The Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG) has challenged youths in Kogi state to come together in unity to salvage the country from its diverse problems.
Speaking at the Maitama Sule Leadership Lecture series held in Kogi State Polytechnic, Lokoja, on Monday, a former General Secretary of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Abdulazeez Yakasi, youths were charged to form a formidable force towards ensuring that they determine who becomes the nation’s President in 2023.
He urged the youths to rise up, stand up and take their place as the history will not be kind to them if they allow the old politicians to decide who governs them in 2023.
The leadership lecture, organized by the students’ wing of CNG, attracted students drawn from all tertiary institutions in Kogi State.
Yakasi who described 2023 as a defining moments for Nigerian youths, said the next election cycle offers youth another opportunity to move the country forward.
Speaking on the theme: ‘Equitable Revenue Allocation: A Panacea For Agitation and Contestation in Nigeria’, the former labour leader noted that revenue allocation, as a vexed issue, is understood differently by many in the country, adding that the skewed nature of the revenue allocation in the country has caused imbalance.
Dr. Bitrus Dangiwa, in a key note address, described late elderstatesman, Maitama Sule, as a patriot who believed in the unity of Northern Nigeria.
He stressed that as the nation edge towards 2023, the North is looking forward to presenting a young Nigerian with competence and capacity to govern the country.
He expressed optimism that come 2023 only a man who believes in justice and equity would be allowed to lead the nation, adding that the time has come for the Nigeria dreamt by late Maitama Sule, where unity, peace and justice would be realised.
Another speaker, Dorathy Aken-ova, lamented that young people have been corrupted and distracted not to understand the true meaning of leadership, by allowing leaders to be unaccountable.
She urged young people above 18 years of age to ensure that the get their voters card, adding that the time for young people to determine who rules the country is now.
She warned that it would be catastrophic if Nigeria continues to recycle the old brigade political actors, especially if the youths do not have a strategic plan to get their voters card, register in political parties, come out enmass to vote their preferred choice of a young Nigerian as President.
She said Nigeria must change her style of electing leaders, said the country cannot continue with poverty, unemployment and other issues of underdevelopment, as statistics have shown that young people are more in the poverty and unemployment bracket.
She challenged the Youths to build themselves towards reclaiming the space that is theirs, stating that the nation can no longer continue in the direction in which it is heading.
Dr. Murtala Aliyu Ibrahim, a lecturer with Baze University, Abuja, while delivering a lead paper on ‘equitable revenue allocation: A panacea for agitation and contestation in Nigeria, described Nigeria as a country that is dysfunctional, with things not working right because of the misgivings in revenue sharing.
She called for a holistic review of the current revenue allocation sharing formular.
Abdulazeez Suleiman, spokesman of CNG, said for youths to reclaim their lost glory, they must understand that the time is now.
He urged the youths in the country to tell leaders who have continuously pauperize them to hand over what belongs to them, insisting that the time to take the country from old generational leadership that are always recycling themselves is now.
