Mr Segun Oke, a youth humanitarian has advised politicians to desist from sharing money to get votes and urged them to rather, invest in the lives of the people, especially the youths so they could be useful in developing our society.
Oke, who is Global President of Bridgewater foundation, a United States of America (U.S.A) based Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) , said his NGO poised to promote leadership, entrepreneurship, and innovation among people of African descent.
Oke condemned usual ways of politicians in giving peanuts to buy votes during elections and urged them to empower Nigerian youths and kids with life securing schemes such as education, productive and innovative skills among others.
He made the remarks while hosting over 500 kids from rural communities in Oye Ekiti to a Easter Innovation picnic which he said was organised to; "to help the young people to have the courage to dream and create solutions to problems that we face."
Speaking about his inspiration, Oke said: "We are avoiding the big cities where there is a lot of attention. We believe African is largely 60 percent rural and we concentrate in semi urban and rural communities.
" We are concerned that if we as Africans don't step up our games, we will continue to be slaves to the white men. We encourage youths and help them to dream and create solutions to indigenous problems.
" Our academic awards has catered for 160 schools. We also host the inspirational music talent hunt. Today, we had the Easter Innovation Picnic for kids. Our thrust is to help the young people to have the courage to dream and create solutions to problems that we face. Sometimes, rules in life prevents adults from being able to dream and create so that is why we are doing this. We are using games that create fun ignite innovativeness and creativity in kids. We are conscious about creating prosperity in African communities.
"Any child that can walk, is welcomed to benefit from these. We have innovative games such as Lion King Cymbal, Barnes, and other games that unlock the kids creativity and question things around them. There are also leadership games that help them to challenge the things around them and bring solutions.
"We have opened our door to all Ekiti kids. We have been on radio making announcements. We have written to schools. We are just passionate about young people. This is the future of Africa. We are just passionate about the future of African children. We are in trouble but that creates a lot of opportunities for us.
He added:" We have also given empowerment awards such as the Shakespeare award, The Soyinka award, the Jimi Solanke award for story telling, The Mike Angelis award for creative art, and the Poetic awards. We also encourage those who hitherto have doing bad but now improved. We believe we can change the face of our community if we model the right values. We believe that those to encourage in the society are these kids not the politicians. We have given about 2,000 awards. Two of our teachers have won the Federal Government awards. We have awarded best performing teachers, we call them and celebrate them with media coverage. Just to tell them that the society loves them.
"God has enabled me with the little penny l have to be able to do this. It is not I grew up in a family where I am taught that elevating the society above your personal needs should be what you pursue.
"Also at the age of nine, I became born again. So the spirit of Jesus drives the commitment to people and that is why we are hosting the Easter picnic. The greatest innovator of life is God Himself and He proves that by bringing Jesus from the dead, " he said.
Advising the government and wealthy private individuals, he said: " I urge the government there has to be sincerity. The greatest of our nation is in the young people. We must develop capacity. You don't want us to be slaves again.
"As long as we only import cars and electronics, we will keep taking our little money to Europe and America.
"We need to create competency and capacity. It is a shame when a governor is distributing chairs to schools. Our kids from age nine are supposed to have been developing programmes and write codes themselves and create solutions. We need to change the narrative by investing in the lives and destiny of these children. We have empowered 500 kids with those creative ventures to stir up their innovativeness and creativity.
"There are dancing competition and awards are given. If you are a politician, invest in the lives of the people. I have been doing this since 2008. I want to urge politicians, don't share N5,000 to get votes. That is a slap and a mockery of the heritage of Ekiti people. We need to make the kids imbibe real values and invest in their lives so they could be useful to our society in the future."
When asked if he would accept the offer to represent his people politically, he said; "I am careful man but I love my people."
