Election: Be wary of being used by politicians -— NYCN Lagos, charges youths
By Moses Adeniyi
The National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN) has charged youths to be wary of being used as instrument to foment trouble during the general elections, charging them to rather act decisively with sense of good judgement in the choice of leaders to vote for.
The Vice Chairman of the National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN), Lagos West Senatorial District, Ademosu Adeyemi, gave the charge at the closing of a 3-day retreat and capacity building for coordinators, secretaries and public relations officers across the 28 branches of the council in Lagos West.
He said, as the voice of youths in the Country, the Council as a non politically affiliated organisation has commenced engagement to sensitise youths on the need to participate actively in the electioneering process with good sense of judgement to select leaders to form the next government.
“Election involves everybody irrespective of your affiliation. So, you might not be a card carrier of the party, but then you can be playing active role. The youth council is not a political platform, but it is also contributing to our forth coming election,” he said.
According to him, the Council has been engaging critically with youths on sensitisation for collection of their Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs).
“We are ensuring that young people get involve in the process, not just mere lamenting on the social media. We have been doing a lot of sensitisation online and offline to tell our young people to get their PVCs, and have a good sense of judgement before they galvanise for any of the candidates that are vying for positions,” he said.
Stating that the role of the youth has a long way to go in determining the outcome of the election, he said it was important for young people to be wary of being used by politicians to foment trouble.
“It is election; it is voting and not war. Youth should not get involved in crisis and war,” he said.
According to him, the capacity building was “in order to improve their performance in their various local governments such that the youth council would have a face-lift for a good image and improve social impact on the society.”
He said for the youth council as the voice of all youth organisation in the Country, the need for such capacity building was important to enable each of the branches to execute value added projects in their respective local government.
According to him, such projects include philanthropic outreach to prisons, educational courses to schools, youth mental and drug abuse sensitisation and advocacy.
At the capacity building programme, the Council also launched a web portal, www.nycnlagoswest.org.ng, to enable coordination of all the activities of the local branches for digital projection
Stating that a lot of partnership and opportunities can be derived from the platform to create awareness on what the young people are doing, Adeyemi said “as young people we need to go digital, because we are in the digital world. The present government is driving towards digital government, so as youth we need to also complement that projects.”
