Vice-Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2019 elections, Mr Peter Obi, has advised the youth to always support right leadership, which he described as the key to development. Obi was speaking Friday to over 2,000 youths at the close of the one-week 2019 Boot Camp at Government Technical Secondary School, Awka, where the youth learnt different skills – confectionery, automobile designing, furniture, wiring, solar installation, among others – as well as listened to selected speakers.
Obi lamented the progressive degeneration of leadership in Nigeria, which, according to him, has resulted in the backwardness the country has been consistently witnessing. He charged the youth to become agents of positive change in society.
Recalling those that started WhatApp, Google, Facebook and most social platforms, Obi said they did so in their youth. He appealed to Nigerian youths to look inwards and take every bit of their training, including the ongoing experience in Boot Camping, seriously.
The former Anambra State Governor described as “disheartening”, when the youth, the future of the society, rather than embrace ennobling values take men whose only credential is the acquisition of high-sounding names and causing trouble as role models.
He encouraged the youth to look up to people like Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie as models. “They may not have money; but they have things that are priceless, far more valuable than money,” Obi said.
Speaking further, Obi said to the youth: “Those that changed the world were like you, ordinary people. The founder of Apple, Steve Jobs, was picked in motherless babies home; Gucci used to be a hotel porter at Ritz Hotel, France. You should strive to understand the background of successes and know factors that made for them. Youth is not a time to smoke, sag one’s trousers and embrace all manner of vices, but a time to chart a positive course for one’s trajectory in life.”
One of the facilitators of the Programme, Hon. Larry Oranezi, said the desire to get Obi to speak to the youth was borne out of his shining examples in leadership, humility, manners, morals and other aspects of life.
One of the participants at the event, Nwenyi Adachukwu, while delivering the vote of thanks thanked Mr Peter Obi for his soothing words. He said Obi’s speech was a renewal of the youths’ belief in themselves.
Obi was accompanied to the event by Prof. Chinyere Stella Okunna and Dr Patrick Obi.