Ahead of the 2023 general election, the Program Lead for Voice Nigeria, Mrs Ijeoma Okwor has urged Nigerian youth to demand accountable governance, and inclusive society from the government.
Okwor stated this during a webinar meeting to mark the final convening of the Speak Up, Stand Out (SUSO) Program: Success Story and Learnings.
She highlighted the need to give young Nigerians a chance to take action and lead from the front lines.
”Let’s encourage young people to take action, because majority of us are out there doing nothing.
“Take action. Monitor and track and demand for accountable governance and inclusive society.
“Majority are engaged in different social vices. You can decide to join Yahoo boys, which may have short term gains but you suffer for it in the long run.
“You can decide to have a lead in your life to improve your life and society and probably make a remarkable footprint.”
Establishing the background of Speak Up, Stand Out (SUSO) Programme, Okwor explained that the Programme was an aftermath of EndSARS protest.
She buttressed the urgent need for the youth to be trained on how to organise, mobilise and influence social change in their local communities.
Furthermore, Mrs Okwori expressed delight that SUSO Programme has made significant impacts as the gains of the Programme have been visible.
She however, commended the activists and advocates of the Programme for subjecting themselves to the leadership and mentoring programs organised for them.
Highlighting the major achievements and impacts of the SUSO Programme, the Programme Coordinator Mrs. Adenike Bamigbade, said young people could make impact, if invited to the seat of decision-making.
Listing some of the achievements of the programme, she emphasized the need for the youth to build alliances and partnerships in order to influence social changes in their communities.
He stated that the programme was implemented in Lagos, Abuja and Enugu, after an intensive training for the activists, who in turn, trained about 211 Advocates to achieve the programme objectives in these States.
The four thematic areas of the programme included Education, Employment, Governance, Peace and Security.
Recall that the mission of SUSO Programme was “to support young people with the right tools and resources to Speak Up; and Stand Out by calling attention to issues in their various communities and collectively creating impact specifically on governance, education, employment, peace and security.
“The SUSO Program also sought to empower young people with media and information knowledge and grassroots mobilisation skills to participate meaningfully in the socio-political development of their communities by maximising digital platforms for social mobilisation, amplifying youth voices, and developing people-led campaigns on issues that affect youth and influencing policies that affect them.
“The project started off through training and empowerment of 20 Activists with the knowledge, skills, and resources to organise activism with which they challenged issues affecting youth and developed innovative ways to engage other young people and social actors to campaign and drive social change.
“Activists created a mini-project with the support of their Advocates within 12 months of implementation”, he added.