Director-General of the Consumer Protection Council (CPC), Mr Babatunde Irukera, last Saturday urged Nigerian youths to refrain from cyber crimes and deploy their creative energy to productive ventures.
Irukera made the call while delivering a keynote address at the maiden edition of the Progressive Minds Forum in Lagos.
“Never in our history were fraud or any form of criminal activity celebrated as they are being daily celebrated today.
“It is no longer a secret that the preponderance of Nigerian youths think that the quickest and easiest route to wealth today is the infamous ‘yahoo yahoo’,” Irukera added.
The CPC boss urged the youth to seek to explore their talents in the best possible ways they could rather than blaming all the problems on the environment.
Irukera said that the forum, comprising a group of professionals, discovered that the myriad challenges facing the country began with negative mindsets that people had from young age.
According to him, the only way to tackle the problem is to attack them from the root cause, hence the training of youths towards positive mindsets.
He called on youths to develop their talents for the benefit of the society positively.
“Mindset is what would determine how far you go; talent is just a piece of what brings success; your attitude and approach are what will ultimately determine how successful you are,” he said.
The CPC boss urged youths to shun inglorious acts such as cyber crimes and be positively engaged and productively involved in order to be successful in life, saying “there is no short cut to success”.
He pointed out that a country’s approach to innovations and creativity would determine how far it could grow, adding that the right mindset to such growth was to think through the nation’s talents.
Chief Coordinator, Progressive Minds Forum, Mrs Omotayo Gbajabiamila-Olamona,said that the country would get quality delivery from youths when they were prodded in the right direction.
Gbajabiamila-Olamona said that investment in infrastructure, without same in human capacity, would not make the country to get expected successful result.
“The mind is a very powerful organ, it directs most of the activities rendered by any human being. If the mind is properly tuned, activities will be positively delivered.
“For instance, if youths have a mind of success, they will work hard towards the goal and ensure it is attained,” she said.
She urged the people of Lagos State to be ambassadors of peace and be determined to sustain all the progressive developments recorded by the state government.
The Tide’s source reports that the Forum is a non-profit organisation that works in conjunction with government and corporate bodies as well as individuals to bring about a better society.