Lagos Youth Demand total reformation in government
The community youth Associations in Lagos State under the affiliation of Lagos Community Youth Development Initiative jointly make demand for total Reformation in Government at all level to create avenue for inclusion of youth in governance and take welfare of Nigerians as most priority.
The State Chairman, Lagos Community Youth Development Initiative (LCYDI), Amb. Akanni Michael addressed the press men after the emergency Meeting of the organization in Lagos; he ascertain that the ongoing #EndSARS protests is as a results of long-term neglect of youths and bad governance in Nigeria which has caused a disbelief in the system. We are not motivated politically but we realized that Government in Nigeria need urgent Reformation.
In a statement he made available to journalists in Ikeja on Monday, he said “ several years had gone by and same stories kept popping up in the nation about the issue of bad governance and corruption within the system. We should not forget that Youths are major stakeholders in community and also contribute close to 70% of population in Nigeria. We are sidelined in the scheme of things from the local government to Federal government.”
The #EndSARS & #EndPoliceBrutality campaign had given birth to more demands which also need urgent attention of government at this time. The ongoing protests across the nation , have no specific Leader leading the protests, youths seized the opportunity to make more demands on pressing issues in the country because of the obvious neglect they had experienced from the leaders. Government should not just engage some set of individual but representation should come from Community level.
The State Chairman, Amb. Michael believes that things must be put into proper perspective if Nigeria must move forward. A new social value system should be considered where Youths are assessed at all levels in the nation’s leadership. The challenges facing youth development in Nigeria will not let anyone have peace of mind if the right things are not done.
The issue of deploying military to stop the peaceful protests will definitely not solved the matters because this is Democracy, Government should be ready to take responsibility to people’s demands at all level. Government must realise that certain things cannot happen with force as the worst will happen if the military is meted on protesting Youths who are sacrificing their time and energy to put forward demands that will affect the country positively, compare to other developed nations.
Our leaders should not forget that Youths are important in all sectors of society. They drive labour and create prosperity in regions and this should be acknowledged. Nigeria youths are hard working in diverse areas. They need the kind of atmosphere at which they can believe in themselves and put their ideas to work and make comfortable living.
It will not be easy to swiftly put to an end the protests because it has no leader. This unfolds to us the resilience and the new kind of philosophy driving the youths.
To Stop the ongoing protests, Our advice for the Government;
- Federal Government should direct all Local government to invite representatives from Communities to a joint Community Youth Town Hall Meeting to address the request of the youths.
- Each Local Government should coordinate the meeting without political influence and appoint representatives from among the community youths to attend the State Youth Town Hall Meeting.
- The State Government should take responsibility of holding State Youth Town Hall Meeting, with selected representatives from the local government level. The requested demands will be presented and addressed accordingly. Representatives will be appointed to represent the interest of the state at the National Youth Town Hall Meeting.
- The National Youth Town Hall Meeting should be responsibility of Federal Government, recommendation and request from all the states will be presented and Government should set up independent committee among the youth representatives and headed by top Government official to come up with the blue print.
- Government at all levels should sit down and begin to put things under check else the danger of neglecting the Youths will cause untold catastrophe within the system..
We as organization that have interest our country at heart, we are calling on the protesters to remain calm and make sure they don’t apply violence and destroy government properties if we want to achieve better results. State Governments have started inaugurating Committee to investigate Police brutality cases across the country and the President have officially announced disbandment of Federal Special Anti Robbery Squard (F-SARS).
We condemned in totality, the attack on our Police Officers by some hoodlums in Lagos and Edo state. We are using this medium to emphasize it that, the protests are not for violence because International Community are following up with us in this struggle for a better Nigeria.
