The federal government has scheduled the anticipated national youth conference for February 2025.
Recall that President Tinubu, in his Independence Day address in October, revealed plans for a 30-day national youth conference aimed at tackling significant challenges confronting the nation’s youth, such as unemployment, education, and political engagement.
The Confab schedule was announced on Saturday just as various youth organizations across the country expressed dissatisfaction with the administration’s non-communication regarding the proposed conference.
The initiative is part of the government’s response to youth-led movements, including the #EndBadGovernance protests in August 2024 and the #FearlessOctober demonstrations in October 2024.
“The conference seeks to foster constructive dialogue and empower our youth to take an active role in nation-building. By amplifying their voices in the formulation of policies that affect their lives, we are paving the way for a more promising future,” stated the President in October.
The conference announcement has elicited mixed reactions, with some young individuals supporting the initiative.
However, nearly three months after President Tinubu’s declaration, there has been no further communication, leading to increased frustration among certain youth groups.
Confirming the Confab schedule during the weekend, the Minister of Youth Development, Ayodele Olawande, said the event will take a turn different from the usual.
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While noting that the Confab will commence in the first week of February, Olawande said delegates would only converge on the FCT, Abuja, for one week after spending three weeks engaging youths at the grassroots.
“We will do the confab by the first week of February. It is not going to be the usual confab. That is why about three weeks of this confab will be spent with the grassroots,” Olawande was quoted saying.
He added that President Tinubu would inaugurate selected delegates by mid-January.
While providing updates on preparations for the confab on Saturday, the youth minister said the event would not be a time to “Talk and spend money.
“We have changed the idea. The President has given us the go-ahead to come up with something more action-oriented, and after clarifying it with the Chief of Staff and getting his input, we will announce the modalities before the year (2024) ends.
“We will announce the committees. We’ll hit the ground running by mid-January or the last week of January. We will nominate representatives from each ministry and agency to collaborate with the delegates.
“We will announce those people; the President will approve and inaugurate them, and we will do the confab properly by the first week of February. I can assure you that we are going to the grassroots.”
He observed that the 30-day initiative would dedicate two weeks to engagement within federal constituencies, succeeded by one week focused on states and local government areas.
The concluding week will see a gathering in Abuja, where all findings and advancements will be assessed and deliberated upon to develop actionable strategies.
In light of past conferences, including the 2014 confab, he underscored the importance of adopting a new and results-driven methodology to prevent the recurrence of errors that produced limited outcomes.
“This period, we have been looking at what has been done and how we can do things differently and better. That is why we are taking our time because we want results.
“As of now, we are setting up committees and giving them templates. We need to go back to where the challenges are the grassroots. We will not have the same people in various youth organisations who have always been there for a long time and just recruit them for the confab. We don’t think that is the right step this time around,” Olawande further noted.
He argued that the task force was necessary to help concretise the recommendations into executive orders or bills to be transmitted to the National Assembly.
“We will still ask the President to give us an implementation task force so that when we need to do an executive order, we can put it up immediately. Those (recommendations) need to go to the National Assembly, we can take it off, and we will start having this as quickly as possible. So, it’s a done deal,” Olawande noted.
He revealed that although the initial brief submitted to the President proposed four days for the dialogue, Tinubu recommended one month instead after listening to their plan to bring youths together for a dialogue.
“We are preparing to roll out things very soon with all stakeholders involved, which the President has consented to,” Olawande stated.
The National President of the National Association of Nigerian Students, Lucky Emonefe, has called on the Federal Government to take swift action regarding the upcoming conference.
He emphasized that one of the key demands NANS intends to present at the conference is the enhancement of youth involvement in governance, asserting that a minimum of fifty per cent of all public leadership and decision-making roles should be occupied by young individuals.
“We never expected that the conference would take this long. This youth confab and engagement with the youth is very important. We urge the minister of youth to please expedite action. President should put action to his words to ensure that the conference takes place because it is an opportunity for Nigerian youths to express their mind, their challenges and demands.
“We want a situation whereby like 50 per cent of government positions would be occupied by youths so that we can attend to the needs of the youth,” Emonefe said
