Lawmaker charges leaders to invest in Nigerian youth
Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and Member representing Gombi/Hong Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Hon Yusuf Buba, has called on the leaders at all levels to prioritise investment in the youth.
According to Buba, there is no amount of time, energy or any other resources that can ever be considered too great to invest in the youth of Nigeria.
He said the youth occupy such a critical position and demographic importance in the nation’s scheme of things that anyone who chooses to neglect them does so at his own peril.
The lawmaker made the observation at the National Assembly Complex in Abuja when a delegation of the Nigerian Youth Congress, led by its President, Comrade Blessing Akinlosotu, paid him a courtesy visit.
The statement was made available to newsmen on Friday in Abuja by Nkem Anyata-Lafia, Special Adviser to Hon Buba on Media and Public Affairs.
The legislator said that the welfare of the youth must, at all times in the course of national development plans and initiatives, be at the very core of all development agenda .
He added that the over 60 per cent youth population in Nigeria is a major asset and strength that Nigeria must continue to harness for greater global impact and reckoning in the years ahead.
He also applauded the efforts of the group at setting up a platform for constant interactions with the nation’s youth, especially, at a time political activities have begun to define the mood of the nation.
He used the occasion to point out the roles of the youth in achieving optimal peace and security during the forthcoming elections, while observing that the eagerness to actively participate in the coming elections and the high degree of cooperation the just-concluded Ekiti State Governorship election enjoyed from the youths were pointers to the fact that the nation’s political culture was deepening rapidly.
He called on the youth leaders to ensure that all their members strive to develop skills upon which they can rely at moments of personal needs in order not to become willing tools of dishonour in the hands of desperate politicians.
Earlier, the President of the congress, Comrade Akinlosotu, said it was in recognition of the noble roles Buba played to mitigate the ugly impacts of the COVID 19 pandemic on the youth of his constituency that the Nigerian Youth Congress had chosen him to share his experience with participants at the upcoming symposium and to receive a well-deserved honour.
He said the visit was part of sensitisation efforts for the group’s upcoming symposium on lessons learnt by Nigeria on the COVID 19 pandemic.
He said the congress had since identified the lawmaker as a youth-friendly public servant, who from his first day in elective office began to uphold initiatives and long-term measures that were aimed at empowering the youths and creating opportunities for the acquisition of skills that engender self-reliance.
Akinlosotu said the upcoming symposium was, therefore, an auspicious moment to celebrate him, alongside others like him.