By Dada Ahmed in Lokoja
The three tiers of government in Nigeria have been called upon to ensure an environment that would enable active political participation of women and youths in governance
Participants made the call at the North Central Town Hall Meeting on Status and Challenges of Nigerian Youth in Governance.
The call is contained in a Communiqué issued at the end of the zoom meeting titled, “The Nigerian Youth in Governance, Status and the Way Forward” and made available to the Reporters,an online publication on Saturday in Lokoja.
The participants said that the meeting was organized by Grace FM 95.5, Lokoja through its message programme, with the aim of provoking stakeholders’ discuss on the position of the Nigerian youths in governance.
According to the communiqué, the participants observe among others, that the Nigerian political environment is saturated with too many factors limiting youths and women participation.
Such factors, the participants said, include monetisation of the electoral process, inadequate and unfavorable laws, lack of interest in development and governance, skills and politics.
Others are harmful political culture, lack of trust amongst the youths, lack of volunteering spirit and drive amongst the youth, inability to mobilize and organise themselves, fixation on inanity and political illiteracy.
They, therefore, called on the Federal Government to enforce the law on electoral finances in the country, bring political offenders to justice and ensure that electoral institutions were truly independence.
The communique also advised youths to start building interest in vocations that would better place them for effective leadership positions and start their aspirations from rudimentary level.
They called on female youths to mobilise their voting strength for their fellow women and strive to aspire beyond Affirmative Action, political mobilisation and campaign coordination.
The participants enjoined youths to shun monetary inducements during elections, leverage on their voting capacity to be in governance and equip themselves intellectually for the task of leadership.
The online platform gathered that Mr Ajuri Ngelale, SSA to the President on Public Affairs; Imani Odey, SA to Cross River State Governor on Electronic Media; Kunle Lawal, Rector, Electoral College Nigeria and Mary Jacob Okwuosa, National Coordinator Activista were among participants at the meeting.
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