By Patricia Uyeh

Former governor of Ekiti state and present minister of Solid Minerals Development, Kayode Fayemi, yesterday gave a wake up call to the Nigerian youths. He told them to stop complaining and blaming government and others for the challenges they encounter in life, as nobody, neither the government, family members or any other person, owe them anything.

Fayemi said this while delivering the 2016 convocation lecture of the University of Lagos (UNILAG) at the J.F. Ade Ajayi Auditorium. He told the graduands his own life experiences of how he had to make sacrifices in life for him to get to the position where he pressently occupies. He revealed that he engaged in odd and menial jobs such as driving public taxis and working as a security guard both in Nigeria and during his postgraduate days in the United Kingdom.

“Quit whining. No one owes you anything. The earlier we realise that no one owes us anything, the better for us and the more prepared we would be to face life’s challenges. Don’t think you are entitled to a job, just because of your parents’ influence or what they have or your good grades. The only guarantee you have in this life is what you do for yourself with the grace God has bestowed on us all. You have to be prepared to bend backwards and do what you might consider to be beneath you, because of the bigger picture. As a UNILAG graduate and a postgraduate student at the United Kingdom, I have also driven taxis and worked as a security guard, amongst several other menial jobs I did in the past to survive”

Photo credit: The Sheet