Ayu tasks youths to channel energies into creative youth

By Folorunso Alagbede, Abuja

The National Chairman-elect of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Dr. Iyorchia Ayu, has advised Nigerian youths to channel their energies into creative pursuits, saying the future belongs to youths who prepare themselves.

Ayu spoke at the weekend in Abuja when a delegation of Benue Youths, under the auspices of Benue Transition Mentees (BTM), paid him a courtesy/goodwill call at his Maitama residence.

A statement personally signed by Dr. Ayu and made available by his Media office yesterday in Abuja explained that 

BTM is a group of passionate and energetic Benue youths who are making their marks in various callings of life, and who were members of the Benue State Transition Committee, 2019, which the former Senate President chaired.

Ayu, a former Senate President and university don, told the youth, “We often hear that youths are the leaders of tomorrow, but that is not automatic. The future really belongs to youths who follow their passions, who prepare themselves and who go after what they want.

“There are youths who are doing drugs, who are into all sorts of vices like kidnapping, prostitution, what they call Yahoo-yahoo. Some make up the battalions in the banditry ravaging the country. The future does not belong to these”, he said.

The former Senate President charged enterprising youths not to fold their arms and wait for power-shift, but to rise to the challenge of leadership at various level, noting that power is never gifted.

His words: “Prepare yourselves, follow your passions and channel your energies into creative pursuits. 

“Organize yourselves, mobilize your large constituency and go for what you want, including public office. There is no Father Christmas in Politics.

“Sometimes, young people forget that many of us started out on this route as young men too. I became a graduate at 23, got my PhD at 31, was a senior lecturer at 37 and was elected to the Senate at 39 where my colleagues made me Senate President at 40. I can say that for others too.

“And in many of these outings, we successfully competed against older, more experienced people. 

“So, when youths say, ‘give us a chance,’ I tell them: ‘chance is not always a gift. Power is never gifted on a platter or in a parcel.’ So, mobilize and take your chance as we march to 2023.”

Ayu used the occasion to decry the get-rich-quick attitude among youth people, and counselled emergent leaders to, first, imbibe the culture of service to the fatherland, stressing that money may follow.

Earlier, the youth delegation said they were in Abuja to congratulate Ayu on his well-deserved emergence as the new PDP national chairman as well as pray for his success in his determined quest of returning PDP to power, Come 2023.