Wale Jagun & Mariam Akinloye
-Mobilise youth civic engagement
The Lagos State Chapter of the National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN), kicked -off its “Back To Streets” initiatives with focus on campaign against drug/substance abuse and cultism among youths in the state in Ijede Local Council Development Area of Ikorodu Division, Lagos State, Southwest, Nigeria, last week.
The third agenda of the campaign is to also promote the culture of civic engagement especially political participation among the youths in Lagos. These are the campaigns taken across Ijede LCDA, Igbogbo/Baiyeku LCDA, Ikorodu LG and Ikorodu West LCDA.
The team also paid visit to His Royal Majesty Oba (Hon.) Adefarasin Saheed Hassan, the Alajede of Ijede and the Lagos High Court, Ikorodu Judicial Division and other places.
The NYCN leadership led by Engr. Ibrahim Olalekan Adigun (MNSE), accompanied by other state executives of the youth group like Sen. Comfort Olafare, State Deputy Chairman, Comrade Asoro Abubakri Olatunji, ACArb, Vice Chairman, Lagos East, Comrade Abdulkareem Olamide Ahmed, Vice Chairman, Lagos Central, Comrade Lekan Akintobi, Programmes Officer and Comrade Victor Adegbajale, PRO among others, also solicited for support of the council chairmen in achieving the purpose of the campaign and as well as for their local branches.
According to the NYCN Vice Chairman, Lagos East, Comrade Asoro, the state body is moving into various communities to drive real change with the initiative, where it matters.
While also adding that the initiative is more than a campaign, Asoro who was the former coordinator of the NYCN, Ikorodu West LCDA, emphasised that the youth platform is engaging the streets, empowering young people and shaping a better Lagos together.
Engr. Adigun, engaging the council chairmen separately during the visit by the team, explained the purpose of their visit:
“Chairman, we came for a simple purpose: to officially commence our Back to City initiative in Ikorodu. As the popular saying goes, some people may refer to other places as the city, but I will say Ikorodu is the real city. It is the only division that has powerful men and performing administrators. Everybody who has occupied one position or the other in Ikorodu has shown capacity at the highest level.
“That is why we decided to come here. It would have been easy for us to start in Surulere, which is considered a city, but the actual mega-city, the future city, is Ikorodu. Starting here is audacious for us, and that is why we began from almost the extreme part of Ijede and we are now here before proceeding to Ikorodu West.
“We came with three major mandates: The first mandate is about cultism. You will agree with me that the menace of cultism and hooliganism is gaining serious momentum, especially in Lagos State. We know that people like you are doing a lot to minimise this through engagements and training programmes to empower and engage the youth, because an idle hand is the devil’s workshop.
‘However, there is more to it. We must continue to amplify our voices, dialogue with them, and let them know there is a better future outside of cultism,” Engr. Adigun said.
He furthered on the campaign agenda:
“The second issue is drug abuse and substance abuse. On this topic, we are collaborating with the NDLEA, which is why you see them here today. After this, we are heading to Ikosi-Isheri garage to dialogue with people on the streets and communicate to them that there is a future outside of drugs.
“Nowadays, some people take drugs before they can read, sleep, or do anything. We are therefore amplifying our advocacy against substance abuse.”
Engr Adigun emphasised the importance of youth participation for a community to develop especially in a state like Lagos that has about 70% of its population as youth.
He also stated that youth must be engaged so as to prepare them for leadership.
“The third mandate is on civic responsibility. You will agree with me, Mr. Chairman, that over 65–70% of the population of our state are young people. For our society to develop, young people must be at the centre stage and participate actively. This means participating in voting and being voted for.
“If they do not participate, we will lose our grip on the mandate to keep people like you – young, and vibrant grassroots administrators in power. For people like you to continue to succeed so that we can all make progress together, we must be active in the electoral process by getting our PVCs ready,” Adigun stressed.
The Executive Chairman, Igbogbo/Baiyeku LCDA Omo’ba Hammed Aroyewun, commended the State NYCN led by Engr. Adigun for assisting the government in pursuing causes which ought to be the sole responsibility of the government.
He expressed fear over the rate of drug abuse by the youth which he said constituted serious concern for the community and gave his total support for the NYCN initiatives.
“I must commend the National Youth Council of Nigeria for what we have achieved today. This is a core responsibility of the government, and you are helping us to do our job effectively.
“On the issue of drug abuse in our society, we are seriously sitting on a time bomb. It is a very dangerous trend that we must rise up in unity to tackle. Otherwise, we will have ourselves to blame. I am 100% in support of your initiative.
“I also fully support the PVC registration drive. When we were registering for the APC, this division came first and it did not happen by accident. The youth platform made a decision and we delivered. Even in the ongoing PVC registration, we are still number one. This is the result of the collective effort of the youth and the support of our elders,” Chairman Aroyewun said.
In her own response, Hon. Motunrayo Gbadebo -Alogba, Executive Chairman, Ijede LCDA, also welcoming the initiatives urge members of the NYCN who are also leaders in their own rights to show good examples to the youths.
“Thank you for honouring me with your visit and congratulations to NYCN for this good initiative. It’s a good one and a laudable initiative. Well done.
“Adigun has said a lot and I think I’ll just add a little in form of an advice to everyone sitting here. We must always live by examples and we should practise what we are teaching. If we are going out there to preach this gospel to people not to take drugs and engage in social vices, we shouldn’t be found wanting too.
“It is very important to practise what we preach and now we are talking about voters’ registration and I want us to be at the forefront of this in mobilising others. We show other people that we have our voter cards too because some of us are yet to have our PVCs, and we are preaching about it.
“Do yours and call your family members, let them have theirs and that will make it easy for you to preach because for you to have done it, you believe it is going to be useful and that’s what you have to tell them and how important and necessary it is,” Hon. Gbadebo -Alogba urged the youth leaders.
The Chairmen in Ikorodu LG and Ikorodu West LCDA, who were represented by their Secretaries to the Local Government also commended the youth initiatives and pledged their support.
