Don't Let Anybody Tell You That You're Too Young To Take Over In Nigeria -Obasanjo Tells Youth

Nigerian President emeritus, Olusegun Obasango says he is saddened that Nigerian youths, who are 60 per cent of the population, are locked out of leadership of the country, against what obtains in other parts of the world.

Obasanjo also tore into the case of the13 million children who currently out of school system, expressing serious worry about the matter as he said whatever he had achieved for himself or done for the country, were due to his having access to education.

The controversial elder statesman spoke in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, when the National Youths Council of Nigeria (NYCN) visited him at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL), Thursday, June 27, 2019.

Led by its National President, Mr. Niyi Oladele, the NYCN delegation had gone to pick Obasanjo's brain on the way out of the challenges of  insurgency, banditry, kidnappings and herdsmen attacks plaguing the country.

Obasanjo  said:  “Whatever I have done, I have done it because I was educated and the love I have for Nigeria. If I didn’t have education, I would not have been able to do what I have done and today, it pains me that more than 13million Nigerian children who should be in school are out of school.

“We don’t need additional teachers; you will only increase what those teachers get maybe by 40 per cent or something,  we can even do two streams if we prepare for that and start two years from now and those children would have become product that would be able to make contributions and make their own life better and as well making the life of their families too better.

“I am so much concerned about the youths, the truth is, over 60 percent of our populations are youths and under 30 years of age.

“Don’t let anybody tell you that you are too young, I started making contribution to the world when I was serving in Congo in 1960, I was only 24 years old. By the time I went to the war front, I was still under 35 years of age, by the time I became the Head of State, I was under 40 years of age.

The NYCN  also christiened Obasanjo with the title, ‘Father of the Nation’ and gifted him N1 million as support fund for the Presidential Library.