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| Seyi Tinubu |
At the inaugural Seyi Tinubu Colloquium in Lagos on October 12, 2026, the chairman and CEO of Loatsad Promomedia delivered a message that cut against the grain of much of Nigeria’s political culture. Political access alone is not enough. Competence, integrity, and genuine commitment to national development must come first.
The event, themed “Shaping the Future Together,” was held at the Eko Convention Centre on Victoria Island and coincided with Tinubu’s 41st birthday the following day. It brought together policymakers, business leaders, traditional rulers, creatives, and young Nigerians for discussions on leadership, enterprise, innovation, and youth participation in governance. Speakers included Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, former African Development Bank president Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, BUA Group founder Abdul Samad Rabiu, Heirs Holdings chairman Tony Elumelu, NASENI Executive Vice Chairman Khalil Suleiman Halilu, filmmaker Funke Akindele, and others.
Tinubu framed the challenge in generational terms. Every generation inherits a country it did not choose, he noted, yet each must take responsibility for shaping what comes next. The independence generation secured self-rule in 1960. The pro-democracy generation restored civilian governance. Now it is the turn of today’s youth to confront the economic and institutional problems that will define the opportunities available to them and their children.
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He defended the economic reforms of President Bola Tinubu’s administration—fuel subsidy removal, foreign exchange unification, and tax overhauls—as difficult but necessary decisions about how Nigeria earns revenue, spends public funds, and creates opportunities. He acknowledged the immediate pressure these measures have placed on households, while arguing that sustained investment in roads, power, mining, manufacturing, and agriculture could expand opportunities for young people and strengthen businesses over time.
“President Bola Ahmed Tinubu did not choose the Nigerian heritage from his predecessors. Yet his administration chose to take on our nation’s challenges. Not for itself alone, but for the benefit of those who come next,” he said. He added a sharper personal note directed at young people with political connections: “Political access gives us an opportunity, but what we do with it will only be determined by our worth and the future of the country.”
Tinubu urged youths to study government policies, ask difficult questions, develop practical solutions, and demand seats at the decision-making table rather than leave consequential choices entirely to older leaders. “Experience must make room at the table for the younger collaborators while ambitious new leaders must use that experience to prepare themselves for responsibility,” he said. A seat in the room, he stressed, carries obligations: know the history, understand the choices, and contribute usefully.
Turning Africa’s Youth Bulge into an Economic Asset
The keynote address by Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, who served as AfDB president from 2015 to 2025, elevated the conversation from national politics to continental strategy. His talk, titled “Africa Next: Building the Demographic Asset Class” (or closely similar formulations reported across outlets), argued that Africa’s projected share of roughly one-quarter of the world’s population by 2050 represents an extraordinary opportunity—if, and only if, governments deliberately invest in human capital.
Adesina rejected the framing of a large youth population as a liability. “People are not liabilities. Young people are not liabilities. A young growing population is not a liability,” he said. Population becomes a problem only when countries fail to equip people with skills. He contrasted this with the experience of China and India, where large populations became engines of growth once education, health, and productive opportunities were scaled.
He coined or popularised the idea of the “demographic asset class”: a population that is healthy, educated, skilled, creative, and productive, deliberately developed and connected to opportunity so that it generates economic returns. Education, in this view, is not merely social spending but an investment in “grey matter infrastructure”—the human mind’s capacity to learn, innovate, and solve problems.
Adesina called for African countries to move beyond dependence on natural resources (oil, gas, minerals) and treat people as the primary economic asset. He urged investment in skills for technology, manufacturing, and agriculture; improved access to healthcare, finance, electricity, and employment; and the development of AI and other technologies tailored to African needs rather than passive consumption of innovations designed elsewhere. He pointed to initiatives such as Nigeria’s student loan fund and proposals for a youth-focused entrepreneurship investment bank as steps in the right direction, while stressing that their success depends on translating education into productive economic activity.
“What the young people need is a financial system that is prepared to meet their potential, take appropriate risks and invest in their potential,” he said. He challenged the audience of young Africans to see themselves as assets to their families, communities, Nigeria, and the continent.
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Mentorship as Institutional Duty
Lagos Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu grounded the discussion in personal and practical terms. He recalled that President Tinubu appointed him a special adviser when he was about 36 years old, during Tinubu’s time as Lagos governor. That early opportunity, in a cabinet of young professionals given room to debate and push boundaries, shaped his trajectory.
Sanwo-Olu urged established leaders to mentor young people without expecting immediate returns, hire the inexperienced, give them their first contracts, and supervise their growth. “Mentor a young person that you know has not paid you back. Hire an inexperienced young person or mentor them. Give a young person their first contract, or supervise that person,” he said.
Leadership, he argued, should be measured not only by personal achievements or completed projects but by the ability to develop successors and build institutions that outlast their founders. He pointed to Lagos examples of long-term continuity, such as the Blue Line rail project, conceived decades earlier and realised through successive administrations. As he prepares to leave office, Sanwo-Olu said his hope is to finish inherited work, start projects others can continue, and leave a solid foundation.
He encouraged young Nigerians to start where they are—community meetings, ward meetings, budget hearings, workplaces, and local governments—obtain their voter cards, master a skill until competence speaks for itself, and remain connected to Nigeria even if they gain experience abroad.
Context, Continuity, and the Harder Questions
The colloquium sits within a broader pattern. Seyi Tinubu has positioned himself as a bridge between the president’s reform agenda and younger Nigerians through platforms such as the City Boy Movement. The event itself was designed as an annual platform for dialogue on leadership, innovation, enterprise, and collaborative nation-building.
Nigeria’s demographic reality makes the stakes high. A large youth population can drive growth, innovation, and entrepreneurship if equipped with education, skills, health, finance, and jobs.
Without those investments, it risks becoming a source of frustration, unemployment, and instability. Adesina’s emphasis on “grey matter infrastructure” and local technology development aligns with global shifts toward knowledge economies, while Tinubu’s insistence on competence over mere access addresses a persistent weakness in Nigerian politics: the tendency to treat proximity to power as an end rather than a means to deliver results.
Critics, including activist Omoyele Sowore, questioned the merit of holding a high-profile colloquium for the president’s son at a time of widespread economic hardship, hunger, and insecurity. Such critiques highlight the political optics and the challenge of matching rhetoric with tangible outcomes for ordinary young Nigerians.
Yet the substance of the discussions—competence as the price of leadership, deliberate investment in human capital, mentorship as a duty of those already in power, and active participation by the young—touches on issues that transcend any single family or administration.
Whether these calls translate into broader policy shifts, more open pathways for skilled young people without elite connections, and measurable improvements in skills, jobs, and institutional quality will determine if “Shaping the Future Together” becomes more than a conference theme.
For young Nigerians, the message from Lagos was clear: political access or demographic numbers alone will not deliver prosperity. Competence, integrity, practical preparation, and the willingness to take responsibility for hard choices remain the decisive factors.
Samuel O. Sulaimon is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Naijapiz. He covers News, Sports, Finance, Faiths, Education, Technology.
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