The Unity Congress of NYCN was earlier scheduled to hold in July and was later shifted to August 25 to 27, 2016 due to certain exigencies and the three functional Committees embedded with the responsibilities of ensuring a smooth transitions namely Caretaker Committee, Electoral Committee and Congress Planning Committee performed their duties excellently and secured a venue for the Congress at Merit House by the National Universities Commission Abuja before the supervisory body which is Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development issued a notice of Congress postponement after the release of the list of the eligible candidates by the Electoral Committee.
It is imperative to state that the role of the Federal Ministry of Youth in the conduct of NYCN activities is duty bound and cannot be over ruled as dictated by NYCN Constitution and National Youth Policy. In a crisis situation and debacles as seen in NYCN of today, the Board of Trustees and the Ministry have vital responsibilities hence a justification of the Caretaker Committee for the compliance with their directives on Congress Postponement.
In the buildup to the postponed National Congress, some political jobbers in NYCN facilitated a release of substantial amount of money from an overzealous Governor in the North-West craving for undue attention to outdo the popularity of his predecessor in the State and gain undue popularity by sponsoring of one Murtala Garba Gamji for the seat of NYCN President after financial inducement of Stakeholders at the Government House, a character with no record of activity in NYCN packaged by charlatans, to hijack the Council once again, launched the latest attack on the genuine National Composition approved by an Emergency Non Elective Congress presided over by the legitimate Chairman NYCN BOT at Bishop Kelly Pastoral Centre in Benin City, Edo State in April 2016 that gave mandate to the three functional committees saddled with the responsibilities to conduct the Unity Congress.
It is very obvious that several posers are at stake that queries the importance and relevance of the National Youth Council of Nigeria to resolutions of numerous challenges confronting Nigeria Youths, considering the deepened economic maladies and relative insensitivities of government to their general plights. Oftentimes, government agents or agencies claims recognition of palpable problems confronting Nigeria Youths and echoes government initiatives at putting the problems at bay, but the realities are the unabated social malaise, high poverty rate and employment crisis.
The creed of the Youths is an assurance of brighter future, where their basic needs will be derived not only with ease, but through lesser efforts that ultimately guarantees the achievements of these noble expectations, it is absolutely compelling for strong synergy to exist between government and representatives of Nigeria Youths for productive engagements leading to pragmatic Youth Developments. Since 1964, Nigeria Youths are majorly represented by the leadership of National Youth Council of Nigeria as fronts for genuine aspirations of Nigeria Youths.
The most successful government policy aimed towards reuniting the Country after disintegration from the Civil War in 1967 was an initiative of the then leadership of the National Youth Council of Nigeria. It is not common knowledge, but substantive evidences and records exist that proved that the establishment of the National Youth Service Corps occurred via wisdom of leaders of National Youth Council of Nigeria that recommended the Scheme to the Federal Government, suffice to say the synergy between the leadership of the Council and Government aided several Youth Oriented Policies formulation and implementation, the impact of those initiatives on partakers and communities are sufficient enough to weigh the usefulness of a vibrant National Youth Council of Nigeria to Youth Developments in Nigeria.
It is not out of place to link the neglects of general interest of Nigeria Youths by government to the loss of vibrancy and politicization of the activities of the National Youth Council of Nigeria. It is easy for people to allege Youths of outright indiscipline and misdemeanours without investigating the causes of the rots, unfortunately, our society is only fair to the affluent and political class that commits offences and escape commensurable sanctions, the commoners are subjected to extreme punishment without creating appropriate measures to debar them from further committals.
Drawing motivations from good intents and purpose, the organizations affiliated to the National Youth Council of Nigeria offers voluntary services to Nigeria Youths at large by equipping them with sound ideological and worthy moral trainings required to become good citizens. In past eras, it was difficult to find any young educated Nigerian without membership of outstanding organizations like Man ’O’ War, Boys Scouts, Sheriff Guards of Nigeria, Girls Brigade and their likes, these organizations provided enabling platforms for Youth orientations, training, guidance and counseling with due monitoring by the leadership of NYCN aided by availability of subventions from relevant government agencies and aids from both domestic and international donors, but today, those glories have eroded partly due to failure of government to provide the subventions to assist the voluntary workers as done in the past.
The supportive efforts of these organizations impacted positively on the modeling of disciplined, contented and morally conscious Youths with inherent spirit of sacrifice and volunteerism obtainable in the past, a circumstance that is grossly at variance with the current realities of vast population of misguided, poorly oriented and desperate Youths occupying public space in Nigeria of today. These Voluntary Youth Organizations formed the source of strength for National Youth Council of Nigeria at Local, States and National Levels, their membership inductions follows detailed procedures that commandeer good manners among members that prioritize showcasing of the good ideals of their organizations as good ambassadors.
To be qualified to contest an elective position in National Youth Council of Nigeria, an aspirant must be sponsored by an affiliate organization and must have passed through series of leadership training, invariably; such person must have held a leadership position in his organization. These criteria created credible platform that enhanced vibrancy of the National Youth Council of Nigeria where unity of purpose was second to none among the fore bearers, but on the contrary, the shift from that trend to a retrogressive point is ultimately responsible for the unwarranted leadership tussle among gladiators in the Council.
A brief trace of the leadership impasse in the Council can be sufficiently linked to the NYCN National Congress in 2007, certain issues that arose from the election guidelines and conduct became subject of litigations where Court judgments eventually crashed the mandate of the Olawale James Ajani-led National Executive Council among other factors that hindered the successful completion of their term of office, upon which a consent judgment among gladiators gave birth to a National Transition Committee headed by the same Ajani in 2010 with the mandate to unite all warring factions and facilitate the conduct of a credible election to reposition NYCN for greatness.
The National Transition Committee was time bound at conceptions, but logistics and necessities hindered the smooth transition that got shattered with parallel congresses that gave birth to different factions in the National Youth Council of Nigeria from 2010 till 2014 before the interventions of the Board of Trustees and other stakeholders that conveyed a message of hope for a Unity National Congress in 2015.
Due to bickering and tussles among the gladiators, high level degeneration occurred when people of doubtable characters and ill trainings without familiarities with the norms and core values of NYCN infiltrated the fold by trading their organizations with some jobbers and handed over their platforms to these elements to contest elections in the Council. These charlatans with dubious characters under heavy sponsorship of politicians attempted severally to hijack NYCN for political gains, but the resilience of the frontline leaders of the Council has aided the sustenance of the Council even in the face of invasions by the political mercenaries.
In the build up to the 2015 National Congress, one political mercenary that was on top of his game to hijack the Council for political gains is one Imo Ugochinyere Ikenga with no link whatsoever with NYCN other than fraudulently acquisition of an organization as platform to contest. He rallied support of most of his kinsmen with just few exemptions that confronted his dubious attempt to denigrate the image of the Council with his desperation under the conspiratorial guise that his kinsmen has never emerged as National President of NYCN.
Upon receiving series of reports over unholy plots between John Wakama, the then Chairman of the Electoral Committee and Imo Ugochinyere Ikenga who sought to be declared as president against all odds, the Board of Trustees removed John Wakama as the Chairman of Electoral Committee and put the Congress Conduct on hold, but the removed Chairman went ahead to fraudulently declare Ikenga without a proper congress. The event became a subject of litigation once again and the cases are still under legal struggles at the moment.
To avoid unnecessary vacuum in the leadership of NYCN, the board of trustees conveyed a Non-Elective Congress on 7th to 9th April at Benin City in Edo State, the Congress was presided by the Chairman of the Board of Trustees with most compositions of the Council in attendance. The Congress appraised motions for the composition of a Caretaker Committee to undertake responsibilities of the National Executive Council for a period of three months and organize an Elective Congress to put up legitimate leadership in consonance with the letters, spirits and dictates of NYCN Constitution.
The membership of the Caretaker Committee comprises of veteran youth leaders with worthy experience and versatilities in the activities of NYCN under the Chairmanship of Ibukunoluwa Oluwole, former Chairman of Ekiti State Chapter of NYCN, and Balarabe Rufai, former Chairman of Kano State Chapter of NYCN, as Secretary.
The immediate task undertook by the Caretaker Committee that rattled the usurper – Imo Ugochinyere Ikenga was the representation of NYCN by the Chairman, Caretaker Committee at both the House of Representatives and Senate Committee on Interiors on A Bill for An Act to Establish Nigeria Peace Corps. Imo Ugochinyere Ikenga is an aide to the Senate President, Federal Republic of Nigeria as Special Assistant on Youth, which expose his deceitful claim to the leadership of NYCN, a grave contradiction and an affront to the image of National Youth Council of Nigeria.
A study of the purported judgment being branded as their alibi revealed the Ruling of the Presiding Judge that he lacked jurisdiction to compel the Federal Ministry of Youths to recognize him, which brings to nullity whatever declarations the judge gave him as a respite for asking to be declared as a President of NYCN even without a legitimate Congress in line with the Traditions, Conventions and Constitution of NYCN.
The legitimacy of any genuine leadership of NYCN is legally verifiable with the Board of Trustees and it was under their supervision that the Non-Elective Congress approved the that National Caretaker Committee be constituted, a resolution that is supreme over and above any other claim or self-declarations.
The onus of responsibilities of the National Caretaker Committee as constituted is to undertake all necessary tasks required to frontally reposition National Youth Council of Nigeria to her envious position of honour aimed at fulfilling the lofty ideals, visions and missions of NYCN. The Council must be returned to the path of sound advocacy for the advancement of the general interest of Youths in Nigeria. NYCN must regain her strength which is only attainable through unity of purpose among all the 104 affiliates Organizations, 37 State Chapters and 774 Local Chapters in the best interest of Nigeria Youths at large.
Profoundly regarded as the apex youth body, but treated with utmost disdain by the government and wholly enmeshed in controversies, the National Youth Council of Nigeria is gaining media attention for the wrong reasons again and again over impasse in leadership driven from greed and conscienceless actions of major gladiators that usually trade the platform for personal benefits from politicians that covet the platform as means of acceptability and popularity among Nigeria Youths.
The vision of NYCN is to provide a worthy platform for projecting general interest of Youths, sharpen their perspectives on governance and humanitarian services as a premise for learning of requisite skills and ideal values for the purpose of impacting positively on the society.
The truth crushed to the earth will rise again, to say that some malevolent individuals whose livelihood can be regarded as youthful misdemeanours on one side, but truly identified as fraudulent manipulations on the other side and glued to self-aggrandizements are responsible for the leadership impasse in NYCN, due to their previous loss over attempts to pocket the Council and utilize it as a veritable tool to achieve their dubious desires. At the appropriate time, soonest, revelations on the roles of lead actors in the birth of disorderliness in NYCN will be published in my piece titled “My NYCN Diary” but for the purpose of this piece I will focus on the most recent onslaught by the lead political jobbers in the Council derailing the cause of stability of NYCN.
Paradoxically, the simple conceptualization of the workings of the Council is the greatest woes ever imagined by those that registered the Council with the Corporate Affairs Commission which offers detractors the lust for grip on NYCN through Court processes and judicial inventions to wittingly suppress collective goods of Nigeria Youths. Ordinarily, NYCN has no business with registration with the Corporate Affairs Commission going by the existence of a Federal Schedule under the Youth Department of a Federal Ministry and her classification in the ranks of NLC, NANS and NWCN recognized by Federal Schedules as apex platforms for their members.
The real battle in NYCN that opened gates for self-declarations and factions in the leadership was orchestrated by a cliquey whose manipulative tendencies greatly conflicts with common sense led by one Dickson Akor who has never won an Election in the Council before nor has any pivotal role in the success story of NYCN but on a vengeance mission against those that denied him victory when he aspired to emerge as NYCN President some years ago. He leads an organization at conflict with security agencies and had series of clashes with government agencies which led from one thing to the other and NYCN withdrew the affiliation of his organization before it was restored after a prolonged legal battle years ago.
The self-declared tenure of Murtala Garba Gamji as published in the Nation News Paper publication of August 2016 gave himself a duration of one year tenure to lapse on 27th August, 2017 while the legitimate Caretaker Committee setup by the Congress loss their Chairman to the cold hands of death on 22nd June, 2017 and the board of trustee recently approved the appointment of Comrade Abdul-Rahman Agboola as the new Chairman of the Caretaker Committee and will act as the President of National Youth Council of Nigeria until the conduct of Unity Congress. Several challenges have been confronting the fulfillment of the mandate of National Youth Council of Nigeria to guarantee exhibition of patriotic stance by Nigeria Youth due to infiltration of the ranks of the Council by political agents which earlier resulted into impasse in the national leadership of NYCN, prior to the intervention of the Board of Trustee under the leadership of its Chairman, Chief Makole Omo Azugbene that setup a National Caretaker Committee on 8th April, 2016 at an emergency congress held at Benin City with Late Comrade IbukunOluwa Oluwole as Chairman until his shocking exit on 22nd June, 2017 which is regarded as constituting serious setback to the vision of resolving palpable crisis confronting NYCN.
In recognition of the challenges of repositioning National Youth Council of Nigeria as a compelling task that must be fulfilled within the shortest possible period in the interest of both present and future generations, the Chairman of the Board of Trustee in a release signed 18th August, 2017 and made available to the general public announced the replacement of the demised Chairman with a Vice Chairman of the Caretaker Committee Comrade Abdul-Rahman Agboola as the new Chairman of the National Caretaker Committee to act as the acting President of NYCN till the conduct of the Unity Congress. Although there exist a group within the NYCN combatting with the Caretaker Committee for control of the leadership but the announcement by the Board of Trustee seems a positive direction to genuine leadership of the Council.
As stated in the release, “the state of the NYCN as it is now calls for sober reflection in the interest of the youth we represent. I therefore call for all hands to be on deck and for all warring factions to sheath their swords to resolve the leadership crisis in the Council so as to achieve a Unity Congress that will be all encompassing at the shortest possible time. Therefore, in line with the resolution adopted at the Extra Ordinary Congress held in Benin and the directive by the Federal Ministry of Youth that the NYCN Constitution be reviewed in line with current practice, I hereby request all zones that have not submitted names of their nominees to do so on or before Monday 21st August 2017. Comr Abdulrahman Agboola Vice Chairman South West has been appointed Chairman CTC while other vacant positions in the CTC will be filled and both Committees inaugurated on the 24th of August, 2017 in Benin City with clear and unambiguous terms of reference to effect reconciliation and organise elections into the National Executive Council within a reasonable time. We must lay this crisis to rest once and for all. It’s time to move forward”.
In the acceptance speech of Abdul-Rahman Agboola, he stated that NYCN remain the most widely acknowledged platform for social orientation, counseling, training on positive ideals and mentorship of Nigeria Youth as patriotic citizens of this great Country considering the operational guides and status of NYCN as the apex youth body charged with the responsibility of representing the interest of Youth in all matters relating to their general welfare; locally, nationally and internationally.
Without being immodest, the situation of affairs of NYCN in the last few years appeal for the collective contributions of all stakeholders towards ensuring the fulfillment of the vision of the National Caretaker Committee as newly reconstituted, for a brighter rewarding future for Nigeria Youth. I am determined to contribute my significant quota to the fulfillment of the mission and vision of NYCN within the shortest imaginable duration. With your maximum support, I have no doubt in my conviction that a united and productive NYCN amounts to advancement of the good cause of Nigeria Youth at large and it is on this note that I seek your considerations and collaborations to advance the good cause of NYCN. As I modestly accept the responsibility to serve the interest of teeming population of Nigeria Youth as the Chairman, National Caretaker Committee – NYCN
The inability to facilitate unity of purpose among Nigeria Youths through the National Youth Council of Nigeria as the apex body does not only constitute threats to the future of Youths, but fatally subjects their fates to perpetual fatality. Ironically, the generality of Youths are less concerned about events in NYCN as the importance of the efforts towards the revitalization of the core ideals of NYCN as the promotes the general interest and well-being of Youths, if only the Youths can be more pragmatic in their concerns about NYCN, the platform will be very enhancing and veritable towards the redirection of governance towards the wishes of majority rather than the oppressive tendencies of the power brokers.
To repose so much confidence in the functionalities of NYCN to help sharpen perspectives of Youths towards positive actions is not an over statement, the productivity of reputable organisations affiliated to NYCN with immense contributions in time past when government subventions and support from donor agencies was sufficient to aid the activities clearly explain the exasperations to the minds of the duly informed about behind the scenes events in NYCN but the complications must be surgically dissected and reshaped in the overall interest of Nigeria Youths globally. The role of National Youth Council of Nigeria in modeling the characters of Youths as good citizens of Nigeria can never be underestimated; the resolutions of challenges hindering the effective discharge of required services to the Youths by NYCN through reputable affiliate’s organizations must be topmost on the agenda for the rebranding of NYCN for optimum productivities while the restoration of subventions by government to these organizations as done in the past must be sacrosanct.
– Comrade Abdulrahman Agboola
Chairman, National Caretaker Committee
National Youth Council of Nigeria
nycnncc2017@gmail.com 08029809000
