Get a life! Niger Delta minister, Orubebe says 50-year-olds can’t claim to be youth

by Idoreyin Sampson

 

FROM LEFT: MINISTERS OF INFORMATION, MR LABARAN MAKU; NIGER DELTA AFFAIRS, MR GODSDAY ORUBEBE; MINISTER OF STATE, MR ISHYAKU DAHIRU AND MINISTER OF LABOUR AND PRODUCTIVITY, CHIEF CHUKWUEMEKA WOGU, AT THE 2013 MINISTERIAL PLATFORM IN ABUJA ON THURSDAY (6/6/13): Photo credit: NAN
FROM LEFT: MINISTERS OF INFORMATION, MR LABARAN MAKU; NIGER DELTA AFFAIRS, MR GODSDAY ORUBEBE; MINISTER OF STATE, MR ISHYAKU DAHIRU AND MINISTER OF LABOUR AND PRODUCTIVITY, CHIEF CHUKWUEMEKA WOGU, AT THE 2013 MINISTERIAL PLATFORM IN ABUJA ON THURSDAY (6/6/13): Photo credit: NAN

This could be just about the most forthright statement made by a minister in the Goodluck Jonathan Administration on live TV.

At the 2nd sitting of the 2013 Ministerial Platform held at Radio House today, June 6, 2013 in Abuja, the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godsday Orubebe didn’t take home any prisoners when he was asked to comment on the youth restiveness in the Niger Delta region of the country.

[READ: “Lagos State is running on federal infrastructure”: Labaran Makun comes out swinging at the launch of the 2nd Ministerial Platform]

And we reproduce it here verbatim, because we feel that there’s an important message to all the pretenders:

“I want to thank you for appealing to the youth, particularly in the Niger Delta to come to terms with reality.

“On daily basis, I have meetings in my office with youth, leaders, and everybody. And I have reason to tell people. Sometimes, when you see some people come to talk to you, they (say they) are youth. They are doing one funny thing or the other (creating unrest) and you ask them, ‘What is your age?’ They’ll tell you that they are 40; they’ll tell you they are 50.

“And I have reason to tell those that care to understand. Youth is an issue of the mind.

“Our leader, King Alfred Diete-Spiff was 21 years old when he was governor of Rivers State. He was 21 years old, he governed a state, and today in Rivers State, the things he left behind are still there for people to see.

“It is an issue of the mind. If you want to be a youth forever, you’ll remain a youth.”

Then the minister who co-incidentally celebrates his 54th birthday today went motivational.

“First, is to appreciate the God that created you. The second thing is to have a dream. The third thing is to pursue that dream. Have a commitment and pursue that dream, with time, it will bear fruits. That’s what I have always told them”

Then the Elder Godsday Orubebe goes down hard.

“Because people coming around at 40, at 50, they don’t know what to do. They say they are youth. They are asking for one thing or the other, it is unacceptable! And we must condemn it together.

“It must not be used as an excuse to disrupt the people that have come to help us. Once again, I want to appeal to our people – we cannot be talking of development and yet we are disrupting the people that are coming to help us.”

[READ: “Our ministry has employed 4,000 youth, and 500 youthful engineers’ – Minister of works, Mike Onolememen]

[READ: President Jonathan continues mid-term reports with launch of 2nd Ministerial Platform today]

We couldn’t agree more! It’s time old men stop giving youth a bad name. A 40-year-old man, a 50-year-old man is by no means a youth.

The 2nd of a month-long series designed to provide details on President Jonathan’s mid-term report, the event was attended by the Niger Delta Minister, Elder Godsday Orubebe, Information Minister, Mr. Labaran Maku, the Minister of Labour and Productivity,  Chief Emeka Nwogu, and Minister of State for Niger Delta Affairs, Darious Ishaku.

The ministerial platform, according to the Minister of Information is “designed to promote national conversation and good governance” was attended by the media, organised civil society, the private sector, professional guilds, and organised labour to “make the national conversation on the nation’s development process fully participatory”.

One comment

  1. Thank God he has said it all. His party has a 60 year old grand dad a youth leader.

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