Civil Societies for Good Governance and ECOWAS Youth Council have asked Nigeria to prioritise efforts towards building the youth for national development.

The groups made the call on Monday in Abuja while presenting an award of effective performance and recommendation for higher responsibility to the President, National Youth Council of Nigeria, Solomon Adodo.

Speaking on behalf of the CSOs at
a brief ceremony graced by their representatives and the ECOWAS Youth Council, President of Civil Societies for Good Governance, Come. Dominic Ogakwu, said the call became necessary following series of promises made by successive government officials and other youth stakeholders without making adequate commitment towards implementation.

Ogakwu maintained that time has come for the nation to make concise efforts in building the youth rather than paying lip service.

He expressed optimism that the new leadership of the National Youth Council of Nigeria was leading in the course to repositioning the youth towards productivity and national development.

“The new leadership of NYCN is unifying all youth groups and is focused to drive this initiative. This is the first time in the history of NYCN that it has a unifying figure at the helm of affairs that is setting agenda for inclusive youth emancipation.

“The current President is never resting in amplifying the needs of the youth in a selfless and patriotic manner. The NYCN has set agenda for productivity.

“We are here to hold his hand up and to assure him that the vision is achievable. We are here to close ranks, to form a think tank to help foster the laudable initiative of the youth towards becoming productive.

“We are confident with the processes that has been put in place by the President of NYCN to harnessing youth potentials for productivity. We are willing to commit resources towards this efforts”, Ogakwu noted.

Also speaking, the ECOWAS Youth Council Ambassador, Austin Peacemaker stressed that the new leadership of NYCN has within a short period help in salvaging the image of the nation.

“The leadership of the NYCN is on the verge of changing the narrative of Nigerian been recognised as failed state to a working state.

“The NYCN has for long been led by mediocre, the reason we had several factions in the council. Thankfully, the new leadership is not only focused but unifying the youth for productivity and national development”, Peacemaker added.

In his response, the President of NYCN, Solomon Adodo thanked the groups for finding him worthy of their recognition.

He explained that though Nigeria was inundated with challenges of hunger, insecurity amongst others, emphasising the challenges was not a viable path to follow but rather think of creative ways to make progress.

Adodo hinted that the several initiatives of the President Muhammad Buhari led Federal Government such as the Youth Investment Fund would witness industries and viable jobs spring up within a short period.

He assured that the NYCN will ensure that the Fund is judiciously applied for the benefit of the youths and the nation’s economy.

“If the youths are well and meaningfully engaged, the youths would not easily fall prey to insecurity and other vices. We are engaging the youths from all around the country, the mechanics, the bricklayers etc to make them useful to themselves and the nation”.

According to Adodo, criminals in our society take advantage of the youths that have been abandoned and not properly situated in the society to cause mayhem.