Restructuring: Lawmaker, others counsel LASU students on roles

Chairman Lagos State House Committee on Health and the member representing Epe Constituent II in the Lagos State House of Assembly, Hon Segun Olulade has urged governments at all levels to involve youths in policy formulation, saying youths are the greatest asset any country can have.

He said this at the Lagos State University Students’ Union National Parliamentary Summit with the theme:

‘Restructuring Nigeria: The Role of Youths in National Rebirth’ where he was a guest speaker.

According to him, youths serve as a good measure of how a nation can reproduce and sustain itself, adding that there is the need for human capital development for the country to wriggle out of the present economic challenges.

“There is need for all to be totally educated, placing value on education and skill acquisition is a way of resolving the economic doldrums that we have as a nation,” he said.

He however warned that there can be no national rebirth without the youths having a reorientation and change of attitude towards government enterprise.

Dean Students Affairs of the University, Dr Femi Obayori said the theme of the Parliamentary Summit is very apt especially at the time debate is ongoing on the ‘Not Too Young to Run’ Bill at the National Assembly as well as the issue of restructuring.

He said one of the most dangerous issues in the nation today is that of genocide which is being championed by the youths, saying for instance the call by Igbo group for Biafra secession is being led by a youth, Nnamdi Kanu as well as the quit notice of Igbos from the North by the Arewa Youths.

“Young people have energy, but how are they going to channel it towards the national rebirth. The challenge before us today is to clinically examine ourselves as youths and bring out our problems and proffer solutions to them,” he said.

Some of the students who spoke at the summit, including a member of the LASUSU Parliament, Oluwaseyo Hassan, 300 level department of Public Administration student said the major problem Nigerian youths are having is that they don’t develop themselves personally, adding that personal development goes a long way in becoming a leader in the country.

Another 300 level Political Science student, Aladeotan David said the role of youths in society development is sacrosanct and germane, saying it is high time youths of the nation discovered their importance in shaping the society.

In his view, Yusuff Nurudeen another student said restructuring is not a new phenomenon in the Nigerian concept saying the country had undergone regional system of government, creation of states and now federalism.

He said all the calls by Biafra and Arewa Youths are based on economic hardship currently facing the country, saying all past leaders talking about restructuring are products of imperialism, thus they are not in the best position to end the current economic crisis.

He said Nigeria needs the type of restructuring that can address the present economic problems saying the present ruling elites are not capable of finding solution to Nigeria’s problems.