Stakeholders at the 2024 National Leadership Conference (NLC) have urged youths to be resolute and take responsibility as they strive for the Nigeria of their dreams.

This year’s NLC, with the theme “Leadership Capital for Wealth Creation”, is being held from Sept. 20 to 21 in Abuja.

The annual NLC is organised by GOTNI Leadership Centre, with participants drawn from different sectors and parts of Africa and beyond.

It brings together leaders, policymakers, business executives, and community organisers to discuss the crucial connection between leadership and economic growth.

According to the stakeholders, Nigeria is blessed with abundant human and natural resources but faces leadership challenges despite its wealth.

They lamented that successive leadership failures since the country’s independence have led to high levels of poverty, unimaginable social vices, and a high rate of unemployment for youths.

They urged the youths, who are acclaimed to be tomorrow’s leaders, not to wait for the government to rescue them but to take leadership responsibilities in order to secure their future.

Nkechi Ali-Balogun, a public relations expert, said it was time for youths to take control of their future through hard work, discipline, and creativity.

“I look at the youth of this country, we are so talented, we are so many, but I get worried when we are still having old people like us on the stage.

“If I am to give Nigerian youth a word of advice, it will be that there are no free lunches anywhere.

“Every meal you eat has been paid for, and even if I invite you to come and have a free meal with me, I have paid for it, so nothing is free.

“You don’t deliver what you didn’t design, and so you must intentionally plan your life and tell yourself where you want to go, and how you want to get there,” she said.

Prof. John-Kennedy Opara, chief executive of CSS Farms, said the current security challenges facing the country could be mitigated if youths were properly engaged.

“Insecurity is real, but it can be conquered if every unemployed youth in a local government or an area is engaged, either as a vigilante or as a farmer.

“Why is insecurity a problem? Because of unemployment, and if everyone is fully engaged and employed, there won’t be insecurity.

“So, the solution to insecurity is providing jobs, and agriculture gives about 60 or 65 per cent of our job opportunities.

“However, we should not leave it to the government alone because being a man comes with something, and to be a blessing to your generation,” he said.

Linus Okorie, a leadership expert and CEO of GOTNI Leadership Centre, said leadership is a crucial catalyst for fostering sustainable development, economic growth, and wealth creation.

He called for an effective leadership capital development initiative for Nigerian youths to drive progress and prosperity.

“Every generation has to decide their future, and in my context, it is the responsibility of the young people themselves to decide to prepare themselves beyond their limits and think beyond the normal.

“Young people have to go beyond stomach infrastructure because they have to understand the future and what is at stake.

“We have played with the future of this country so much, and now I want us to have a rethink. I want us to repackage our values and our thinking process.

“I want us to focus on relearning and build a leadership capital culture that will help us take leadership seriously so that we can make the big difference that we need.

“Then, on the part of the government, it is the responsibility of the government to invest the resources needed in helping young people find seven-star skills.

“The marketplace recognises only value, and those values can be ideas that can be generated into sustainable services, and these services can yield finances,” he said.

Some participants who spoke with journalists at the conference expressed hope that the event would serve as a major springboard for national value re-orientation and progress.

Wole Senkoya, managing director of Skyewise Global Investment, said that Nigeria can harness the wealth it has in agriculture and has no business being broke.

“We have no business being homeless or jobless or, at worst, not having food on our table, and that is something anyone should take away from this platform today.”

(NAN)