Oluwo urges African leaders to invest in youths
The Oluwo of Iwoland, Oba Abdulrasheed Akanbi, has charged the African leaders to invest in the youth with a view to curbing modern slavery.
Oluwo said this in London while delivering his keynote address at the Commonwealth Africa Summit 2019 with the theme “Investing in our Common Future”.
According to him, the youth are looking for leaders with the strength of character who will lead them to fulfil their talents and provide the enabling environment for the flourishing of the society.
He said: “This future we talk about lies in the hands of this generation who are more than ever the emerging global citizens who are devoid of prejudice and see or know no boundaries and limitations to their dreams and what they can become.
“They are our greatest investment for the future. They are the gladiators and the real champions of the future. Let us educate them, not with hatred and prejudice; but with love, culture and purpose for the good of humanity. That is our own legacy for the common future.”
Describing slave trade as a sad episode of Africa’s history, Oluwo said: “Slave trade was barbaric and perhaps one of the worst expressions of degenerating humanity ever known to mankind. It was mutual, but the resulting forced slavery of our sons and daughters in foreign land was not.
“The point is that our own participation in the slave trade is part of our dark history that we cannot rewrite. Volumes have been written on what became of us in the hostile harems, plantations, construction sites and rail tracks of foreign lands.
“Today, centuries after the horrendous human trafficking across the oceans, we are witnesses of the consequences of what have become of us in the cities of Great Britain, Europe and America. The descendants of our sons and daughters sold into slavery in foreign lands are today British, Europeans and Americans.
“But after many generations, we have not healed largely because the forces of racism and discrimination that once ruled have not been completely thrown away notwithstanding the abolition of slavery.”
The monarch urged Africans who had spent the most part or all their lives abroad not to see themselves as foreigners there.
He said: “I hereby call on all our brothers and sisters, our sons and daughters who are in the Diaspora to understand that they are not foreigners in the Diaspora. After many generations in the UK, America and elsewhere, that is their home.”