“I am the custodian of the seat of Oduduwa [the first Ooni of Ile-Ife], the progenitor of Yoruba race. I am glad to be given this global mentoring badge by NIDMECORP and look forward to engaging our youths in mentoring and other aspects of live,” he said.
The king, who hails from the Giesi Royal Family, ascended to the throne in 2015 and celebrated its first year in 2016 in the ancient city. The decoration was done during the Nigerian Youth at the Diaspora Conference 2017 in London.
The Ooni was in attendance of the Nigerian Students Union UK event where he spoke with them on the future and plans of his Royalty as well as inviting them to see themselves as indeed leaders of tomorrow.
According to the Ooni, the Progressive Leaders were united with one purpose to see their educational gains utilised for the development of Africa as a continent and called on the students to meet the expectations of their parents and sponsors. He uses the platform to apologised to them if they felt neglected by their national government and was there to boost their moral, accountability to the host nation and should see themselves more than capable in Nigeria’s future.
“For us on in Africa, the entire continent has a similar issue and problems. I want to remind all of you of the movements. A powerful movement by the likes of Chief Awolowo, Nkrumah, Nyerere and Azikiwe to named few. Many of them were younger than you here. Their names are forever in gold. Our desire is to promote the opportunities and share experiences,” he stressed At the event were leading corporate leaders and entrepreneurs who were honoured by the Nigerian Youth at the Diaspora Conference 2017 in recognition of their empowerment programmes, mentoring and contributions towards Nigeria and African Youth Engagement and events. Mr. Alistair Soyode, founder BEN Television and Commandant General of Nigerian in Diaspora Mentoring Corp was presented with an award for Innovation in Entrepreneurship and Youth Development.
Others honoured include Dayo Olomu, Erinjogunola Dayo Israel II, Amb Amb Yemi Soile, Cllr of Greenwich, Ms from Fashion world and Prof Chris O Imafidon.
In his short remark, Mr. Soyode who is the first Black in Europe to setup a media satellite channel narrated how he got into the media industry and setup the channel by God’s grace and favour taking into consideration he did not studied media or communication. Alistair Soyode concluded, ” that the students and potential entrepreneurs have to seek and look out for the opportunities here and in Nigeria rather than waiting for it to come; you must be sincere within their know-how and skills as well as be real in valuing every chance available to them”.
