Top government functionaries including permanent secretaries and directors across states’ Ministries of Youth and Sports Development, non governmental organisations (NGOs) and other stakeholders in the cause of youths in Nigeria recently converged in Akure, capital of Ondo State to review the National Youth Policy.
Other stakeholders who attended the 6th National Council on Youth Development crucial meeting were officials of the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development and other agencies of government from the Federal capital Territory, Abuja.
The meeting which was last held in 2012 was at the instance of the National Council on Youth Development (NCYD), a forum coordinating the activities of all the Permanent Secretaries, Directors, youth- inclined NGOs and government agencies nationwide. The NCYD is the highest statutory decision making body constitutionally empowered to preside over the affairs of youths in the country.
Declaring the event opened on Wednesday, 22nd May, 2019 at the Royal Birds Hotel, Alagbaka, Akure; the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development, Abuja, Mr. Olusade Adesola welcomed the statutory members of the National Council on Youth Development and urged them to ensure that the fundamental issues facing the youths in their various states were tendered in order for the council to proffer lasting solutions to them.
He revealed that the council had received 16 memoranda from states and appealed to those who were yet to submit theirs to do so.
In the same vein, representative of the Lagos operations of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Dr. Omolaso Omosehin lamented the inability of the National Council on Youth Development to convene the forum for a long period.
Said Omosehin, “youths occupy a very large base in the population of the country. One of the problems the failure of the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development to convoke the council meeting has caused is the increase in the number of graduate youths that are unemployed. It is undesirable for youths who should be gainfully employed to be jobless. It leads to crimes, unrest and creates instability in families and in government circles”. He therefore advised the leadership of the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development to ensure the meeting comes up more regularly.
Omosehin restated the commitment of UNFPA to continue to collaborate with the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development towards the entrenchment of international best practices, creation of more friendly policies and finances that will ensure youths are well motivated and developed.
He expressed the readiness of UNFPA to pay advocacy visits to state youth ministries and governors with a view to making them see reasons why more funding and provisions should be made for the youths in their states’ budgetary allocations in order to fast track the full realisation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The host Commissioner for Youth and Sports, Honourable Saka Yusuf Ogunleye, seized the opportunity to commend the Executive Governor of Ondo State, Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu for his support for youths in the state in terms of adequate provisions made available to the Ministry to adequately run its programmes and activities and providing the enabling environment for the state to host the event.
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Youth and Sports in Ekiti State, Mr. Yemi Owoseeni while fielding questions from the press opined that the National Youth Policy is very necessary and imperative for the empowerment of youths who constitute about 60% of the Nigerian population.
He urged governments at all levels to ensure that youths are empowered to be able to provide for themselves. “At the Federal level, there is need to ensure that the youths are encouraged to be active in the country’s national life, hence, the reason why the NotTooYoungToRun bill signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari should be appreciated by all,” he opined.
Owoseeni gave kudos to the Ekiti State Governor for approving the implementation of various employment programmes presented by the Ministry for year 2019. He appreciated the decision of Governor Kayode Fayemi to have an independent ministry, increase budgetary allocations for the youths and introduce youth-oriented programmes.
He also commended the governor for organising the Iloko Ijesa retreat where commissioners, special advisers and permanent secretaries converged to articulate positions and the five- point- policy agenda of Dr. Fayemi’s administration to prepare them for better performance as stakeholders in the Ekiti project.
Packaged by Emmanuel Adeniran
