Speeches

2008 Global Campus Initiative International Conference And Arts Festival

Dec 1, 2008 - Youths are the future health, strength and wealth of any country. In their capacity as repositories of the vision of a country’s progress and growth, they must engage in activities and participate in events that contribute to the development of the country and shape the destiny of their lives.

It is on this note that I wish to commend the organizers of this 2nd GCI International Conference and Arts Festival on the Millennium Development Goals and express my delight to be in your midst at this occasion today. Your choice of topic for the conference is also proper and indeed patriotic. This is because the MDGs are an important policy thrust of the government with the objective to fast track development issues, particularly as they affect the health, empowerment and education of women and the youths.

As youths from a university educational background, you should consider yourselves as privileged members of the elite whose main function in society is to offer leadership in their chosen professions and occupation and also cultivate values and ideals that sustain the bonds of fellowship.

An art festival such as the one you have participated in through the weekend is one of the many vital ways through which you can express your talents and use to network among yourselves in the march towards earning your mark and making your contribution to the overall development of society. Apart from their aesthetic value, art works can and indeed serve as commentary on the social and economic trends in society, speaking to us in subtle and humorous ways that leave us better educated about occurrences in our lives.

I hope that participants in this conference have made use of the chance provided by this conference to make some contribution to its success and broaden his or her horizon on issues relating to the MDGs.

For us in the Lagos State government, participating in such a conference affords us the opportunity to relate with the youths in their elements as such an interaction will assist us in making and implementing policies on the MDGs as they relate to the youth.

Already, we have taken far reaching measures to give our youths a sense of belonging and make them active participants in the development of the state of excellence. In education, we run a free and qualitative education for our pupils and students in our public and primary schools, while students in tertiary institutions are benefiting from various forms of scholarship. Also, we pay WAEC and SSCE fees for our final year students in public secondary schools. Presently, we are distributing free text books in core subjects to all our pupils and students. These giant strides in education are being complemented with centers for skill acquisition where many of our educationally disadvantaged youths are being trained in carpentry, masonry, building, computer engineering, hairdressing and tailoring. Recently, about 4,300 youths graduated from these centers and many more are still undergoing training. Many of them have benefited from our wealth creation and poverty alleviation programmes funded by our microfinance scheme under which we gave out N500million to our men and women to become self employed; to become employers of labour and in their independence, they will be able to contribute to the development of the country.

Let me conclude by urging all of you to take your studies seriously, and seeks ways to further develop your talents. The target date for the MDGs is still seven years away. But you can begin to seize every opportunity such as this annual Global Campus Initiative conference to make your contributions.

I want to thank you for the award you have given to me. I dedicate the award to men and women of goodwill, and those that have joined us in our determination to prepare a brighter, rewarding future for the upcoming generation. I assure you, it will spur me on, in my commitment to make my own contribution in our collective efforts to make Lagos State the Mega- City of excellence of our dream.

I thank you for listening and wish you success in your endeavours.

“Eko O ni baje!”

Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN)
Governor of Lagos State