No ill feelings losing to Desmond Elliot – Lukmon Lawal

His dream is to see youths achieve greater heights in their careers, but the decadence and indiscipline of today’s youths leave butterflies in his stom­ach. He sponsored The Surulere got tal­ents show and paid medical bills for over 250 Surulere dwellers’ late last year. Aside that, he talks on radio frequently about traffic laws and issues about the state of the nation. Lukmon Oyewole Lawal, a re­searcher and chartered accountant was one of the contestants in the APC prima­ries for Lagos State House of Assembly but lost the contest to Nollywood actor, Desmond Elliot. Sunday Sun cornerd him at another forum, precisely at Akintan Sec­ondary School Surulere recently. It was the school’s annual inter-house sports day. That sunny afternoon, he delivered a mo­tivational speech on careers to students.
Excerpts:
You sponsored the first Su­rulere got talent show and paid over 250 Surulere dwell­ers’ medical bills before the APC primaries. You lost , and today you are still contributing to the success of today’s youths. What’s your motivation?
I’m a Surulere boy. I had my primary and secondary education in Surulere. Akintan is one of the highly populated schools in terms of enrolment.
They have about 2,000 students. It was their inter-house sports lately. It was an occasion where all students were in a vi­brant mood. I was there to capture their conscience so that the presentation will be meaningful to their lives and they will see vividly why they should make the right choices, why they must be useful to the system and not be dependent. As a young person, I am very particular about young people today. The statistics of failing young persons is alarming. Today, we are grossly unemployed, we are also not unemploy­able. Some cannot write a short profile of themselves, they don’t have any commu­nication or presentation skills, they don’t have any intuitive capacity whatsoever and they’re OND and BSC holders. This is why we should really rise up and say “No”. We must create a better future for our gen­eration. This generation are drink addicts, lotto addicts, and cultists and according to research, six out of ten are not employable.
That is an indictment on our education system. Three out of every ten young per­sons are likely to go into cultism; another four are likely to be lotto addicts. These are pointers to a very bleak future for this generation. In the course of my political forays, I researched all the laws in Lagos State from 1995 till date on road traffic laws and it still saddens me that some people are still doubtful after we have demonstrated clearly how potent that law had been. It has reduced fatal accidents as well as improved healthcare generally.
Those involved in accidents from Okada have reduced but people are still using it as a political tool, that they are going to return Okada to the roads. I find that saddening. Beyond that, I have a workable modem that I believe will improve performance in WAEC pass rate of 31.2 per cent in 2014, 7 per cent in 2013, 2.6 in 2009. We have to improve the pass rate. We have to demon­strate to these children the importance of education.
The now, now syndrome in the society must stop. They must be told that a career path whether in formal training or in voca­tional skills is important. They must be told that they must be functional adults. Today, we have lots of adults in our systems that are not functional. Seventy percent of pris­oners today are awaiting trial, 90 percent of that figure are young persons that are not prepared for adult life A good system is supposed to guarantee youths qualitative education, so that at 18years, when you do any wrong thing or make a wrong choice, the law will sanction you. On our streets, violence is now a way of life.
The presentation was on career paths and I’m happy and proud that one of the governorship aspirants, Akinwunmi Am­bode, listened to my presentation recently and was very impressed. Today, it’s an ini­tiative of Akinwunmi Ambode on youths and education development.
When you lost the APC ticket for Lagos House of Assembly to Desmond Elliot, how did you feel? A lot of people felt you are a better candidate as per your contribution to Surulere in terms of boosting students edu­cation performance and health care.
To be honest with you, it was a painful loss. The vehicle for representation is the political party and the party is supreme. To that extent, the emergence of Desmond Elliot is not a problem. He’s a brother and friend. I’m happy that in the course of my campaigning, I was able to distinguish my­self with a clear vision and laudable pro­grams and today, I am a positive reference point. And that’s why my vision on educa­tion and youths empowerment programs will thrive. We really need to do a lot. Today in Lagos, you will agree with me that the goals of qualitative education is something we must address. It’s really giving us a lot of nightmare in different aspects of our lives. Young people are not asking questions, they don’t even know what to ask anyway. We need pep talks on qualitative educa­tion and if we can do that, we will spend less on security and on prison projects. The issues are education, youth empower­ment, healthcare, and reduction of okada accidents. It’s appalling that some people still look at these as political gimmicks. It will only take an educated electorate to say “No, what you are giving me is not true, I’m better informed” but when thousands are not educated, then anything will fly.

What’s your relationship with Desmond now?
Very fantastic. He was supposed to be here to listen to my presentation. The party is having a lot of campaign rallies he has to attend; he gave his word that he would at­tend even if it’s for thirty minutes. He has also promised that we are going to work on my vision together. He’ll be in the House of Assembly by the grace of God and as a friend and brother and being of the same generation, I will make sure I avail him bills that I know he could sponsor on the floor to move our generation forward.
You lost your parents at a very tender age, how was life grow­ing up as an orphan?
Sincerely, I must thank my elder sister, Mrs. Remi Cole. She was a trained nurse and she got to the pinnacle of her career. She instilled a lot of discipline in me. At the university level, I struggled, I did menial jobs and all kinds of things to survive. I did phone call business at that time on cam­pus and there was no GSM. To the glory of God, I lost my father at age 7. In those days, it was tough. I was brought up by my eldest sister from the age of ten. She really instilled a lot of discipline and focus in me. I was lucky to be a bright brain in primary and secondary schools and my teachers saw leadership qualities in me.
I was class captain most of the time and I won prizes. To a large extent, I am happy for my upbringing . I think a lot of young persons today are disadvantaged. They should be given opportunities. I had a lot of interviews with young people and they told me that they took to cultism because they don’t have work to do, they told me they used to be political thugs. We need to work more on education and create employment and especially making our youths func­tional in adult life. It’s a failure in our edu­cational system that an SS3 student cannot read. I am the founder of Ultimate Youth Initiative and the platform has been doing a lot of programs that have earned me 20 media appearances.
Some say “Uncle, I want to further my studies and there’s nobody to help me.” It saddens me and this is a country where we have people that can do much more and lift people up, it’s not only government’s responsibility. We need more people to sponsor education. As a person, I have approached potential sponsors, but they wouldn’t, oblige me , but if it’s entertain­ment they jump at it. I believe we should focus more on education. We really need a synergy between the government and pri­vate sector. We need these people to spon­sor these programs more. I’m the convener of Akinwunmi Ambode Youth and Devel­opment Initiative.