Nigeria Can Replicate Chinese Feats with Entrepreneurial Education – Oladotun Okediji

Sixteen-year-old Oladotun Okediji is a pan-African young entrepreneur and a freshman Doctor of Pharmacy student at the University of Ilorin. He is also the President/Founder of Young African Leadership and Entrepreneurship Forum (YALEF).

He was spotted by AbujaCityJournal’s Editor, Remi Adebayo following the hosting of ‘Moment of Ignition,’ his entrepreneurial platform where he rallies young people to a roundtable for mentoring and capacity development. In this educative interview conducted electronically, he shares his beliefs about YALEF, his vision for the youths and expectations from public leaders.


"I am a registered member of Barack Obama founded Young African Leadership Initiative (YALI). I obtained two certificates in "Public Private Partnership" and "Digital Marketing". I'm also a member of Youths Lead, an international Youth mentoring and networking organization. I am a student member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.

By God's grace, I am the President/Founder of Young African Leadership and Entrepreneurship Forum (YALEF), a Pan - African youth organization committed to driving the growth of impactful leadership and entrepreneurship in Africa."

What informed the formation of YALEF?

YALEF was born out of patriotic zeal and passion to see to it that potentials, talents, and resourcefulness in African Youth are discovered, developed, and deployed through mentoring and networking. There are a lot of potentials and possibilities among the Youths of African continent untapped and unsung. One of our goals is to see how to create the bridge between dreams and delivery of purposes. We desire to awaken the sleeping giants in African youths through the instrumentality of mentoring, networking and other constructive engagements and media.

What specific impacts do you have as target?

We want to impact African youths particularly in the areas of potential discovery, high impact entrepreneurship, youth leadership development, self-development and capacity building, mentoring, and building an enduring networking.

Why targeting leadership and entrepreneurship innovations for young people?

The future of every nation is in the quality of her youth. One way we can take Africa to her promised land would be to promote the course of the young people in leadership and create enabling environment for entrepreneurship to thrive.  Entrepreneurs are the wheels of every nation’s economic growth; they are problem solvers.   By enabling the growth and chances for young people to thrive in entrepreneurship, we can significantly contribute to the economic development of our nation.  Not just that, one major problem entrepreneurship solves is the issue of unemployment.

Entrepreneurs are job creators. We are specific about targeting leadership and entrepreneurship innovations for young people because we know that where there is an increase in job opportunities, there will be a massive decline in so many of the menaces we are facing in Africa, from poverty to hunger, insecurity, low standard of living and even the high number of out of school children.

We want to see committed and vision geared leadership from our young persons, not just in the political space but all rounds - from major Industries and sectors, our traditional institutions, the judiciary, our law enforcement agencies among other. With this in place, we are rest assured of the African continent that every African would be proud of.

What is your idea of a young African?

I am a strong believer of Pan - Africanism. I believe an average African youth is an asset not only to the Continent but to the world at large. I believe that the future and destiny of our mother land lies in our hands and that we can turn it around for better. That we are black in colour is not a strong reason that we should remain backward as a continent. I believe we can make positive impacts; we can change the norms. Meanwhile, you can't give out what you do not have. Before we can recover Africa, we will need to discover and recover ourselves in the prisms of our values, patriotism, vision, and purpose.

What response have you received, or being recorded from the young people on the YALEF platform?

To the glory of God, the response from my contemporaries, the young people both from within and outside Nigeria has been very encouraging. As of today, YALEF has members in all the 6 geopolitical regions of Nigeria with Regional Coordinators in all the zones except the North Central region which is yet to have one. Outside the country, we have committed followers in countries like Ghana, Sierra Leone and Kenya. As God would have it, one of the Speakers during our forthcoming online summit is from Zambia.

Permit me also to say this that the encouragement we are receiving from youth establishments has been superb. The speaker in the maiden edition of ‘Moment of Ignition,’ our online programme is Ambassador Emmanuel Agida, a member of West Africa Youth Council and the youngest political appointee in Nigeria.

It is also pleasant to let you know that one of the partners for our forthcoming summit is West Africa Youth Council.  So far so good, we have been enjoying good hands of fellowship and acceptability from the young people.

Someone may want to ask if this will not pose a role clash with your study as an undergraduate

That is a very good question and I want to believe the question is being asked out of sincere concern for me bearing in mind what it takes to be a student of such a highly demanding course of Doctor of Pharmacy at the University of Ilorin, an institution that is renowned as a "no nonsense " and prestigious institution.

I should prepare to go extra to get extra. I believe with extra effort on my side, coupled with good time management, setting my priority right, self-discipline, hard work and above all, with Almighty God on my side; I can do all things.

What response do you receive from persons on invitation to speak on the YALEF platform?

The response from our invited resource persons has been so positive and very fantastic. Prior to the conception of our forthcoming summit, we have been privileged to host Mr. Muktar Mohammed, a renowned Financial Analyst and investment mogul; we have also been privileged to have Ambassador Emmanuel Agida, the youngest Nigerian Political Appointee in the first two editions of ‘Moment of Ignition,’ our virtual youth purpose and self-development programme.  It was a great honour to have the duo despite their very tight schedules.

In the same vein, by God's grace, all the 9 speakers being expected for our forthcoming online Summit scheduled to hold between Monday, 26th and Wednesday, 28th December, 2022 have given us their words confirming availability to honour our invitation.

Where do you see this in the next few years?

I see YALEF in the four corners of Africa in the next few years. I see us taking root downward and bearing enduring fruits of generational positive impacts.  I see YALEF going global and becoming a pacesetter youth organisation in few years.  I can see the seed we are sowing today becoming a big tree of influence in African continent and the world in the nearest future. I see us making indelible and progressive marks. I see us becoming a voice to and for the African youths.

What do you think government, and young persons should be doing to embrace and promote entrepreneurship early?

Government should be wearied of sacrificing merit for connection. They should try and introduce more Entrepreneurship courses into our school curriculum.  It should not be about paper qualifications and theory alone; there should be a way to integrate paper qualifications with skill acquisitions. Government should also please give us room to grow. Let our leaders give us enabling environment to operate. Most importantly, policies that will enable businesses to grow will go a long way in promoting early entrepreneurship.

And to my fellow African youths, the best way to go is the way of purpose discovery, self-development, and capacity building. No man will give you a seat of success, but you can create one for yourself. Our background is not enough reason for our back to remain on the ground. We can change the norms; we can change the narrative. Yes, we can only achieve these if we are ready to pay the price.

Are you satisfied with the academic curriculum in Nigeria today as it bothers on entrepreneurship skills?

Not at all! The academic curriculum in Nigeria as it bothers on entrepreneurship skills is a mirage and may not be able to produce any practical positive output in support of our economic and Entrepreneurship drive. What is the essence of an academic curriculum where a trained Mechanical Engineer can't loose a bolt. I think we will need to go back to the drawing board.

However, I believe if we can commit 8-12 years of developing our academic curriculum to an entrepreneurial and very important, "practical based" curriculum such as was done in China, Nigeria would undoubtedly be one of the world's powers.

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