My Ten Years under Lagos Bridges – Dolapo Osinbajo Reveals

Wife of Vice president of Nigeria Yemi Osinbajo, Pastor Dolapo Osinbajo recounted how she spent 10 years with area boys under several notorious Lagos bridges in an effort to rehabilitate and make their lives better. She said this during a ‘Teens Career Conference’ that was organized by The Everlasting Arms Parish (TEAP) of the redeemed Christian church of GOD (RCCG) Garki, Abuja. Mrs. Osibanjo while addressing the teens said, “When I became a worker in the church, the first place I worked was the Teenage Church and for 10 years I was in the Children’s Church. For 10 years, I was under the bridge in Lagos with ‘Area Boys’. So, every kind of drug that there is, I know about it. I have seen it before and I have seen the effects as well and I will like you to know that the ones that use it are not different from you. Some of them too have parents in the church. Some of them have parents with very big names. There are some streets in Lagos that the names of the streets are names of people, some of which have their children under the bridge. There were people whose parents lived in America and yet their children were under the bridge. So, do not even imagine that it cannot happen to you, but you must be an example in your conduct”. The former Minister of Education Dr Oby Ezekwesili who was also present at the conference strongly advised the teenagers to use their teen years to figure out and decide what they want to be in life. In her words, “If we do not reform education in this country, the 65 per cent of the children in the public school system that are failing are usually the children of the poorer segment of the society. So, what it means is double jeopardy. You are going to create what I call inter-generational poverty, dynasties in families simply because you have failed to make public education effective and productive and able to grow the competitive skills that they need in order to move from one level of society to the next level of society”. The entire speech was generally words of motivation and encouragement to instill inspiration and let the teenagers know that the way to success is through hard work and educating them on the need of staying focused, and also making them understand that there’s no challenge they are facing they can’t conquer because other people have also been there.

---

You might also like:

• The CBN’s Plan To Redesign The Naira: 6 Facts You Should Know
• BREAKING: CBN To Redesign the Naira Notes
• Buhari Signs Startup Bill: What It Means
• Nigerian-Born Kemi Badenoch Nominated To Succeed Boris Johnson As UK’s Prime Minister

This article was first published on 28th August 2017

---

---

Comments (0)