Every twelfth of August has been earmarked globally as International Youth Day (IYD). The maiden edition of this celebration happened in the year 2000 across the globe and it has moved on to be an annual event ever since. According to the United Nations, the objective of August twelve is to bring youth issues to the attention of the international community and celebrate the potentials of youths as partners in today’s global society. This year’s youth day was celebrated in a grand style with the theme “Intergenerational Solidarity: Creating a World for All Ages”. Different organizations all over the world celebrated this year’s youth day in their own unique ways but all pointing towards the general theme of ensuring intergenerational solidarity for an all-inclusive world.
Lead Transformation initiative (LTI), wasn’t left out in this year’s celebration with our emphasis on raising transformed minds for sustainable development in rural and urban communities of Nigeria. LTI hosted an event that focuses on harnessing our individual diversity towards a sustainable community. In our society of today, we often hear statements like “young people are not teachable, employable etc”. And one begins to wonder, ‘whose fault?’ Is it the fault of the young people or the system that produced them? But one thing is certain, there are no intentional efforts at ensuring the holistic development of young people to make them fit so that they can continue from where the elders stop. This, therefore, calls for concerns.
At this year’s youth day, LTI director of operations, Mr. Titilayo Femi Kings used the opportunity to call for deliberate actions from relevant stakeholders in youth development to be intentional about how the youths under their watch are evolving. In his words, Mr. Titilayo stated that “young people will be modeled into what they see those ahead of them do. Therefore, the youths are a true reflection of what the leaders are doing”
He further stretched out by saying “attaining a world for all ages requires that no one is left behind according to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
According to Mr. Titilayo, among the characters anyone willing to be a good leader must imbibe are: vision backed with right action, genuine love for those following, and openness among others. He also charged the youth by letting them know that they need to be deliberate and take their numbers early in life if they truly desire to create a change in their communities.
He concluded by saying that “any good leader should remember that there is no true success without a successor and vulnerability with their followers will only make them wax stronger in love—that’s where the true strength lies”.
The youth day event was held at the Transformation Space of the organization where other activities and keynote speakers graced the occasion.
