"I once said that I was not elected President of Nigeria to spread poverty, I was elected to generate and spread wealth'- GEJ
Former
Nigerian President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan Monday spoke at the Oxford Union,
succeeding US Secretary of State, John Kerry, who spoke at the same event in
May this year.
Speaking on the theme 'Fostering Youth Entrepreneurship, Dr. Jonathan, whose speech was streamed live, said:
Speaking on the theme 'Fostering Youth Entrepreneurship, Dr. Jonathan, whose speech was streamed live, said:
"I once said that I was not elected
President of Nigeria to spread poverty, I was elected to generate and spread
wealth." 'My belief in this regard is that getting a job or being a worker
cannot completely cure the disease of poverty. It is only your own business
that can provide such security and give you the financial freedom you need to
prosper."
Dr.
Jonathan asked the esteemed audience some questions during his speech which
included;
"Why are some nations rich and some poor?
Why do individuals that grow up in similar
circumstances end up differently, with some as successes and others as
failures?
Is the wealth of nations a result of geography,
weather, culture, destiny, etc.?
What could a leader do to effectively lift a
people out of the depths of poverty, and enable them to achieve
prosperity?"
The
former Nigerian leader talked about youth entrepreneurship programs his
administration pioneered saying that one of them, YouWIN was a major plank of
his job creation efforts.
"The motivation for this program is for
young people to go into SMEs, create jobs for other young people with the
expectation that some would grow to large scale businesses" Dr. Jonathan
said.
The
former President concluded his speech by giving a short brief of his
achievements in the economic sphere, saying:
"Under my watch, Nigeria was projected by
CNN Money to be the third fastest growing economy in the world for the year
2015 and rated as the largest economy in Africa and the 23rd largest in the
world by the World Bank and the IMF, with a GDP above half a Trillion US
dollars."
The speech was streamed live via Dr. Jonathan's Facebook page
and will be hosted on the Oxford Union's site.
Previous speakers at the Oxford Union include the late King of Pop, Michael Jackson, Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, author of 48 laws of power, Robert Greene, the Dalai Lama, former British prime ministers Winston Churchill, Edward Heath, Margaret Thatcher and John Major, Mother Teresa and former US presidents Richard Nixon (November 1978), Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton.
Previous speakers at the Oxford Union include the late King of Pop, Michael Jackson, Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, author of 48 laws of power, Robert Greene, the Dalai Lama, former British prime ministers Winston Churchill, Edward Heath, Margaret Thatcher and John Major, Mother Teresa and former US presidents Richard Nixon (November 1978), Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton.
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