The National Auditor of the All Progressives Congress, Mr. George Moghalu, and the party’s Youth Leader, Ibrahim Jalo, openly disagreed on the perceived exclusion of youths from leadership positions under the present administration.
Both men spoke at the APC National Youth Conference, supported by the Independent Republican Institute and USAID, in Abuja on Thursday.
Jalo threw the first salvo in his welcome address. He accused Nigerian politicians of using youths only to dump them as soon as they step into office.
The APC national youth leader, who urged government to invest in young people, said Nigerian youths were tired of the cliché that they were leaders of tomorrow.
Jalo said, “In most cases, the youths of Nigeria are usually used and dumped by politicians; most especially during elections after getting into office, they rarely have something for the young people.
“When in the real sense they (youths) constitute the majority of the voters, with about 60 per cent of the total voting population. There is this saying that the youths are leaders of tomorrow, but in today’s Nigeria, the tomorrow seems to be endless.
“After all, we are leaders of today, not tomorrow, because we have waited long enough and this tomorrow remains an elusive business. It is my opinion that young people be given opportunity to serve in leadership position, especially in this government because of the role they played in ensuring victory during the last election.”
He explained that in spite of their sacrifices during the last election, they have been schemed out now that the party had formed government.
According to him, it is regrettable that with the population of about 70 million people, the youth who constitute a powerful voting bloc are missing in the political space and have been relegated to playing the role of “active spectators.”
In what appears to be a response, Moghalu, in a paper entitled, “APC policy for youth in the post-election era,” said as eager as Nigerian youths were to assume leadership positions, they were ill-prepared for the challenges.
He said, “I am disturbed by the fact that as eager as many of you are to be agents of positive change and irreversible progress in a tumultuous world, you are also in many ways woefully unprepared for the challenges of leadership, the test of character that will confront you as you step forward to inherit the mantle of leadership that must inevitably pass from one generation to another.”
The party auditor however noted that his generation must share in the blame for the failure of Nigerian youths in this area.
He apologised on behalf of his generation and said the APC as a political party was working hard to provide youths the requisite skills to play active roles in the agricultural revolution it was planning.
In a veiled reference to the roles being played by youths in various crimes in Nigeria, Moghalu said, “I must also confess that I am worried about certain things. I am disturbed by the knowledge that as there are many of you here gathered, there are many more others who are at this very moment being subjected to the dangerous manipulations of religious extremists, of mercantile politicians and purposeless agitators.
“Young people must be disabused of the delusion that education exists for the purpose of getting a job. We should begin to teach our young people that education exists for the purpose of teaching the individual how to add value to the society.”
He noted that there is no greater hindrance to the present and future prosperity of the Nigerian state than the fact that there are so many unemployed youths who are “searching for jobs that do not exist now and are unlikely to exist in the near future.”
The APC administration, he said, had identified the agricultural sector as the biggest potential employer of labour and was putting in place measures to equip Nigerian youths with the requisite skills to play active roles in the sector.
Also speaking during the event, Mr. John Pofi, the Chief of Staff to the Minister of Youths and Sports, who represented the minister, Mr. Solomon Dalong, appealed to Nigerian youths to maintain the peace.
He assured the audience of government’s commitment towards improving the welfare of Nigerians.
Speaking in a similar vein, the APC Director of Administration, Abdullahi Gashua, who represented the National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, called for youth re-orientation. He argued that youth empowerment also involves a change of mindset away from the way things were done in the past.
Mr. Austine Aigbe, who represented the Country Director of the IRI, Sentell Barnes, promised the continued support of the IRI to building Nigeria’s political parties as well as institutions.
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