Youths urged to embrace Omoluabi virtues

Nigerian youths have been advised to imbibe the virtues of Omoluabi, a concept of honour, humility and hard work as they prepare to take over the leadership of this country.

The Global Coordinator and Chairman, Omoluabi Standards Commission (OSC), Reverend Ladi Thompson said this at the end of two-day leadership training and signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Student Union Government of The Polytechnic, Ibadan on the use of non-violence approaches to resolving issues.

The Non Governmental Organisation (NGO) said it would help the student entrench a new culture of interaction with other students and school management without the usual noise and violence adopted by student leaders in recent time.

The SUG team was led to the signing of the understanding by the President Comrade Kuyoro Oluwamuyiwa at the Commissions office at First Floor, Cocoa House Building, Dugbe, Ibadan.

Thompson explained that the move was to re-introduce the culture that the Yoruba race was known for and which helped the nations founding fathers particularly the founder of the Action Group (AG), Chief Obafemi Awolowo achieved the much he did for the region in his youthful days.

He recounted that Awolowo, though a youth at the time was able to set a standard and led a kind of revolution that set the region’s level of development ahead of many other white nations and showed to the world the ingenuity of the black race and which must be reintroduced among the youths again to save the future of the country.

Thompson said, “Just about this time, exactly 100 years ago the average youth in our nation was in a position that is very similar to what obtains today.

The winds of change were blowing as hard as they are now and dark clouds had gathered over the horizon because of a clash between the global and local factors of that era.

Born on the 6th of March 1906 Obafemi Awolowo was by then a 24 year old orphan and the prospects of life looked very bleak because there was nothing encouraging on the horizon.

His generation of youths were born into colonial bondage against a background of the diminishing influence of the traditional monarchies of the old Oyo Kingdom.

The colonial force had introduced a brand new world but its advantages were reserved for the whites and a handful of Africans with basic education but the oppressive world of monarchial rule was not something the youths could put their hopes on either.

The young man decided to take the bull by the horns and the rest is history today.

“The Nigerian youth of today is in a similar dilemma and the clouds have again darkened with the clash of global forces that have relegated the average African child to a life of want, poverty and misery through complex socio-economic concepts that are weighted to give advantages to the unborn children of other regions of the globe.

In that same mix we have our national government battling against terrible odds to provide the basic amenities of life for her citizens.

The daily struggle to keep body and soul together puts a great strain of the family structure and this does not give much room for the dreams of the Nigerian youth.

“It is for this reason that the Omoluabi Standards Commission sponsored a peculiar leadership training course for 25 students of the Ibadan Polytechnic with leadership potentials.

The course participants of the 2-day seminar workshop are all executives of the student’s union governing council of the polytechnic in Ibadan.

The strategy of the leadership training course was to expose the participants to the “architecture of thought” employed by Obafemi Awolowo in his days.

“The virtues, and morals standards of the Omoluabi ethos needs no introduction in the South West of Nigeria but its full program as an operating system of governance requires a deeper understanding.

One great advantage of the Omoluabi however is its degree of articulation and track record of practical application as a successful operating system for governance in African history.

The grave mistake of the past being that, it was not officially recognized as an operating system of governance.”

Speaking on behalf of the student leaders, the SUG President, Comrade Kuyoro while commending the organisers noted that the training has energized the team to learn new culture of interaction and interrelations with both the students and the school management.

“The training has de-militarize me and I have learnt new ways of approach and engagement. It has opened our eyes to other non violent ways of interacting with other stakeholders and the virtues exhibited by Omoluabi, particularly, the Omoluabi code have taught me the non-violent communication as best option.

It will help us change the ways politicians see us as corporate thugs. We will transmit the trainings down to other students for faster spread and starting a new culture among the students”, the SUG President said.