Prof. Dickson Akor, Chairman of Board of Trustees of the National Youth Council of Nigeria has, on Sunday, in the spirit of 2022 Democracy Day, advocated for the active inclusion of women, youths and Nigerian diaspora in the country’s democratic process
The founder and Commandant of the Peace Corps of Nigeria made the call in a virtual presentation on the maiden edition of Democracy Day Symposium and Award organised by the Cambridge University Nigerian Society (CUNS).
Akor, who was invited to speak as a discussant on the theme: “The Active Inclusion of Young People and Nigerians in the Diaspora in the Democratic Process”, said that the choice of the theme is not only apt but timely too, considering the fact that the political atmosphere is already charged in the buildup to the 2023 general elections.
He identified women and the young people as the critical masses and the majority of the electorates in the democratic setting of any nation.
His presentation reads in part, “While Nigeria is projected to have a population upwards of 200million people, whatever transpires therein cannot be guaranteed on a pattern of disregard of any component of the whole. In this respect, the component in focus are the critical masses, the majority of the electorates – the women and the young people of Nigeria.
“It is in the whole knowledge of the Nigerian political landscape that the real participants in electioneering activities are the women and youth constituencies. Therefore, they are a very critical portion of the polity.
“The thrust of their inclusion in the entire process of political activities cannot be over-emphasised. The society that tends to ignore this stratum of its citizenry is at the edge of a social cliff.
“The Youth Council is the umbrella body of over 144 Voluntary Youth Organisations and the mouthpiece of over 120 million Nigerian youth. The network and spread and presence of young Nigerians in the nooks and crannies of the nation is a “filled quiver to my kitty”. It gives me the grace of interaction with them anywhere they are.
“I, therefore, feel their pulses and understand how they feel and what they want and how to make it available for them. Their engagement, their involvement, their inclusiveness and their sense of belonging have been instrumental in the sustained success of the Youth Council.
“It is my conviction that every Nigerian in Diaspora has a good attachment to women and young people back home. That is the most reason why there cannot be any form of detachment from the homeland. From the cord of the bond with each other, your opinions on political happenings and projections will sound laudable and accepted by your home network. It is on this background that I wish to take the greatest advantage of this forum to appeal to you your conscience not to feel otherwise towards what is going on at home in Nigeria. Be involved in the governorship and state assembly elections, of the peculiarities of the political enclave.
“It is important to note that electioneering activities are performed mostly by women and young people. Any arrangement within which the critical classes of the society are not included and involved, will not augur well for a successful and peaceful achievement of the target.
“I will, therefore, categorically and bluntly appeal that the Nigerian Women and Young People must not be taken for granted. The major political gladiators, the All Progressive Congress (APC) and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) have succeeded in having their flagbearers in the elderly class. The Nigerian Youth Constituency are rightfully beginning to feel marginalized and neglected.
“There is the dire need for them to be incorporated in the scheme of things politically. This is my position, arising from my disposition of being in the trenches with the Nigerian Women and Young People”.
Akor was one of the recipients of the CUNS 2022 Awards.
Other discussants on the theme under the Special Guest Speaker of His Excellency, Ambassador Sarafa Tunji Isola, Honourable High Commissioner of Nigeria to the United Kingdom included former governor of Enugu State, His Excellency, Dr Okwesilieze Nwodo CON, Deputy Governor of Ogun State, Engr. Noimot Salako-Oyedele and Hon. Dr Ibenaku Onoh, is the youngest member of the Enugu State House of Assembly.