WHAT THE YOUTH REPRESENTATIVES ARE SAYING AT THE CONFAB Since the National Conference commenced, the Nigerian Youths have not been left without a voice as their representatives have been shining brightly. Issues affecting the Nigerian youths across the nation have been placed on the front burner whenever they are recognised to make contributions. In the past week, youth representatives have tabled strong recommendations before the plenary of the National Conference. Here are excerpts of some of the issues that the youth representatives have brought forward this past week: Mosunmola Umoru on Fuel Subsidy While contributing to the issue of removal of fuel subsidy, Ms Omoru pricks the conscience of conference delegates by calling on them to consider the future in whatever decisions they make. She argues that Nigeria cannot sustain the pattern of holding on to subsiding petroleum products. She however calls for a platform or channel that will cushion the effects of the removal of fuel subsidy on the populace. Ms Umoru believes that a timeline needs to be set to get the refinery working at full capacity and get Nigerians involved in the process: “If we set a timeline, and ensure that with pressure from the civil society and the entire citizenry, we will be able to get the government to build refineries and in the long term get the citizen to engage and take ownership of these refineries so that it will be in the larger benefits of the populace.” She calls for a vibrant public enlightenment that will ensure that the public takes ownership before subsidy is removed. “I will love to see an inclusion of plan for civic education, public enlightenment, and engagement because if the public is aware why subsidy needs to be removed, I can assure you that the public will take ownership.” She argues that there is a need for government to enlighten the public on its plans and “not to assume that a government is a system that should run by itself and not to be accountable to the citizen.” “The process of engagement and enlightenment will get the public to take ownership of these processes and as we implement them, they get more effective,” she concludes. Yadoma Bukar Mandara on Retirement Age in the Civil Service While expressing opposition to the recommendation by the committee on Public Finance for the upward review of retirement age in the civil service, 24-year-old delegate from Borno State, argues thus: “I joined the civil service last year at the age of 23 and I will be glad to leave the service before the age of 55 because I will like my children and the generation coming to also give. For that reason, I expect our parent here to also make this sacrifice for us.” On the rampant cases of age falsification in the civil service across the nation, she advised that civil servants should be truthful by using their real age: “As we all know, there are two ages – the civil service age and the real age. I am using my real age and I hope that we will be using the real age and not the civil service age.” On Payment for Recruitment Expressing the minds of numerous young people across the nation, she voices her disapproval at the manner in which fresh graduates are compelled to pay for recruitment tests and travel long distance to write recruitment exams. “So many young people, especially fresh graduates, are asked to travel long distance to write recruitment tests. Let’s say my brother from Ogoni, Oshodi or Chibok is asked to go to Abuja to write recruitment exams. This is very unfair on fresh graduates who cannot afford transportation to go to other states to write recruitment exams. “So, I will like to suggest that recruitment centres should be made flexible and recruitment centres should be stationed in the state of the applicants in order to help our fresh graduates to access and write their exams. “Another issue I want to raise is the issue of collecting stipends from unemployed fresh graduates in order to write exams. In the immigration exams, fresh graduates were asked to pay N1,000 each and this is very unfair for the fresh graduates.” On Reward and Punishment On the legal framework for public service management, she argues that it is imperative to ensure the principle of reward and punishment in the Nigerian public service in order to ensure justice, accountability, and fairness. On Budget and Public Expenditure She reasons that there is need to evolve a “budget participatory policy” where citizens have access to budget and interrogate such budget. On Innovation Fund In order to encourage bright ideas that abound among the Nigerian youths, Ms Madara calls for the institutionalisation of an Innovation Fund. “We have graduates in Nigeria and people that are versed in IT and these people are not recognised. I have a friend who made a security surveillance robot. These are the kind of people we should encourage in Nigeria. This is a country that imports something as mediocre as toothpick and we have people that can produce something like robots and they are not recognised. I am suggesting that we should have an innovation fund that we can use to give young people and innovators soft loans to encourage them.” On the Power of the Social Media She said the following about the power of the social media: “We have left the era of gongs and town crying. We are in the era of tweets and instant messages now. This generation is so united that we communicate with each other by a click of the button. While I was in Borno at the height of this insurgency, my brothers and friends across Nigeria from Kano from Kaduna, Enugu, Lagos, were sending messages to know if I was fine. These are the people I do not know. This generation is so united by a click of the buttons. We want to tell the older generations that we the upcoming generations are so united. Make no mistake about it; don’t bring the issue of breaking Nigeria because we can use the power of technology to fight you.” Nnaemeka Ikegwuonu on Innovation in Governance Mr. Nnaemeka Ikegwonu admonishes government to embrace innovation in governance in order to improve service delivery. He reckons that the youths should be encouraged to play an integral role in innovation in governance. He calls for the establishment of an office of innovation at the presidency and MDAs to drive innovation and encourage other ministries and department of government to embrace innovation. “It is appalling that several ministries of government and agencies are a little bit afraid of innovation”, he bemoans. “There has to be somebody that has to encourage innovation at that level.” On Presidential Innovation Fellowship Program Mr. Nnaemeka Ikegwonu recommends the establishment of a Presidential Innovation Fellowship Program that will ensure that young Nigerians are given the opportunity to contribute bright ideas into governance. He said, “The second suggestion is that there are several ideas all over Nigeria and there are several young Nigerians who are ready to come share their ideas to any government agencies on how to improve service delivery and how to improve processes, products and services. And I feel that government stand to draw those ideas from private sectors; whether young Nigerians in diaspora to come spend one year with government ministries and change one system. It can be in the form of research fellowship program or it can be called a Presidential Innovation Fellowship Program. Something that will enable spend one year to change a system.” On Nigerian National Merit Award Mr. Ikegwonu posits that Nigeria can bring innovation into the Nigerian National Merit Award which is presently more of academic excellence recognition. “We have to bring innovation into the Nigerian National Merit Award. Innovation in the sense that we can create three additional awards windows in military technology, agriculture and environment; and also in peaceful coexistence and religious tolerance.” He continues, “There are people in this country who have created bright ideas where Christians and Muslim are living together. And people of different ethnic nationalities are living together. These people have to be celebrated. It is when we start celebrating innovation in this country that people will like to go and read science.” On Museum of Natural History He observes that Abuja do not have a Museum of Natural History of Sciences which can be a source of knowledge and information for children. He therefore recommends that there is need to establish the museum “as a proactive measure”.
Posted on: Mon, 09 Jun 2014 08:54:18 +0000
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