By Stanley Onyekwere
As the world celebrated this year’s International Youth Day (IYD), an indigenous organisation under the auspices of Abuja Original Youths Empowerment Organisation (AOIYEO) has called on the federal government to invest massively in youth development as a way of tackling insecurity in the country.
President of the organisation, Amb. Isaac David, who made this call in a press briefing, to mark the IYD in Abuja, said the reasons youths engage in social vices that have become detrimental to society is a result of the prolonged neglect from the past and present governments.
He noted that if the government decides today, to invest in the youths through education and skills, and social development, it will provide opportunities for youths to be meaningfully engaged instead of indulging in violence and crime.
According to him, the government at all levels has a stake towards ensuring that the society is safe, so they need stakeholders to invest in the people, mostly the young Nigerians, who are seen as the youth.
He further stressed that only sincere investment in youth development and education would help the teeming youths to follow the right track, thereby appealing to the government to use International Youths Day to redirect their plans for Nigerian youths and ensure that they are properly empowered.
“The government should think of programs that would empower Nigerian youth and ensure that they are engaged through skills acquisitions and education. If our youths are properly educated they will not be easily lured into crimes by anyone.
“I will also want to advise Nigerian youth to shun violence, crimes, and criminality, because this is the only country we can call our own, and if we destroy it today, where are we going to run to? Nigerian youths should think of better ways to engage themselves for the good of their family and the society at large,” he said.
Amb. David also frowned at the fact that in the present administration of Malam Muhammad Bello, the Minister of FCT, there is not a position for the Special Adviser to the minister on Youths Matters to advise the government on how the youths can be utilized for the benefit of the government and society.
“It is a shame that the youthful minister cannot carry the youths along in his administration. I will say that if we have a Special Adviser on Youths Matters in this FCT administration, the challenges that the youths are facing in the territory would be tackled headlong because he will advise the minister on the way to go about them.
“The truth is that the SA on Youths Matters is very important and should be looked into by the Minister. Also, we have noticed that in the entire cabinet of the minister, no youth is represented in any way. That is not the way to go, if we want the country to grow, because the youths are the life wire of any development.
“We are appealing to him to think twice and carry the youths of FCT along in his government, because he was once a youth and was given the opportunity then to prove himself, that is why he is where he is today as the Minister of FCT,” he said.
