Fiki and Hassan at the award ceremony

A community leader in Kogi State,T Prince Richard Dare Fiki has called on the Government, Corporate organisations and well meaning individuals to create enabling environment for the youths to actualise their God given potentials.

Fiki gave the advice Thursday in Lokoja during the investiture and conferment of an award on him by the Youth Assembly of Nigeria, YAN.

Fiki who is also President of Takete Ide Progressive Union, TIPU, noted that he was priviledged to have been considered for an honour and award ceremony by no less a body than the highly respected Youth Assembly of Nigeria, (YAN.)

He lamented that the youths who are supposed to be the leaders of Tomorrow , have been denied mentorship by the crop of leadership of this nation, saying their actions have created bottlenecks for the youths in their quest for better society.

According to him, ” indeed how do we go to sleep about tomorrow when we have not laid the right foundations for our children and young persons today

“Put differently what type of future do we seek to bequeath to our future leaders if we do not pay attention to their trainings today

” I am a strong follower and advocate in the scriptural injunction to “train up a child in the way he shall follow and when he is old, he shall not depart from it…

” We all have a duty today to invest our all in the lives of our children for a glorious and brighter tomorrow” He warned.

The awardee disclosed that he has been involved in facilitating trainings and empowerment programs for the youths through the Industrial Training Fund, ITF and similar agencies.

He added that he was able to achieve the feat through optimal use of contacts in such agencies, saying the ITF has taken hundreds of beneficiaries of his communities from poverty and crimes.

He however advised well meaning individuals and corporate organisations to partner with Governments to create employment for the youths.

While commending the youths for finding him worthy for the conferment, he challenged present crops of leadership of our nation to pay functional attention to the growth and development of the youths rather than amassing needless mundane wealth for their children.

Earlier, Speaker of the Youth Assembly of Nigeria, Mustapha Hassan in a remark commended Fiki for his efforts at empowering youths and vulnerable persons. He listed a number of instances to justify the award.