The Honourable Minister of State, Youths Development, Hon. Ayodele Olawande, has urged Nigerian youths to believe in themselves so as to realise and develop their potential.
The Minister stated this on Saturday, while interacting with youths in Niger State, at a town hall meeting on the new National Youths Development Policy, held at the Justice Idris Legbo Kutigi International Conference Centre, Minna.
He described Nigerian youths as wonderful people and the best that can be found anywhere in the world if provided with a conducive environment, adding that it was high time the youths stopped accepting the name tag as leaders of tomorrow but leaders of today. 
He stressed the need to change the orientation of the youths towards a productive life, saying that with competency, commitment, and good character, the youths will change the country and prove to our forefathers that we can develop the country.
While appreciating the Niger State Governor, Mohammed Umaru Bago, for giving the youths a place in his government, the minister also disclosed that youths have the ideas and initiatives to move this country forward but cannot make it work unless all stakeholders join hands together to make it work.
In his address, the state governor, Hon. Mohammed Umaru Bago, who was represented at the event by his deputy, Comrade Yakubu Garba, said Niger State was fortunate to have youth leaders who have the capacity to deliver on their mandate.
He said that the youths were an integral part of the agricultural revolution in the state in order to give them a new lease of life, as the government cannot absorb all the unemployed youths in the state in its formal sector.
While urging the youths in the state to embrace skills acquisition, he advised the youth leaders in the state to link up with their colleagues in the informal sector and bridge the gap between youths in the formal and informal sectors.
The state commissioner for youths and sports development, Hon. Yahaya Ibrahim Gulbin-Boka, said the government of Umaru Bago recognises the youths as drivers of the development of the state and the nation at large, hence the friendly nature of the government towards the youths.
He said the state has taken into cognizance the peculiar challenges of the youths in the state, which hinge on unemployment, but that the state is putting mechanisms in place to engage them meaningfully.
Earlier in his remarks, the state chairman of the National Youths Council of Nigeria (NYCN), Amb. Abdullahi Ishaq, said the presence of the Minister in the town hall meeting was a beacon of hope to youths in the state, assuring the Minister that Niger state youths have enormous potential and are ready to drive the development of the state and the country at large.