In a town-hall meeting held last Friday at the Legislative Hall of Oriire Local government Council secretariat, the Oyo State Youth Parliament commenced direct engagements with their colleagues and the masses on active participations in the coming general elections.
In his welcome address at the meeting, Joshua Ojo A. Akin J’Icon representing the youths of the constituency at the State Parliament said;
“This meeting is targeted at reawakening the consciousness of Oriire Youths with a view of finding efficient and practical solutions to the political aloofness of the teeming Youths of this local government and Oyo State which adversely retards development.”
He continues; “At the State level, the Youth Parliament had carefully studied the development profile in the Southern Nigeria compared to the North, we realized that with the exception of Lagos and Rivers states with sustainable Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), other States are barely keeping head above water with rising debt profile.”
“Also, during our studies, we observed that the more-than-average-percent youths who stayed neutral and aloof to political workings is a source of untapped natural endowments lying fallow in our treasuries which must be harvested in the process of breeding an all inclusive rapid development of our environment.”
“Also, a large percentage of our Youths in this local government choose to farm, sleep at home, staying aloof, than to exercise their lawful civic responsibility to vote and be voted. While some are poised to only vote the candidate with the highest bid. These and lot more are the reasons for the large discrepancies in the demography of registered voters versus vote garnered.
Mr. Chairman Sir, Honourable Guests, Dear colleagues, I want to agree that we are all here today mainly for the purpose of investing our ideas, efforts and time to the development of Oriire and Oyo State, therefore there is a great task ahead of us. We need to change the narrative, remember change begins with me and you. We can do it, but together.
On a final note, to simplify the tasks ahead of us, we have secured active Partnership with the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and security agencies on Public Sensitizations on Permanent Voters’ Card (PVC) Distributions and Voters’ Education with a view to rejigging the electoral Demography of this local government and State in order to reposition her suitably for potential development considerations if splitting States is considered by the Federal Government of Nigeria in the future.”
“In due time now, when we have exhaustively completed our consultations with the Councilors who are the constituted representative of their wards, religious and community leaders, we will appoint our representatives across the local government before we start moving from one ward to the other and then over 700 villages of the local government.”
“We have met with the local government with our actionable plan and appealed for adequate sponsorship of our activities, Our prayer is that, anytime it is for State to be delineated, Oyo State and Oriire local government area would be divided into four or more States and local government respectively.” he concluded.
In his goodwill message, the Executive Chairman of the local government, Hon. Michael Olateju who was represented by his Chief of Staff pledged maximum support to encourage the youth in such thoughtful journey to liberation. “I want to assure you, on behalf of the entire executive and management of Oriire local government that we will maintain an open-door policy with your representatives. We have received your requests as submitted by your representative to my Office yesterday and we will keep our promise of creating an enabling and supportive environment for the youths so as to help them grow by demonstrating the God-gifted brilliancy and initiatives for the development of the Council area and the State.”
“My counsel to you all this afternoon, my fellow youths, as you are taking it upon yourselves to embark on a massive campaign for active participation of youths in politics and decision-making processes of government, be security conscious as we are at this critical flashpoint of political activities again and also, we are so close to the yuletide period. Organize your activities non-violently, do not fight anyone out there, rather advise them to imagine the future of this local government and State in the same way you do and I am sure they will willingly agree to follow suite.
Moreso, do not limit your scope to only the youths, also engage our babas and mamas to go pick their PVCs so they can vote on the Election Days for the candidate of their choice. Also admonish your colleagues out there to get themselves engaged meaningfully so that they would not be available to be recruited for political thuggery to unleash terror on innocent dwellers of the local government.”
Also speaking at the meeting that lasted for about three and half hours, the INEC Electoral Officer, National Orientation Agency (NOA) and the Director of Education of the local government area took turns to encourage the youths on PVC drive and proper conducts before, during and after casting their votes on the election days.
J’Icon also seized the opportunity to give stewardship of his sojourn at the State Parliament; “On a final note, so far at the floor of the Oyo State Youth Parliament, I had sponsored a single Motion titled “NEED TO CREATE OYO STATE EMPLOYMENT TRUST FUND (OYSTF) TO ADDRESS UNEMPLOYMENT SYNDROME IN THE STATE”, a motion seeking to replicate the Employment Trust fund of Lagos State as launched in the year 2016 with a 25Billion Capital Sum. The Motion, if adopted and could scale through the processes at the Oyo State House of Assembly will help tackle unemployment status of our Youths in the State and will also promote entrepreneurship by empowering residents of the State with job and wealth creation opportunities. I look forwards to performs even more better to further do you proud.” He concluded.
In attendance at the meeting includes Hon. Timothy Oyebamiji Whyte- member Representing Surulere/Ogooluwa), National President of Oriire Students Union – Cmr. Sunday Adebayo, President of the National Youth Council of Nigeria, other past and present students’ Union leaders and teeming youths across the ten wards of the local government.
