Youths in Nigeria have urged Federal Government to speed up action to provide employment for the teaming youths in the country to move Nigeria forward.
President of the Youth Wing of NLC, Comrade Victor Ekpo, who spoke at a rally to commemorate the 2019 International Youth Day celebration in Abuja, Friday, said unemployment is a mirage that hamper progress and development of a nation.
The International Youth Day (IYD ) is celebrated August 12 annually across the globe to re-enforce the commitment of world leaders to pay closer attention to youth development issues.
According to Comrade Victor, this year’s celebration presents an opportunity for government at all levels to deliberate on ways to engage young people to become more actively involved in the nation building process.
The programme which was in collaboration with Actionaid Nigeria through its Youth Organizing and Leadership (YOL) project also mobilised young people to mark the International Youth Day with the focus on influencing public opinion and government actions on public finance and Gender Responsive Public Service in Nigeria.
“inclusion of young people in employment, political, social and other spheres of life is a recipe for sustainable peace and national development”.
He added that the commemoration of the International Youth Day was an opportunity to draw attention on the need to make employment accessible and inclusive for young people.
Also speaking at the rally organised to present the youth position paper to the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Youths and Sport Development, the Actionaid country Director, Ms Blessing Ifemenam pointed out that to engender a responsive service delivery system in the country public service should be publicly funded, publicly delivered/universal, gender equitable/ focused and focused on quality in line with human rights frameworks.
She further called on government to address the challenges young people face in the workplace, promote economic opportunities and ensure that public services are youth responsive.
The rally brought together, young people from the NLC youth wing, Activista Platform, student and other youth networks.
The young people emphasized on the need for government to reduce unemployment by paying attention to young people through the elimination of multiple taxation and increasing budgetary allocation to education because this will reduce poverty and help young people live a decent life.
The youth Day celebration was a two-day events with a symposium on 15th August on the theme “Promote Youth Employment, ensure economic Independence for the Young” and a rally on Friday, 16th August 2019 acround FCT.
