by Damilola Jagun
On Thursday, National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, delivered a speech at the 12th convocation ceremony of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology.
Tinubu, who is the Chancellor of the institution, spoke on the plans of the APC government for Nigerians, among other things.
Here are 7 key quotes from his speech:
1. I must, however, state that for us as a nation to experience the change we yearn for, we should all be prepared for a fundamental change in our individual disposition and attitude toward nation building. This change at a personal level will help fuel a national re-orientation that will affect all sectors including governance. We must share the responsibility for change.
2. The nation can no longer afford to pay lip service to the development of her youths. I strongly believe that this country is blessed with vibrant and talented citizens whose capabilities for nation building are yet to be tapped. We must all stand in concert and unity of purpose to build a secure future for our country by developing our youth.
3. Government and youth have mutual duties in this regard. You owe as much to the nation as the nation owes to you. In the past, government has not always honoured its role. You have now elected a government that will honour its duties.
4. One of Government’s primary duties is to provide you with an education in harmony with the demands of our political economy. We must educate you with skills required by the job market that you shall encounter and not for some abstract economy found only in textbooks.
5. A progressive government must turn its face from the austerity policies of the outgoing administrative that tried to manage poverty, but not end it. Such policies serve only to deepen and prolong the hardship of the average person. Such policies would lock us in a room without hope or safe exit. We dare not go in.
6. In response to the downturn in private sector activity, a progressive government must exercise the creative boldness to generate economic growth, productive and equal opportunity. Under the circumstances that now confront us, government must use fiscal and monetary policy to enlarge the economic space by embarking on ambitious infrastructural development, housing and agricultural programs.
7. These programs will provide jobs directly. Moreover, the enhancement of our infrastructural base and sharpening of our productive capacity that results from these programs will initiate multiple rounds of job creation. This is how economic growth and employment are sustained over the long term. This is what the APC manifesto pledged to you. This is what an APC government will seek to deliver. You, the youth, must be willing partners in this mission of radical, structural change.
