Tinubu's proposed 30-day youth confab a mere jamboree, says human rights lawyer

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By Madu Obi

A human rights lawyer and president of Voters Rights Association of Nigeria, VRAN, Dr. Jezie Ekejiuba has described President Bola Tinubu's proposed 30-day national youth conference as a mere jamboree and another way to waste the country's resources.

The president had in his Independence Day anniversary speech on October 1, 2024 announced his decision to organize the conference to address the diverse challenges and opportunities confronting the country's young people who constitute more than 60% of the population.

According to the President, the chief aim of the youth confab is to provoke meaningful dialogue and ensure that the voices of the youths are heard in shaping the policies that impact their lives, which he added, is a pathway to brighter future.

But in a statement in Awka, Ekejiuba said such a gathering would only succeed in giving another opportunity to what he called the inept and corrupt political office holders of the present administration to siphon, embezzle and squander billions of naira so far saved from the harsh petrol subsidy removal policy of the Tinubu administration.

He said: "VRAN believes that the planned selection, appointment or election of the delegates of the proposed youth conference will be the same children or relatives of the current Federal Government of Nigeria political office holders and certainly not the children or relatives of the generality of the suffering Nigerian masses or youths.

VRAN wishes to inform President Tinubu that his government does not need the so-called 30-Day youth confab to be in the know of the challenges and opportunities confronting our young people.

The #EndBadGovernance protests nationwide earlier this year was a sad reminder of the problems of not only the Nigerian youths but also generally the problems of the Nigerian people as a whole as the protests clearly threw open the challenges, including but not limited to insecurity crisis occasioned by Boko Haram, criminal banditry, kidnapping, high cost of foods, electricity bills, transport services, prohibitive costs of education, health services, high rate of unemployment to name but a few, which were caused by the sudden removal of petrol subsidy in the country by the present administration.

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VRAN contends that all that Nigerian youths deserve now are actions and not rhetorics or voices echoing from the proposed youth conference because as the saying goes: 'action speaks louder than voices'!

VRAN wishes to remind the Tinubu administration that even during the military administration of Gen.Yakubu Gowon when this type of current economic crisis confronted Nigerians, Gen.Gowon with a human face and sympathy, pitied the hungry and suffering Nigerian masses then by introducing a social security programme called Udoji Awards to alleviate the pangs of the harsh economic policy as being witnessed presently in Nigeria.

We therefore call on President Tinubu in the like manner and with human face and sympathy for the hungry and suffering Nigerian masses to introduce a social security programme that will benefit the generality of the Nigerian populace by undertaking to pay by the Federal Government of Nigeria to Dangote Refinery half of the cost price of a litre of every Dangote fuel product to give Nigerians a new lease of life".