By Lateef Ibrahim, Abuja
The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Prince Uche Secondus has harped on the need for the federal government to convoke national security conference to address the insecurity ravaging the country.
This is even as Secondus concretely assured that the party will accord priority to the issues concerning youths in elective positions as the 2023 general elections draw nearer.
The National Chairman of the PDP, Prince Uche Secondus said these while speaking at the party’s National, Zonal and States Youth Leaders Conference in Abuja.
On the call for convocation of security conference, the PDP National Chairman urged the “leaders, past presidents, religion leaders and traditional rulers to convoke a national security conference to chat a peaceful path for the country.”
He noted that the youth leaders’ conference came at the right time as the nation is in dire need of leaders, noting that the the All Progressives Congress (APC) has failed.
According to him, “People are dying. This government is so docile, people are been killed,”.
Speaking to the youths, Secondus said: “We are going to give preferential treatment to the youths especially the youths that will be seeking for elective offices.
“Most of the youths cannot afford cost of forms especially for presidential election. We will attend to them, give them preferential treatment by the grace of God. They are very important to us”, he said.
The PDP National Chairman emphasized that the future leaders of the country, who are the youths, need to take over, adding that it is important for the youths to rise and profer solution on the way forward knowing that the APC has failed.
His words, “This conference underscores the importance PDP attaches to its youth arm of the party. I can clearly say here that you are the catalyst of this party and the party plans deliberately involves the youths in all its plans ahead of 2023.
“We urge you to utilize your abundant energy very well, don’t waste your time, don’t waste your energy in all the other worldly things. You must come out now with your creative and innovative ideas on how to govern this country and on how to move this country forward.
“Let me remind you, in the first republic, virtually all the leaders at that time, those who got independent from the British government were all youths. So you must come out now to play a major role to recover this country and rescue our nation from the hands of a wicked party.
“This is the finest opportunity for you at this conference to exercise your intellect, your brain and come out with a way forward for our country.
“The future of our country lies in the hands of the youth, it can’t be otherwise. “You are aware that the APC is a conglamorate of the old generation you can see them, 80years, 90 years, they are still in government, when will the youth take over and the world has gone digital, it’s no longer analogue.
“By now all the transactions in government should be online but we are still operating as the colonial government handed over to us. This is not acceptable, this must change and it is only the youths that can effect this change. We can no longer mortgage the future of the youths because that is exactly what the APC has done.
“You must not be initimadated, most of you are Ph.D holders, some of you are very brilliant lawyers, graduates of various disciplines. So you are emminently qualified to be governors, to be ministers, President and so you must get yourselves prepared in this conference.
“In the E-regisration that we want to embark on, and this government of the PDP that is coming will be youth and women based,” he said.
Also speaking, the Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Hon. Ndudi Elumelu, lamented that in the past six years, the Nigerian youth have exploited and used to achieve political power.
He said: “Since the last six years, under the current administration, the Nigerian youth have suffered the most dehumanizing neglect and relegation by the same set of people who exploited and used them to achieve political power.
“Everywhere you turn, you see stark hopelessness, dashed dreams, wasting talents misery, confusion, anger, poverty, disease, hunger, starvation, homelessness, illiteracy and bare-faced despondency ravaging our youthful population, with no hope in sight under the prevailing dispensation.
“Our youth have become victims of the corruption, incompetence and insensitivity pervading the system.
“They have become victims of rising criminality as well as brutality of state apparatus of power.
“They directly bear the frustration of economic depression, devastated infrastructure excruciating unemployment and other challenges associated with bad governance.
“Only last week, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) alerted that unemployment has escalated to 33.3 percent in our country, in a country where over 40 million persons, particularly the youths have lost their means of livelihood. More distressing is the fact that over 40% of our youthful population (15 to34 years) have no jobs and no access to opportunities that abound in our country.
“Today, there are reports that racketeers in MDAs extort huge sums from our youths for job, most of who end up being defrauded, as no jobs are provided even after such fees have been paid”, he said.
The National Youth Leader, Sunday Ude-Okoye said, “we don’t need to source for what we will tell the people. We don’t need to the children who lost their fathers to the maladministration of the APC.”
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