Olu of Warri: Women, youths must be included in governance to make society better

Tsola Emiko, the Olu of Warri, says the inclusion of more youths and women in the process of governance will engender societal growth.

The monarch said this on Thursday at the inaugural symposium organised by the Carrington Youth Fellowship Initiative (CYFI) in Lagos.

The symposium was organised in honour of Walter Carrington, former ambassador of the US to Nigeria, who died in August 2020.

Giving his keynote address, the Olu of Warri compared the “men, youth, women” with the biblical “holy trinity”, adding that there needs to be more in terms of the participation of women and youths in governance.

The Atuwase III also said “if governance gets it right to reach this right equilibrium, society can only be right for it”.

“Allow me at this point an analogy. Father, son, holy spirit; men, youths, women. While each has its own strength and signature operating arenas, imagine the powerful equilibrium that results when all three work together in tandem; when all three encourage and support each other — trusting enough to set down and step back and allow the other to rise and demonstrate its own capacity,” the monarch said.

“Human existence largely dominated by men has achieved quite a lot, especially considering we’ve used less than a third of the capacity of our brains. Imagine what we could achieve in every aspect of life, if we lifted the restrictions in each of the limitations and operated at the full capacity of our brain.

“Women and youths are the remaining two-third that we must fully utilise for us to get there. I dare say if governance gets it right to reach this right equilibrium, society can only be right for it.”

On her part, Arese Carrington, the widow of the diplomat, said youths must be provided with an enabling environment to reach their fullest potential.

“Voices of our youths matter. The future belongs to them, so they must be part of the discussion. How many Mozart, Einstein, Wole Soyinka have we missed just by not investing in our youths? They are right there in our midst, among our youths,” she said.

“We need to give our youths an enabling environment to be able to maximise their potential. I know they will not let us down. But also, we must not let them down.

“Any nation that doesn’t invest in its youths is spelling its doom. To the youths, I say when those in power are making decisions that may jeopardise your future, you must find a constructive way to defend that future.”

Among those at the event were Kayode Fayemi, governor of Ekiti and Ajibola Ponnle, Lagos commissioner for establishment, training and pensions.