Adamawa: Group decries exclusion of youths from Gov Fintiri’s cabinet

By Christiana Ekpa

A youth group in Adamawa State has accused the state governor of excluding youths from the state executive council.

The group, under the aegis of Movement for Progressive Adamawa Youths, at a news briefing in Yola on Monday, alleged a use-and-dump tactics against Governor Ahmadu Fintiri.

Convener of the group, Zubairu Abubakar, who described youths as the most important segment of a population, said Fintiri had sidelined them after they helped him realise his political ambition.

Abubakar said, “Some weeks ago, a sociopolitical and youth advocacy group raised a very important issue on the need to have young and fresh minds who are between the ages of 25 and 39 years in the cabinet of His Excellency. It is a call our group saw as worth taking into consideration by the governor.

“The governor paid deaf ears to this call, ignoring the reality that the youths of Adamawa State will forever remain the foundation upon which the prosperity of the state will be built.”

He stressed that his group was dismayed that the governor did not include the young people between the ages of 25 and 39 on his list of nominees who later became commissioners.

He added that the group’s reason to re-echo the call for youthful representation in Governor Fintiri’s administration was not born out of personal interest but for the collective good of the state.

Responding, Governor Fintiri’s Chief Press Secretary, Mr Humwashi Wonosikou, said the allegations were untrue.

“Fintiri could not deliberately disenfranchise youths from partaking in his government,” Wonosikou asserted.

He said there are many youths already in the cabinet, and he could not understand how the youths decided to overlook such young cabinet members unless the members in view were unacceptable to the aggrieved youths.