On Friday, 31st December, 2021, the President signed the 2022 Appropriation Bill as well as the enabling 2021 Finance Bill which sets the tone for fiscal year by providing the legal backing to the government’s expenditure.

Fiscally speaking, the budget clearly shows once again that Nigeria is broke, significant steps have not been taken towards revenue generation and our rising debt is leading us towards the path of an unsustainable debt crisis.

Read our Position Paper on the budget here https://bit.ly/3zNYHe0

Strong democracies are built on the idea of equality, justice and liberty. But democracies endure because citizens are empowered with the inalienable rights to freely assemble and to determine their future through a free, transparent and credible electoral process. Once the electoral process is exclusionary, such a system rigs democracy in favour of a tiny elite in pursuit of narrow and selfish interests. It is for this reason that democratic societies must continue to reform their electoral systems to be more inclusionary. Except a level playing field is created for all persons to compete favourably in an electoral process, citizens are denied the most crucial element of a democracy – the right to choose.

Rather than attempt to further open the democratic space, the Independent National Electoral Commission has placed before the National Assembly, a Bill that would make it almost impossible for new and smaller political parties to grow organically. INEC seem to have been persuaded by the tempting but faulty assumption that political parties are solely in the business of winning elections. This is incorrect. Although winning elections are important for political parties (as this allows them to govern and implement their ideas), it remains only one of several functions of political parties some of which include moulding the public’s opinion of various issues, offering alternative ideas of governance, effective opposition, monitoring actions of officeholders and educating the electorate (or citizens) on various issues that affect them.

To therefore reduce political parties to mere vehicles for winning elections will inadvertently create a desperate and self-defeating system where politicians’ singular focus will be winning elections rather than the socioeconomic development of the society. Perhaps, this explains the lack of imagination in our current state of affairs that has resulted in record numbers of poverty, unemployment and insecurity. A system that is intolerable of new ideas will struggle to make meaningful progress.

So, what is INEC proposing and how does it stifle the electoral space?

INEC is setting impossible criteria for new parties that can only be met by a Party that has being in existence for a few years. Section 78(7)(a)(ii) of the Electoral Bill provides that:

“The Commission shall have power to deregister political parties on the following grounds-

(ii) For failure to win Presidential or Governorship election or a seat in the National or State Assembly election.”

The Bill sets an unrealistic and limiting criteria that for a political party to remain in existence.

The proposed provision is at variance with Section 225A of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (fourth amendment), which gives INEC the powers to deregister a political party for breach of any requirement of the registration, failure to win at least 25% of votes cast in one state of the federation in a presidential election, one local government of the state in a governorship election, one ward in a chairmanship election, one seat in the national or state house of assembly or one seat in the counsellorship election.

It is retrogressive to reduce the existence of a political party to its ability to win a presidential, governorship, or state house of assembly election. This is a blatant attempt to restrict the political space to the two dominant political parties – the APC and PDP, the appointors of the INEC leadership. This will always leave citizens with the short end of the stick. Emerging political parties should be given at least four-year election cycle to meet the requirement of section 225A of the 1999 constitution.

Another issue is who deregisters a political party? The current practice is that INEC unilaterally decides whether a political party has fallen short of certain requirements and then goes ahead to deregister the party. It is my view that only a court order from a court of competent jurisdiction should empower INEC to deregister a political party. This is to enact a legal framework that protects smaller political parties from being unduly disenfranchised. To deregister a political party is to take life away from a lawful assembly and such powers should not be left to the discretion of INEC but an unbiased judge after giving both parties a fair hearing. It is illogical that only a Court of law can disqualify a candidate from running in an election but INEC has the unfettered power to deregister his or her Party which includes the candidate and many others. In the banking industry, only a court, upon application by CBN can withdraw a banking license. This permits fair hearing and avoids abuse of power. It is noteworthy that the INEC leadership is appointed by the Ruling Party; Thus, leaving the power to deregister competitors solely in the hands of such political appointees offends the principle of natural justice.

The focus of INEC and the National Assembly should not be about drastically reducing the number of political parties without any real basis. It should be on how to expand the political space and create a level playing field that encourages smaller political parties to grow at their own pace. After all, South Africa has 93 registered political parties, The United States has 32, Ghana 24 and the United Kingdom 18.

Not every political party wants to contest the presidential election. Some political parties are contented with operating at the grassroots and competing only at the local government level. This should not be crippled; because it allows political education and participation at the grassroots. It is fair to concede that the APC and PDP are big political parties with a national spread. The Electoral Bill is tacitly promoting only these parties as having the God-given right to participate in electoral process.

The position of the law is clear on the fundamental right to freely associate. The Constitution and other international treaties to which Nigeria is a signatory protect this inalienable right, they include:

Section 40 of the Constitution, Article 10 of the African Charter of Human and Peoples Rights and Article 23 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly.

Elected members of the National Assembly must therefore rise above partisanship and reject any bill that stifles the electoral space and discourages political association at all levels.They

owe it a duty to their constituents to uphold the oath they swore to defend the constitution and to preserve our democracy. The country is better off with robust political participation.

Anna Ekeledo is the Executive Director of AfriLabs, a network organisation of over 300 technology innovation hubs spread across 49 African countries, which helps develop programmes and build partnerships that support African innovation hubs and other stakeholders to raise high potential entrepreneurs that stimulate economic growth and social development in Africa. She holds a first-class degree from Covenant University and M.Sc. from Leeds University Business School in the UK.

An international speaker, trainer, innovation ecosystem builder and mentor, she is also an advisor, member of the advisory board at African Europe Innovation Partnership, an initiative supported by the European Commission. She also chairs the working party on AfCFTA negotiations, eCommerce Forum Africa (EFA) and is a mentor on Google Launchpad Accelerator Africa for Entrepreneurs.

Regional innovation lead Africa at EdTech Hub, the world’s largest education technology research and innovation project, which seeks to drive research and adoption of evidence-based education technology in developing countries supported by the World Bank, FCDO and Bill & Melinda Gates, prior to joining AfriLabs, Anna was involved in pioneering various impact-driven projects and new business units with organisations such as the Visiola Foundation, Wild Fusion Digital Centre, Google, Lagos Business School and Ingenico, a French global financial technology company. She is also a member of the Africa-Europe Foundation Digital Strategy Task Force and is engaged at a high-level policy dialogue on Science, Technology and Innovation working group AU-EU Science, Technology and Innovation (STI).

In this interview with TOBI AWODIPE, she gave insights on how SMEs can identify and leverage technology to digitize processes and reduce costs; how she is strengthening innovation hubs across Africa, creating access and opportunity for girls to learn about STEM and career pathways, and how women can innovate and succeed in the tech space amongst other issues.

As the Executive Director of AfriLabs, what does your work entail?
My work entails overseeing the running of the organisation effectively to ensure we achieve our mandate to our community and the African innovation ecosystem. Externally, I engage multiple stakeholders to foster collaboration, raise awareness and funding for our work and our community of hubs, entrepreneurs and innovators. I also work closely with the AfriLabs Board to ensure that we stay true to our vision, mission and our strategies are aligned with them.

Take through your career journey, how would you describe it?
I started out with a degree in Psychology, where I achieved a first class from Covenant University, Nigeria. Afterwards, I served in the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC), where I worked with a team to raise awareness for investment in Nigeria and coordinate investment forums to attract foreign investments into the country. In 2011, I proceeded to business school where I got an Msc in International Marketing Management from the University of Leeds.

Over a period of three years post my masters’ degree, I worked in the fintech sector, handling business development and country level operations for Ingenico, one of the largest global financial products and value-added services, and in tech training and development, as a marketing manager, trainer and training coordinator for Wild Fusion Digital Centre in Lagos. My move into the development sector and the African innovation ecosystem was propelled by my long-time passion for impact driven initiatives, which I decided to focus on.

In 2015, I consulted for a nonprofit called Visiola Foundation to set up their first STEM Summer Camp for Teenage Girls, which now runs across Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya, and has impacted hundreds of girls over the past six years. In 2016, I joined AfriLabs, with the initial assignment to establish the secretariat (HQ) in Abuja, Nigeria, re-engage community members and partners as well as plan the first AfriLabs annual gathering. We have a mission to support the growth of innovation in Africa which greatly aligns with my passion and since then, I have stayed on to lead the growth of the organisation and the community as the executive director.

You say you’re on a mission to raise successful entrepreneurs that will stimulate economic growth and social development, how exactly are you doing this?
AfriLabs does this by strengthening innovation hubs across Africa and the diaspora, who serve as support structures for entrepreneurs to turn their innovative ideas into successful businesses. We strengthen these hubs through capacity building, financing and networking. We also build the innovation entrepreneurship ecosystem needed for entrepreneurs to succeed in Africa through policy advocacy, collaborating with a range of stakeholders to carry out value-add initiatives as well as providing insightful, reliable data used to make informed decisions that impact the ecosystem.

How best can Nigeria deploy technology to drive financial inclusion and create social and economic opportunities especially for women?
By ensuring that technology is accessible and affordable to women irrespective of their geographic location, socioeconomic status and educational background. Technology in this case includes ICT infrastructure such as broadband connectivity across Nigeria; hardware devices to access financial technology (fintech) services, specifically mobile devices, which have shown to be the fastest growing enabler of technology services consumption in Nigeria and finally, financial technology solutions, such as savings, credit, insurance, which enable women to access financial services and products for themselves, their families and their businesses. It is also important to ensure that women are equipped with the right awareness, technical know-how and financial education to take advantage of these technologies and financial products and services.

What are some of the challenges you have faced during this pandemic and what lessons would you say you have learnt going forward?
During the pandemic, we had to redesign most of our planned activities that involve physical engagements with our community members across Africa. In 2020, we canceled all physical workshops and annual gathering, making it all virtual. Our community members also suffered economic losses from a loss of clients and physical activities which brought regular income. Despite these challenges, we leveraged the power of technology in driving inclusion and participation for all stakeholders.

During the pandemic, we adopted a virtual and hybrid approach for most of our activities, including our workshops and annual gathering, which was held in Abuja. We also saw an increased uptake in tech solutions such as healthtech, edtech, logistics tech and ecommerce. In addition, we rolled out programmes such as EdTech and COVIDAction, which involved identifying innovative solutions to tackle the effects of COVID-19; we had to leverage on local scouts within our community to directly interact with communities and innovators in rural areas. We also saw firsthand the importance of technology access to every segment of the African population and this has increased our drive to prioritise advocating for technology inclusion and affordable accessible broadband connectivity.

Working with SMEs and start-ups, it’s no secret that many are struggling till date, what advice would you give to these business owners?
For SMEs who are yet to embrace technology, it is important to identify how to leverage technology to digitise processes to reduce costs, increase efficiencies and access to data and market opportunities, which will lead to business growth. For start-ups, pivot if necessary. The pandemic taught us that specifically in Africa, you need to ensure that you focus on providing solutions that are essential to your identified target market.

Looking at where Nigeria is tech-wise, how close are we to a full digital future compared to the rest of the world?
To achieve a full digital future, we need to be connected to all via the internet, and importantly, fast, reliable and affordable internet. Unfortunately, according to a study by DQL, Nigeria has one of the slowest broadband connection speeds globally (ranked at 105th), but a slightly faster mobile internet, ranking 96th in the world. We also still struggle with 2G networks in many parts of the country, while the rest of the world has moved to 4G and is migrating to 5G. We also rank low globally on internet affordability, e-government, and e-infrastructure, which shows that we have a long way to go.

However, it is encouraging to see that the government has a plan to increase broadband connectivity across the country, following the Nigerian National Broadband Plan 2020 – 2025 driven by the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy. With the tech ecosystem in Nigeria, already providing, but constantly building a wide range of innovative digital products and services, I believe that a fully connected Nigeria, coupled with the right enabling policies, will lead us to a fully digital future.

We also need to invest in the tech ecosystem through funding, supporting and providing the right policies, innovation hubs, startups and tech infrastructure providers. The Nigerian Startup Bill is a step in the right direction by the government and the tech ecosystem to enact the right laws and regulations that will drive Nigeria to a fully digital future with a thriving innovation driven economy.

Seeing as the world is advancing every day, do you think SMEs and start-ups are exploiting the digital commerce space enough and what more can be done?
Education of SMEs and startups on the digital commerce platforms, tools and opportunities will go a long way in getting more to take advantage of the space. Awareness isn’t enough, they need to be shown how to, and equipped with the skills to do so, with clear evidence of how it will lead to business growth and increased revenue.

We also need to fix the infrastructure deficit so startups and SMEs can access digital technologies irrespective of their location. Other than internet facilities, hard infrastructure such as road networks and a functional postal service will facilitate adoption. Finally, we need to invest in digital commerce technologies and its end-to-end solutions (such as epayments and e-logistics) that meet the needs of African startups and SMEs considering our unique environment.https://50e23822e66ba72b8651792ca60684d5.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html

You chair the working party on AfCFTA negotiations, how is this act benefitting the average small business women in say, rural Nigeria?
I chair a working party on AfCFTA negotiations at a pan-African organisation called eCommerce Forum Africa, in which I am a board member, focused on promoting the eCommerce industry and supporting stakeholders in Africa. The AfCFTA once implemented fully will be a game changer for small business women who constitute the larger percentage of MSMEs in Africa. The AfCFTA will open up markets for women to trade easily with zero or no tariffs, thereby reducing the cost of trade and increasing profit, and making it easier and safer for women traders to move between African borders.

Finally, with technologies and platforms such as eCommerce platforms that aggregate suppliers, traders and manufacturers across the value chain of various sectors, it will open up new market opportunities in ways never done before. All these will lead to increased markets, revenue, business growth, job creation and a better standard of living for women and their families.

Are you satisfied with the number of start-ups and SMEs owned/headed by women in Nigeria?
No, it can definitely be a lot more. We need to invest in more SMEs and startups owned and headed by women and provide them with the right capacity building, mentorship and market opportunities.

Despite efforts to improve the number of young girls and women in STEM, the numbers are still low; what other ways would you suggest these numbers could be ramped up?
As society grows its digital economy, it is critical that we position women to be successful within this economy. This includes creating access and opportunity for girls to learn about STEM study and career pathways and encouraging and expecting girls to join the STEM workforce. First, through the education system, we need to get all girls in school.

Also, STEM subjects should be compulsory in the early years of primary and first half of secondary school. Schools also need to show the range of opportunities available by deliberately infusing stories of women’s contributions in the STEM fields and how it benefits girls to pursue advanced coursework in this area. This helps students see themselves in such fields and gives them a chance to find the right fit for themselves.

As a trainer and mentor, how important is mentoring for women in career growth?
Very important. A lot of women were raised traditionally to be good homemakers, wives and mothers, with little priority given to the importance of career growth. While I believe it is ultimately the woman’s choice to pursue a career or not, it is important that from home, school and even in the workplace, women should be mentored on making important career decisions. Women shouldn’t have to feel like they have to choose between a thriving career and a family.

Wearing as many hats as you do, how do you combine everything and succeed at them all?
I don’t succeed at them all to the same degree; I prioritise, I delegate and I learn when to let go. Learning to say no is also a skill that I am sharpening.

What are the three key things you would tell a woman looking to innovate in the tech space to do and avoid in order to succeed?
Three key things to do include: One, focus on designing a solution for the needs of your target market. Technology is an enabler, not the full solution, especially in the African market. Secondly, surround yourself with a strong support system. Friends, family, mentors or investors and team members who will provide sound business, moral and networking/financial support when needed.

Finally, do not be afraid to fail. The fear of failure can be crippling. Do it afraid and when failure comes, learn from it and try again. What to avoid is the need to prove a point. Go-getter women can sometimes fall into the trap of trying to prove themselves to the naysayers. While this can be a driving force for some women, it isn’t healthy for an innovation mindset, makes the journey a lot less enjoyable and can have one fixated on holding on to an original idea or business that needs to be let go of for a better one. Focus instead on the market you are trying to serve and people around you who support you.

If you could change something for Nigerian women, what is the first thing you would do?
I would change policies for Nigerian women. Various policies that cut across politics, ensuring at least 50 percent women in political positions at all levels; finance, ensuring women have access to a range of financial products, including credit facilities, lowering the barriers and ensuring finance institutions are mandated to lend to women owned businesses; and education, mandating that all girls go to school irrespective of tribe, religion or socioeconomic status.

Tari Taylaur, currently the Secretary of a Lekki subzone and an active member of the
Environment Committee for Lekki Estate Residents Association (LERA), has been appointed as the party
Ward Chairman of Youth Party, Eti Osa Local Government Area effective November 10, 2021. As Ward
Chairman, Mrs. Taylaur will also serve on the State Executive Council Committee.

Tari Taylaur, a recognized media professional brings to the party 14 years of experience in
providing consulting services around social development and governmental issues to corporate and
individual clients.

She is passionate about improving the welfare of young people and has served as a volunteer in projects
across education, food security, voter enlightenment and environmental advocacy.

Mrs. Taylaur, a candidate of the Youth Party, ran for the office of Councillor, Eti-osa LGA Ward E (Lekki
1), with a clear strategy to transform the environment and create jobs for the many unemployed youths
milling the streets.

About Youth Party
The Youth Party is made up of individuals and groups that seek to serve and unite Nigerians. Our goal is
to develop and improve the standard of living of all Nigerians.

We will achieve this through service oriented political leadership, transparent political leadership and
followership, discourse, fostering a new crop of leaders and one Nigeria .Register here https://bit.ly/3wXO2w9 to join us shape the future of Nigeria.

The jobless rate in Nigeria is 33.3% that means 23.2 million Nigerians are out of work. Meanwhile labor supply is growing rapidly both skilled and unskilled, but the demand for labor is shrinking. There are not enough jobs for our young people who are leaving school largely because the capacity to create jobs by different sectors of the economy keep worsening day by day. There is a pressing need to address this ailing situation and boast job creation for our increasing population.

The Youth Party Policy and Strategy Unit created pursuant to Section 66 of the Youth Party’s Constitution and charged with the responsibility of encouraging and coordinating the formulation and development of policy ideas and initiatives within the Party is inviting members of the party to submit memoranda, position papers and policy papers on the various ways jobs can be created within Nigeria.

Submission should cover but are not limited to any of the following core areas:

1. Diagnosing the barriers to job creation within the existing framework in Nigeria and recommending ways of eliminating these barriers.
2. Possible fiscal policy measures to be adopted by the government to help boast job creation at multiple levels.
3. Various incentives that can be pursued by the government to foster job creation at multiple levels in the economy.
4. Identify sector-specific job creation strategies, including but not limited to the following;

• Manufacturing
• Health Care
• Sports
• Entertainment
• Education
• Tourism
• Infrastructure
• Finance
• Justice
• Agriculture
• Technology
• Power
• Works (construction)
• Justice

Submission Guideline

• The Memoranda should be addressed to the Research and Policy Unit, Youth Party
• All submissions must be sent to policy@youthparty.ng 
• All contributions must be in the form of Word Doc. attached to the email.

Use this format as a guide for submissions: https://bit.ly/3FW9sgS

Deadline  

All submissions must be made on or before Sunday 14th of October 2021.

Download Invite Here https://bit.ly/3vR7NVy .

1. Youth Party has exercised its right to appeal against the decision of an electoral tribunal in Lagos on30th September 2021, which dismissed our Election Petition challenging the result of the Councillorship  Election of Ward A, Eti Osa Local Government Area, Lagos State. The election held on 24^th July 2021 was marred by a scheme of irregularities which substantially undermined the will and expression of the voters in Ward A, Eti Osa Local Government Area, Lagos State.

• The Election Petition was dismissed on 29th September by an Electoral Tribunal chaired by Hon. Justice Onigbanjo (Retired).

• The Notice of Appeal was filed on Monday, 4th October, 2021. Whilst, the Appellant Brief of Argument was filed on Thursday, 7th October, 2021. This notwithstanding that the Appeal Tribunal had not been constituted and is yet to commence sitting. By law, the appeal must be heard and determined within 21 days from the judgment appealed. That time will elapse on Monday, 25th October, 2021.

• Youth Party has argued that the Lower Tribunal was wrong to conclude that all the grounds of the election petition were criminal in nature and needed to be proven beyond reasonable doubt. We argue also, that the Lower Tribunal totally disregarded the evidence adduced on over voting and substantial non-compliance with the Electoral Laws of Lagos State.

• The crux of Youth Party’s Petition, was over voting (more votes recorded than the number of registered voters) in many of the polling units, the failure of election to hold in at least two polling units and the systematic disenfranchisement of voters occasioned by the late arrival of election materials and the illegal relocation of several polling units. These were proved beyond reasonable doubt as no doubt was raised by the Respondents. The Tribunal failed to  refer to any doubt over the occurrence of over voting and substantial non-compliance.

• Specifically, there was clear and unchallenged evidence of overvoting in at least 8 polling units (PUs 3,4,5,8,9,10 and 11)of the 16 Polling Units where the number of votes were more than the total number of accredited voters. Furthermore, no election result was recorded for polling units 13 and 14a even on the summary of results used to return APC.

• Election started in polling unit 13 at 3:15pm for an election that was meant to end at 3pm after most voters had left. Wrong materials were brought for polling unit 14a. The total no of registered voters in the polling units is 1,916. Whilst, the disputed winner scored a total of 1,543. The disputed winner should not have been declared in the first place due to the difference between the number of registered voters where election did not take place and the margin of the disputed victory.

• Also, the Party argued that no sufficient details were given of the  notice of location of polling units, which left voters in the dark and suppressed the turn out rate in Lekki Phase 1.  Polling units 16, 16A, 17 and 18 in Lekki, Phase 1, with more than 10,000 registered voters were administratively disenfranchised from voting at the Election. The above stated facts were uncontroverted.

• Youth Party is concerned over the negative effect of electoral malpractice, which continue to lead to voters apathy and imperil our hard fought democracy.

1. Voters turnout in Lagos State is currently less than 10% (Lagos East Senatorial District Bye Election and the Local Government Election), which suggests disturbingly, that voters are losing confidence in the electoral process at an alarming rate. Turnout was 69% at the 2003 Presidential Election and 34% at the 2019 Presidential Election.

1. Youth Party restates its strong resolve to challenge the unconscionable and brazen acts of electoral malfeasance that were perpetrated, at Ward A, Eti Osa Local Government on 24^th July 2021, to a logical conclusion. This is in line with its ideology of expanding the democratic space in the interests of all Nigerians.

The Youth Party is pleased to welcome our new member, Mr. Yemi Candide-Johnson
SAN. The Learned Silk has been a strong supporter of our party in the aftermath of the
July 24th local government Council elections, and led our legal team in seeking justice
at the Election Tribunal.

Yemi Candide-Johnson is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and the Senior Partner at
Strachan Partners. He is continuously engaged as lead counsel in ongoing major and
high profile commercial and public policy disputes across the courts of Nigeria and has
been either counsel or arbitrator in several domestic and international commercial
arbitrations in the maritime, petroleum banking and construction industries.
Yemi also has remarkable experience in advising on complex commercial transactions
as well as advising foreign investors on potential investment in Nigeria. Yemi is a former
President of the Lagos Court of Arbitration, which is Africa’s foremost dispute resolution
institution and the Chairman, Board of Directors, Nigeria Mortgage Refinance
Company.

Youth Party membership consists of visionary and committed Nigerians from all walks
of life who believe in the power and potential of our great nation. What else are you still
waiting for? Join the movement today and let us reshape the future of Nigeria. Register
here https://youthpartyng.com/join-movement/

61 years after independence, and despite its abundance of human and material resources, Nigeria is still struggling with setting the country on the right path of political, economic, environmental, social, technological, educational and cultural greatness. The poor leadership of Nigeria, since 1960, has had a crippling effect on the country’s socio-political development. Our civil service reeks of corruption and the unemployment rate is as high as ever.

The irony of these tragedies is that the problems bedeviling the nation were created by the same crop and caliber of leaders who continue to dominate political affairs. To rebuild Nigeria, we the youths need to be a major part of the solution. Nigeria has a huge youth demography, which if properly managed and harnessed, will steer the country on a path of development. The problem, unfortunately, seems to be that many Nigerian youths are waiting for power to be handed over to them on a platter of gold without fighting or acquiring basic leadership skills that’ll prepare them for greater service to their land. We cannot be docile or comfortable being just social media advocates for good governance. We must aim for actual inclusion in mainstream and frontline governance.

Nigerian youths must avoid shifting the blame to the past leaders, and instead work on shaping the future. The future belongs to the youths, but the future is not tomorrow. It already began yesterday. Nigerian youths must not get stuck reliving the past or passing blame. The demographics of leadership in the world is getting younger, while we are still stuck with same old hands that milk the country of her resources and derail her journey on the path of sustainable development. Recently, the Not Too Young To Run Bill was passed, and as usual, the Nigerian youths are folding their hands and still waiting for those in government to create a springboard for them to participate in governance, forgetting that power is never freely given or relinquished. It is fought for.

It is time to take responsibility for the future, because it will not be inherited. It is time for us to end our blame game with our colonial history, our founding fathers, our present leaders, and every other obstacle to making our country, Nigeria, great. We are energetic youths, with innovativeness, ambition, ideas and a burning passion to succeed. We must be the greatest asset of our country. We must prove that we are not too young to participate and learn the ropes of politics and governance, neither are we too young to fight for the future we desire and surely deserve. It is time to make our way to relevance and shape the future of our collective dreams by joining a credible institution that has risen up to fill the vacuum in governance. An institution that is dedicated to achieving good governance by promoting a united Nigeria agenda and transparent political leadership and followership that eschews money-politics, violence, repression and corruption. Nigerian youths have been marginalized in too many sectors of the country’s socio-economic landscape, and there is need for greater participation in contributing to social justice and sustainable development. The real restructuring begins with our collective decision to graduate from being mere onlookers and bystanders to playing a leading role in politics and every other sector of the country’s existence. The time is more than right! The time is now!

Youth Party has conceded defeat following the verdict of Lagos State Local Government Election Tribunal on Thursday.

A statement made available to Vanguard and signed by the party commended the tribunal for discharging its duty within a reasonable time.

Youth Party however expressed disappointment over the dismissal of the party’s petition against the result of the Councillorship Election for Ward A, Eti Osa Local Government.

“As strong believers in democracy and the rule of law, we will study the judgment and make an informed decision on the way forward after due consultations.

“It is, however, important to state that while the Tribunal concluded that we were unable to prove our case beyond a reasonable doubt, it totally ignored the crux of our Petition, which was overvoting in many of the polling units, the failure of election to hold in at least two polling units and the systematic disenfranchisement of voters occasioned by the late arrival of election materials and the illegal relocation of several polling units. This we proved beyond a reasonable doubt.

In a bid to assuage the sufferings of Item motorcycle operators among other classes of people in Item, Bende LGA of Abia State, the Youth Party, through its leader, Barrister Ogala Osoka Jnr., has constructed a tent to serve as place of refuge.

Speaking while Commissioning the project over the weekend, the State Executives of the Party, led by the Chairman, Hon. Chris Onyekachi Okorie, said the construction of the tent was borne out of the suffering by motorcycle operators in the area, adding that when it rains or shines, it is impossible for those passing through the area to find shelter.

He said the gesture is part of efforts to ameliorate the sufferings of the people, assuring that Youth Party Abia State, as a people oriented political party, will continue to embark on human faced projects meant to better the lots of rural dwellers among other classes of people.

Speaking while handing over the tent, the traditional ruler, Amaokwe Item, His Royal Majesty, Eze Clement Ofia Udensi, appreciated Youth Party for the gesture, adding that it will go a long way in assisting the motorcycle union and members who find it difficult to find shelter when it rains just as he prayed God to give the party leadership more wisdom.

On his part, the Presbyter Methodist Church of Nigeria, Amaokwe Item Circuit, Very Reverend Joseph Nwabuisi, lauded Youth Party for the magnanimity, stressing that if other political parties behave in this manner, the people will always speak good of them, urging the party leadership not to relent.

Responding on behalf of the motorcycle union, Ahamefula Onuoha thanked Barrister Ogala Osoka Junior for the magnanimity. He said they have been soliciting assistance from wealthy individuals around the area but no one has come to their aid.

Onuoha assured that they will maintain the tent as it will go a long way in alleviating their sufferings.

It would be recalled that not long ago, Barrister Ogala Osoka Junior pledged to construct a tent after witnessing their level of suffering during rainy and dry seasons.