that the nation has a brighter future and would also overcome all her challenges.

“That is the message we have sent to the young people here, which is to believe in the nation’s brighter future.

It is the history and our heroes past that have brought us this far. That is the message we have sent to the young people here.

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“The little children that are here today, the teeming young Nigerians that will be looking at us that are fairly older and will be asking ourselves indeed do they have the future and that belief is what we need to give to them.

We need to be able to sound it clear that, indeed, they must know that there is indeed, a future for them and all of us have a role to play,” the governor added.