First Bank MD tasks youths on right attitudes, skills

The Managing Director of First Bank Plc, Dr Kazeem Adeduntan, has urged Nigerian youths to possess the right skills and right attitudes to benefit from today’s knowledge economy.

Adeduntan made the plea during the 2018 Luncheon of the Ansar-ud-deen Youths Association of Nigeria (ADYAN) on Sunday in Lagos.

He spoke on the topic: “The Renaissance of Faith”.

The managing director said that there was need for youths to acquire skills in order to avoid being redundant.

“The youth are the future of the country; so they should endeavour to work hard and pray hard to be successful.

“The youth should always believe in Allah and ensure that they assist those in need.

“We operate in a knowledge economy. The youth are the majority in the economy.

“The youth population is a strength in the economy but it will only transform to economic development and growth when the youth have the right skills and the right attitude,” Adeduntan said.

The Chairman, ADYAN Lagos Branch, Mr Taofiq Murtala, urged youths to remain steadfast focused and dedicated in their duties.

“As Muslim youths, we must bring to bear our core values of brotherliness, inclusiveness, shared communal responsibility in order to thrive under the umbrella of Islam,” Murtala said.

Also, Alhaji Shakiru Gafar, a missioner at Lagos Central Mosque, commended the organisers of the programme and urged the youth to channel their strength toward acquiring knowledge.

Gafar said that if the youth managed themselves very well, their strength would determine the future of the nation.

“Before now, youths are more focused, they engaged in either formal or informal education but what we see happening now is that we see youths hustling to make quick money.

“Nowadays, if you give materials to tailors to sew, they delay it, saying they had no apprentice.

“Some youths prefer riding motorcycles than learning jobs that will fetch them an everlasting income.

“Nigerian youths should plan for the future,” Gafar said.

Earlier, Lagos State Missioner of Ansar-Ud-Deen Society of Nigeria, Alhaji Zakariyah Muhammadu-Thanni, advised that youths should be able to reflect their religion in their ways of life.

Muhammadu- Thanni said Prophet Muhammad had urged the youth to follow the tenets of Islam, adding that youths were the first to accept Islam.

He said that youths were the leaders of tomorrow, saying that there was need for them to acquire adequate knowledge to enable them tackle future challenges.

Mr Fuad Laguda, a Federal Inland Revenue Service offocial, urged the youth to work toward ‘what to be’ and not ‘what to have’, to enable them remain focused.