By Kelvin Obambon
The National Youth Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN), Cross River chapter, has inaugurated its coordinators in the 18 local government areas of the state with a charge to embrace inclusivity in all their dealings.
The ceremony held at the Apostle Senator Bassey Edet Otu Youth House in Calabar, Saturday, was attended by the Commissioner for Youth Development, Barr. Ijom Ukam; the state executive of NYCN led by the chairman, His Youthfulness Comrade Emmanuel Olayi, and other key stakeholders.
Speaking in an interview with journalists, Olayi advised the newly elected coordinators to collaborate with authorities in their various local government areas to ensure sustainable peace and promote youth development. He said that the Youth Council is a platform for young persons to develop their leadership potentials.
“My advice to them is to key into the vision, and my vision when I came on board as state chairman was simply to create a space for inclusivity, where the Youth Council will be a place for every young person, no matter where you come from, no matter where you belong, no matter the party you belong, no matter the association you belong outside of the Council. The Youth Council should be a safe space, and platform to drive development.
“How do we do that? By engaging with the authorities, we don’t necessarily need to fight to get this message passed, you as a young person should be able to assess and make presentations that can make people in authority to intervene in our communities,” he said.
The NYCN chairman described the election that led to the emergence of the LGA Coordinators as peaceful, free, fair and transparent.
“From the report that is before us, we can agree that we had a score of over 90% because the report shows that there was no crisis across the state. No young person was seen carrying cutlass, gun. Where we had disagreement, at the end of the day, they had agreement. We voted freely.
“A classical example is somewhere in Cross River North, where you have elections conducted just before the camera, so I was in my office in Calabar from the situation room, I could see what was happening in Obudu, people lined up, and then the activity was reported real time, and there was no crisis. From the south, no crisis, to the central, and down to the north.
“This is youth election, and for me, as state chairman, I can say that for people who participated in the election, they have attested to the fact that the election was open for everybody, you can’t rule out the fact that there are different factors at play in elections. But for me, as state chairman, I can say before the cameras, I have not made myself available to anybody, to any leader, to any interest group to manipulate me to take decision on who becomes youth chairman, youth coordinator or youth executive across the state, I say this before the cameras, and then you can quote me anytime, any day.
“One of the challenges I had in the course of this election was the issue of getting the right persons when it comes to age appropriateness for office in the Youth Council. Significantly, we’ve achieved that, and I’m sure that the next time that we’re having elections, we’ll have it even better than this,” he said.