Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Yakubu Dogara, has called for the appointment of young Nigerians as Ministers of State from 2019.
He also noted that passage of the age reduction law, popularly known as NotTooYoungToRun, will not automatically pave way for young people to be elected into elective offices in Nigeria.
Delivering a keynote address at a conference organized by the NotTooYoungToRun movement in Abuja on Thursday, Dogara, maintained that only by removing economic barriers that young people would be empowered enough to run for elective offices.
Dogara stressed that power was never given freely in any society and charged the youths to brace themselves to wrestle power through participation in politics.
The speaker also decried what he called “generational warfare” that has continued to work against youth inclusion in politics and governance in Nigeria and called on leaders at all levels to train and mentor young people who will lead the nation in the future.
“If we don’t train our our youths we won’t have a future because young people are the future of our country”, he said.
The speaker, however, cautioned that Nigeria must win the war against violence “so as to keep our civilization” and lamented how public institutions and symbols of authorities have been totally destroyed in the North East region, especially Borno and Yobe States which he said has taken the region back to “Stone Age”.
He stated that there can’t be credible election in the midst of violence in the country and urged young people to unite and “keep the flame burning until we are able to put young people into leadership positions in Nigeria”.
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