Sam Adeyemi, senior pastor of Daystar Christian Centre, says President Bola Tinubu must give youths compelling pictures of what Nigeria will look like in the next 30 years.
Speaking on the topic ‘Leadership Shift: Redefining Influence’ on Saturday when he featured on Channels TV Adeyemi said whatever a person sees consistently over time enters their heart and puts their life on autopilot.
When asked how that can be applied to the federal government’s proposed National Youth Confab, he said “Mr president needs to come with pictures, 3D of what Nigeria will be like in 30 years’ time”.
Tinubu had, in his nationwide broadcast on October 1, said he would set up a 30-Day National Youth Confab for youths in the country to discuss and address challenges confronting them.
Speaking further, Adeyemi said leaders must strive to change people’s belief systems to create sustainable change.
“No leader will create sustainable change if he or she cannot shift the mindset, and you cannot shift the people’s culture without shifting people’s belief and their mindset,” he said.
“I have an ex-governor who is a friend. I went to visit him whilst he was governor. And then he said, ‘Brother Sam, my biggest problem is not infrastructure’. They were celebrating two years in office then and he was celebrating over two years
“He said ‘when I want to do a job, I get the best contractor to do the job’. He said ‘my biggest problem is mindset’. He said ‘on my own cabinet, one of the members of the state executive came to tell me that they were having a conversation somewhere and they were saying: the governor will just be talking about vision. Will we eat vision?’
“He said ‘Can you imagine that the people on my cabinet – the state executive does not even understand vision? They don’t value vision; they are just looking for what they want to eat talk less of the citizens’.”
Adeyemi said the dynamics of leadership must change for the development of Nigeria.
He said many people’s New Year resolutions are already unraveling because there can’t be sustainable change until it is brought about from the subconscious to the conscious.
“You can’t kill a habit; you have to replace it with a new one — nature harbors a vacuum,” he said.
