2021 DYD: Engage in volunteering jobs, Bishop Oyejola tasks youths
TIMOTHY AGBOR, OSOGBO
The Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Osogbo, Most Rev John Oyejola has called on Nigerian youths to maximise their youthful strength and talents and take up volunteering jobs.
The cleric encouraged youths to consider volunteering as a means of empowering themselves and contributing to the Church and their immediate environments.
Oyejola gave this charge while addressing members of Catholic Youth Organisation of Nigeria (CYON), Osogbo Diocese at their 2021 Diocesan Youth Day held on Sunday at St Joseph Catholic Parish, Inisa, Osun State.
Bishop Oyejola urged youths to prove to the nation’s leaders that they are trustworthy and possessing leadership qualities and integrity before they could be supported to take up mantle of leadership in the country.
Speaking on theme: “Stand up, I appoint you as a witness of what you have seen!” [Acts 26:16],” during the Holy Mass in the Church, the bishop urged the youths to be true witnesses of God and also love one another.
He admonished them to shun get-rich-quick syndrome, and fraud adding that there was no justification for internet fraud and other vices that youths involve in.
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“I want you to volunteer your time, talents and strength to some unpaid jobs. You are still young and you need to let your presence be felt in the Church and in our society.
“There is no reason any youth should involve in Yahoo Yahoo. It’s sad that some youths are only after money, sex, and drugs. Be trustworthy people, prove yourself to be trustworthy, and leadership will be entrusted into you. You plan your strategy and when they (leaders) start seeing the quality in you, people will run after you. Personal dignity and respect matter alot. Please, be true Catholics and keep living the faith,” Oyejola said.
In his remarks, the president of the Diocesan CYON, Mr Francis Olaniyi called on his fellow youths to be agents of change and forces to be reckoned with in the society.
“We are in a time that we can’t be silent in the face of many frustrations and failing systems.
“The nation just experienced a ban on twitter, one of the most versatile tool of communication in our time as youths. If, perhaps, the older generation has failed us, we must, therefore, not fail our future generations.
We have to rise up to our call as agents of change and a force of reckon. Let us be a voice of change and not a vice. Let us be committed, disciplined and let us build capacity.”
