The students have been described as the future of the nation, who the nation must necessarily depend on for sustenance of good legacies.
Speaking as the guest speaker at the International Students’ Day event organised by the National Association of Nigerian Students in Lagos, the initiator of the Lagos4Lagos Movement, Mr. Abdul-Azeez Olajide Adediran, noted that, “It is an indisputable fact that how far a nation will go depends on generation next.”
Jandor, as he is fondly called, was represented by the State Woman Leader of Ibile-Eko Forum, Princess Olajumoke Fakoya.
The statement read in part, “As students, you are our Nation’s future and this event is another opportunity to emphasise and have us know the huge responsibility on our shoulders, a responsibility I admonish us to keep in our consciousness all the time, a responsibility that must guide our thoughts and our actions going forward.
“I am indeed honoured to be here today as the guest speaker of this august occasion, celebrated across the world. I want to commend the Lagos State Chapter of the Joint Campus Committee of the National Association of Nigerian Students for finding it worthy to join their counterparts world over to celebrate this day and also say a big “thank you” for also extending what I regard as a special invitation to me to be a part of this special day.
“I also want to congratulate and celebrate all Nigerian students both within and outside the country on this special day.
“This underscores the importance of the theme this year’s event which you aptly tagged: “The place of students’ in the socio-economic development of the society”. My view has always been that as students, we’re also nation builders and as evident in citadels of learning world over, many life-impacting inventions have their origins within great institutions and were midwifed by students.
“In our clime, we must request for the enabling environment with which we can stand shoulder to shoulder with our counterparts across the globe and contribute our quota to the development of our nation. We must learn to stand as a united voice with a full understanding of what we require to flourish and how to get it.
“Yes you are our nation’s future but that future starts today and the efforts we invest today will determine what we and our nation become in that projected future.
“We also need to constructively join the process of electing credible leaders who will pay the required attention and regard our educational institutions as top priority, for you will agree with me that even the most fertile of grounds still require tilling and watering for whatever is planted on it to blossom. When we make our leaders invest more in equipping and running our institutions like they should be run, the sky will only be the beginning for us.
“We must therefore follow our electoral processes very keenly and desist from allowing ourselves to be used and manipulated by politicians for short-term gains. We must not only participate, we must use our strong unions and associations to influence our fellow students nationwide to take similar positions.
“This is the only way all of those incredibly great inventions from brilliant minds within our country will see the light of day and impact our society”.
While reeling out the achievement of Team Jandor, he said “we are doing our bit to support this very important initiative of keeping our youth informed and educated”.
He affirmed that “till date we have over 100 students in Universities, Colleges of education, Polytechnics on our full scholarship scheme, and of course, we will be sponsoring more students in the next academic year.
“Also, we made up our minds to work the talk by leading the charge with our Lagos4Lagos movement in which we will cause the much needed change for Lagos to work for all that live and work in Lagos as opposed to a privileged few as it has been for over 20years”.
Encouraging the youth to participate in politics, Jandor urged them to visit our website www.teamjandor.com to learn more about the movement and quickly make up their minds to join in
“Our future indeed is in our hands,” he added.
