NDA Professor Charges Kogi Youths on Political Consciousness
By Halimat Isah
The Dean, Post Graduate School, Nigerian Defence Academy, Professor Ahmed Okene has charged youths in Kogi to prepare themselves and show interest in politics in order to effect positive changes.
Professor Okene who is also a Professor of Socio-Political History and Security at the academy, said young people are vibrant and have all the needed strength and vigour to bring about changes in every aspect of governance.
The Kogi born Bayero University Kano trained historian gave this advice while delivering lecture at the Kogi Central Youth Dialogue in Okene on Saturday.
He noted that the effect of bad governance on the lives of young people was more and as such young people should not ignore politics but, be focused, have political ambition and build themselves up to assume their desired leadership positions.
According to the don, Governor Bello as the youngest serving governing in the country was prepared for the leadership position hence the need for them to be prepared to collide with opportunity.
He urged the youths to take a clue from the leadership qualities of the Governor and be patient with the government as their intention to reposition the state and meet the yearnings and aspirations of the people was genuine.
“Four years isn't enough, there is every need to encourage Governor Bello for second term for him to consolidate and complete the good works he has started,” he said.
He described the Governor as a leader who is focused and knows what he is doing and appealed to the people to support his administration as the government was going through a difficult period because of the bad government he inherited from previous administrations.
The Dean appealed to political appointees to be selfless and take the issue of youth empowerment more seriously to give them a source of livelihood.
The Royal Father of the Day, Hon. Suleiman Kokori-Abdul who described the youth dialogue as timely added that young people young need the right orientation to be awaken and take their rightful position in the scheme of things.
Hon. Kokori-Abdul urged youths in the area to maximize the opportunity and to reflect and put to use all the knowledge acquired from the programme which is focused towards the 2019 Election, with a theme 'Setting the Youth Agenda' in order to justify the effort.
Speaking, the House of Rep. Member at the National Assembly, representing the people of Okehi/Adavi at the Federal level, Hon. Mohammed Kabir Ajanah appealed to the youths to imbibe values that will stand them and make them good ambassadors at any given point in them.
The Anchor person, Engineer Abel Ozigi said the was of the programme was to educate young people on all they need to know about politics, governance, electoral processes and the need for them to be involved.
Also speaking, the Co-Convener of the event, who doubles as the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mrs Petra Akinti Onyegbule said the youth dialogue focusses on dialoguing with the youths to identify areas where youth agenda can be incorporated into the 2019 election.
Mrs Onyegbule said the present administration under governor Bello understands the demography and the place of young and has done so well in allowing young people occupy over eighty percent political positions in his government.
According to her, the 2018 state appropriation billion has a budget of over 15bilion Naira for youth intervention, programmers and projects that will have a direct bearing on the the lives of young people.
Earlier, the Convener, Comrade Oladele John Nihi said the event seek to reorient young people on the need to move from the negatives of ballot box snatching, violence and money politics to appointing a competent and credible youth who can represent them.
Comrade Nihi said the dialogue has been held in the various senatorial districts to keep young people properly informed on the need to coordinate themselves in the next election as young people have always been known to be perpetrators of the ninety per cent electoral violence that happens during elections.
In her paper presentation, Doctor Halimat Saliu who spoken on the topic: Youths and Money Politics advised youths to get inspiration from governor Bello, protect their future and be wise enough to shun money bags politicians in the next election.
About Post Author
