Dr. Lanre Adebayo, Director General, Institute for Governance and Leadership Studies in Africa (IGLSA) has called on Nigerian youths to join political parties in order to change the leadership paradigm in Nigeria.
He made this call on Thursday at a one-day roundtable and media parley session organized by Coalition of Civil Society Organizations under the aegis of “National Grassroot Coalition for Good Governance” held in Abuja, at Dayspring Hotel, Wuse Zone 6 where he gave the keynote address.
Dr Lanre said that most of the problems faced today in our society is because of the continuous alienation of youths from the political leadership space in the country.
He said ” any nation that does not deliberately encourage its youths to be involved in decision making and policy formulation processes will remain backward “
He commended President Muhammadu Buhari for his policy initiative by giving directives to ministries, agencies and parastatals to begin to appoint youths in positions of authority and, we expect this to be reflected in the political parties, he said.
He said that beyond this, ” the youths need to join politics in order to ensure paradigm shift because political parties are the machinery through which political leadership is acquired and also, galvanize themselves into critical mass in order to have maximum impact on those already in leadership for them to know that the youths are serious in their clamour for inclusion in the political leadership of the nation”
“The youths need to support themselves as well as embark on continuous enlightenment of more youths with engagements like this one, in addition to capacity building such as organizing workshops and seminars for success to be achieved”.
The chairman of the occasion, Dr Kabir Hamisu Kura, Executive Director, Initiative for Community Development, Kano while giving his opening remarks called on more youths and women in the country to join political parties to ensure that they are not left out in the political leadership space especially as the build up to the 2023 general election has began .
Dr Kura said that “the purpose of the event is to galvanize support for the youths and women in order to ensure that they are given adequate opportunities for them to show their relevance and allow them make meaningful contribution towards national development”.
He observed that: “for too long, youths in Nigeria have been neglected and have either been engaged in negative ways as there have been no significant appointment of youths in key leadership positions”.
“The youths have immense contribution to make in the overall growth and development of the nation because as it is often said, youths are the leader of tommorow and that tommorow is now”.
This event, he said is organised in order for us to interact, discuss and together, chart a way forward to make sure that as the 2023 general election draws near, the youths and women in the country are assured of their rightful place in the political leadership of the nation.
The convener of the event, Amb. Muh’d Attah expressed the hope that success is achievable with participants replicating and spreading the key messages at the session to their various domains
The closing remarks was given by Hon. Nuhu Sani Lere the Magajiu, Gari Piriga, Arewa Youth Coalition, Kaduna thanked all the participants
At the end of the roundtable session, which had in attendance members of civil society organizations, NGOs, representatives of political parties, youths and women groups and clubs from across the country, conference adopted a communique with observations and recommendations.
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