From Okwe Obi, Abuja
Ahead of next month’s presidential election, Ohanaeze, Afenifere, Arewa, Ijaw youths have vowed to join forces in order to rescue Nigeria from what they called bad governance, by electing a credible candidate.
The youths under the auspices of Youth Awake Now (YAN), noted that the era in of politicians taking Nigerians, especially the millennials, for granted is over.
YAN’s Chairman, Festus Uchenna, at a press briefing in Abuja, insisted that all the presidential standard bearers must present their manifestos for scrutiny and it must be defended before any of them would be endorsed.
Those in attendance included: Arewa Consultative Forum, Yerima Shettima; Niger Delta Youth Leade, Oweilaemi Pereotubo; National President, Ohanaeze Youth Council, Okwu Nnabuike, Representative of the National Youth Council of Nigeria, Ezemagu Nnamani among others.
Uchenna said: “The manifestos will be presented to the youths and defended by the aspirants.
“The content endorsed as well as that of the Nigerian Youths will be put together and a major demand charter from the Nigerian youth will be presented to the aspirants after which a Memorandum of Agreement will be executed with each of the presidential aspirants.
“Enough Is Enough! We are not going to continue to take this again.
“YAN has brought together over 170million Youths in Nigeria under the auspices of all the Apex Youth Organisations and Youth Leaders as well as Social Media Influencers of diverse ethnic, political and religious backgrounds to foster open communication and ignite dialogue for accountability with all the presidential aspirants of the upcoming 2023 General Election on their plans for the youths.
“As we all know, the Nigerian Youth have been at the receiving end of policies made by Leaders of past administrations and thus have been denied several opportunities to explore their youthful potentials and hence the need to thoroughly engage the manifestos of the Presidential candidates for proper scrutiny and endorsement.
YAN is the future of Nigeria and cannot allow Nigeria to be regarded as a FAILED Nation. As of today, no single sector is working. Name it, education sector? – strike every day; Power Sector?-No light, Security? -Terrible with the uncountable death toll, Infrastructure?-Non, the little available No form of maintenance culture, Aviation? -Worse Service, Health? No one will treat you unless you pay first. In fact, all sectors have major issues and it is sad indeed.
“We, the youths of this nation have had enough. That is why we must YAN! We are tired and we have tried.
“We must use our numbers to speak with one voice and that is why every single youth, most of whom belong to one or two of the Youth organisations that their leaders are here today have all decided to YAN to our leaders and the world letting them know that it is not going to be business as usual.
“For goodness sake, we are in the 21st century and the world is moving fast
technology is the order of the day globally but today in the Nigerian Civil service most civil servants cannot even use the computer very well.
“The economy is still carrying files when every other nation has all gone digital. There is a lot to do and Nigeria is missing out on the trillion ICT economy and we must YAN!!!
“Nigeria is where leadership is appointed without experience in the sector imagine an accountant appointed to be the Minister of Health or a lawyer to be the Minster of Aviation! Are we serious at all in this country?
“It is time to be serious Our leaders are taking all the Youth in this country for granted. We have had enough after all this un-seriousness with our destiny…”