No fewer than 100,000 Nigerians across the 36 States of the Federation and Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have so far been trained by the Lead Generation Initiative (LGI) established by a former member of the House of Representatives, Hon. Shina Peller.
Hon. Peller who represented Iseyin / Itesiwaju/ Iwajowa / Kajola in the 9th Assembly, disclosed this in Abuja at the weekend, during the award ceremony organised by coalition of Youth Movement Organizations across the six geopolitical zones of the country, underscored the need to create enabling environment for accomplished Nigerians to participate in politics.
He said: “I have always been passionate about helping the youths because I believe that the youths of our country occupy the largest percentage of our population and truly if you want the best for the country then we must invest in the youths. And this is the main reason that even got me interested in politics.
“I have been a successful business man over the years. I have come to realize that we have a country which is supposed to be one of the best countries in the world but because of bad leadership we have met ourselves where we are. And for that reason, people that have built their immediate environment should be given an opportunity to get into public offices and see how we can move things forward. This was what got my interest in politics in 2019.
“I began to think of how to develop a bottom-up approach of developing an average youth in Nigeria. At this time, we started the Lead Generation Initiative. With this we trained over 1,700 Nigerian youths across 18 states of the Federation.
“We identify young minds and put them in a structure and begin to develop their interest on one, active citizenship, which is w ay for them to understand their rights, their roles, their responsibilities as citizens of this country. To develop their interest in nation building and also for them to understand the importance of politics, political mobilization and political organizing.
“During this we were able to adopt the train the trainer model where the 1,700 people trained have successfully gone back to their various states and local governments and trained over 100,000 youths today.
“I say thank you to the members and management of Lead Generation. Helping the youths is something I have already subscribed to whether I am in office or not. I believe so much that the access of this country is basically the youths.
“If we want to get Nigeria going we must give opportunity to experience the youths. Basically because they are the workforce of this country. If we want growth then the youths must be engaged.
“There is also need to strengthen the creative industry, which was actually the last motion that I moved in the House before the end of the 9th Assembly. I called on the Federal Government to strengthen the creative industry basically because an average African child has fire burning in them, creatively. I believe that once a country that is trying to diversify its economy from oil revenue should be able to look in that direction, definitely a lot of youths would get employed.
“We as human beings, God created us for two reasons. God created us to worship him and created us so that we would make impact and that impact that we make determines where we would spend the rest of lives when we are no more. Making positive impact is about helping the next person around you and for me, investing is youths is something I believe I can never be overemphasized. My support for the youths, I see it as an obligation for me as a person. I can assure I would not rest on this,” Hon. Peller assured.
In his remarks, the Convener of the award, Hon. Olufowobi Olanrewaju applauded the contribution of Hon. Peller towards youth development across the country.
He said: “We have leaders of different youth organisations in Nigeria from the nooks and crannies of Nigeria from the six geopolitical zones coming together to appreciate a man who spent four good years speaking for the common man in the 9th Assembly. He’s somebody to ho has given more than his contemporaries at the 9th Assembly though he was elected to represent the good people of Iseyin/Itesiwaju/Iwajowa/Kajola but he chose to represent the entirety of the common man and the rest of the Nigerian youths.
“He (Hon. Peller) has mentored a lot of people through his foundation called Lead Generation Initiative that a lot of Nigerians have benefitted from.
“And apart from that, he announced publicly that he came into politics because of what impact he can give back to the society and throughout his four years at the national assembly he opened his door and mentored million of Nigerians educate millions of Nigerians, empowered millions of Nigerians and also supported more Nigerians to get involved actively in politics through the Lead Generation Initiative.
“As the National Coordinator of the We Together Movement, looking at his record of excellence we felt this is the time to honour a man who has given more to the entirety of young people, the common people more than any honourable member in the 9th Assembly,” he noted.
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