BY BENEDICT NWACHUKWU, ABUJA
The youth wing of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has commended a frontline presidential aspirant of the party and Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, for his commitment to the development and growth of youths as exemplified by the number of youths in his Cabinet. The body also commended governors Babajide Sanwo-olu of Lagos State, Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State and Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State for following suit in ensuring that the youths are involved in the governance of their states. Speaking in Abuja, the National Youth Leader, Dayo Israel, said APC youth wing has been able to engage a few governors, “we have engaged governors of Lagos, Ogun, Kogi and Ekiti states and we’ve gotten very firm commitments from these governors. “Already they have shown a lot of encouragement because if you look through their cabinets, you will find that a lot of the people they are currently bringing into their cabinets are young people.” He noted that there are so many activities that they have introduced in the youth wing to ensure that they can begin to mainstream the voice of young people and make sure that the youths of this party are not taken for granted. “You recall my speech at the Aso Villa in the presence of the first lady and governors and all aspirants that the youths of our party will not be used to snatch ballot papers this time. We’re not going to be used to perpetrate electoral violence in this election but we are going to get a seat at the table and we’re going to play critical roles in this electoral process and we’re going to produce members of the House of Assemblies, Deputy Governors, Speakers of Parliament, members of the House of Representatives, members of Senate by the grace of the Almighty God. “Our hope is that the next administration of the APC will be totally different and our advocacy is to have 70% of the coming administration in appointments and cabinet for young people, either young men or young women.” According to him, “We know that this is an election year and we took that challenge seriously so we had a commitment to ensure that we can increase the number of young people according to our party constitution, 40 and below who are running or participating in this election. “As a result of that, we set up this high level working group that is composed of some of the best minds that this country has produced so far in the youth sector. “The group is chaired by Engr. Salihijo Ahmad, the DG and MD of the Nigerian Rural Electrification Agency. “He is joined by the co-chairperson of Mrs Solape Agagu Amodu, daughter of former Governor of Ondo State and a special adviser to governor of Lagos State on Sustainable Development Goals. “Other members of the group include Wole Aboderin, Special Assistant to the President on NGO Matters, Ginika Tor, a Federal Commissioner of the Federal Character Commission, Mr Hamza, Special Adviser to the Speaker of the House of Representatives on Migration and IDP, Dr Ibrahim, President of the world Nigerian Weight Lifting Federation, Moremi Ojodu, as secretary, Amaka Lawrence and Michael, Zakari Ahmed who is the SA to the President on Infrastructure to use their experience “What we have done with the high level working group is to bring together young people of our party who are in very senior positions,” he said. 
