Pastor Tunde Bakare, the General Overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church, on Saturday blamed youths in Nigeria for problems in the country.
According to him, the youths in their 20s and 30s once trusted with power messed up the system in Nigeria.
Bakare spoke at the maiden edition of The Conversation Africa Series organized by the Legacy Youth Fellowship in Lagos.
“Young Nigerians are asking why a country so rich wears the inglorious badge of the poverty capital of the world. Consequently, we have seen determined young Nigerians fired up and ready to take their country back from the so-called gerontocracy.
“Our current youths need to be reminded that on May 24, 1966, a 31-year-old Head of State destroyed the foundation of federalism and made Nigeria a unitary system and also in mid-1970’s some young and zealous army generals in their 30’s overthrew the government in their bid to sanitize the system but ended up destroying it among other incidents.
“Young Nigerian patriots, you can see from this brief recourse to history that Nigeria was brought to its current state, not necessarily by gerontocrats, but by mostly young Nigerians, some of whom had been actively involved in governance from their 20’s, 30’s and 40’s, and some of whom are relevant even now. It is why I say that youth, in a sense, brought us here”, Bakare said.