Coalition of youth groups from across the country, including Yoruba Youth Congress (YYC), Ohanaeze Youth Council (OYC), Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), Journalists for Democratic Rights (JODER) and CISLAC have called on the Federal Government to immediately revamp of the nation’s security architecture and effect removal of marauding killers from the communities they have occupied and return same to their rightful owners who now live in Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps.
The youth, who gathered in Lagos to deliberate on the current state of the nation, made this demand in their communiqué made available at the end of the one-day parley which held in Lagos.
The groups expressed alarm at the general state of insecurity and incessant killings in Nigeria which they said had escalated in recent times, the growing corruption rate as well as the poor approach to governance that had resulted in breading deep divisions and inter-communal distrust, among others.
The youth, at the meeting, attended by Comrade Debo Adeniran, Agba Jalingo, Comrade Isa Tijani, former Vice President of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Peretubo Oweilade, Alhaji Shettima Yerima and Adewale Adeoye of JODER, Dotun Hassan (YYC), Auwal Rafsanjani (CISLAC), Mazi Isiguzoro (OYC), Comrade Igbifa, President IYC, Comrade Abdulrasak Olookoba, Wehinmi Agbateyiniro, among others, also agreed on other resolutions.
In the communiqué issued at the end of the parley, the coalition of youths said: “The young generation of Nigerians are urged to insist on the emergence of a visionary and dynamic leadership which will effectively deal with our security and economic challenges, and ensure good governance in the country,” the communiqué said.
Besides, the communiqué said the meeting jointly agreed on the formation of a non-governmental and non-partisan but broad-based national platform, disclosing that the body would be for all cultural, social, labour, trade, professional, businessmen and women as well as the intelligentsia and civil society groups of the young generation of all Nigerians.
The group of youth organizations, while making its demands, observed that the insecurity in the country had turned for the worse, saying incessant killings in the country had escalated in recent times with several communities at the mercy of a murderous insurgency, marauding killers, bandits and kidnappers at unacceptable proportions.
The youth said this development had gravely endangered the peace, unity and development of the country, even as they expressed worries that the mismanagement of the nation’s economy which they noted was already approaching a second recession as it was “characterized by a disabling level of accrued and accruing debt profile.”
The coalition in their communiqué equally expressed embarrassment that despite the President Muhammadu Buhari- led administration’s claim of war against corruption, the highly acknowledged corruption perception monitor, “the Transparency Intentional (TI), has adjudged the country to be more corrupt today than it was in 2015.”
The youth group said its demands were also based on what it termed the “gravely concern” it felt “about the clannish nature and approach to governance that had resulted in breading deep divisions and inter-communal distrust.”
On security, economy and corruption, the communiqué sadly observed that the country now witnesses unprecedented incompetence and enthronement of mediocrity in dealing with the regularity of killings and general insecurity across the country, saying the economy was now characterized by such massive youth unemployment and a rising level of poverty, while a “trend of shielding and protection of certain powerful corrupt politicians was now the norm.
“That while the security of lives and property is the cardinal responsibility of government, the apparent failure of the country’s entire security and law and order assets to check the killings which have claimed thousands of lives and displaced millions, is giving rise to suspicions of government complicity among the affected communities.
“That these killings claimed more than 3,500 lives in 2017 with the number of internally displaced persons rising to about 4 million from 1.5million in 2015.
“It was observed that today, the economy is characterized by such massive youth unemployment, a rising level of poverty, and instability, that Nigeria was recently announced as the poverty capital of the World. In addition, Nigeria’s ranking on the Human Development index is one of the lowest in the world standing.
“The risk of inheriting an accumulated and accruing debt burden negotiated by the government in absolute secrecy and spent without due transparency and accountability or commensurate development projects is also observed.
“Under the weights of this strangulating and ruinous debts, all the fundamentals of our already ailing economy are seriously beginning to dither. The high percentage of our dwindling national revenue that is now devoted to the repayment and servicing of these loans are to put it very mildly, threateningly strangulating and unsustainable.
“The meeting also notes with great concern that despite the present Administration’s war against corruption, the highly acknowledged corruption perception monitor, Transparency Intentional, has adjudged Nigeria to be more corrupt today than it was in 2015.
“It is disturbing that Nigeria has in the last 3 years degenerated from the 136th to the 148th place out of 180 countries surveyed for corruption perception.
“The meeting also observed a trend of shielding and protection of certain powerful corrupt politicians and friends of government with some facing scandalous graft cases from answering to lawful scrutiny while targeting and subjecting perceived rivals and voices of dissent to unfair treatment, harassment and blatant victimization,” the communiqué said.
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