By Kelvin Obambon
For the National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN) Cross River State chapter to effectively fulfill its core mandate of grooming future leaders, the processes for electing its own leadership must be devoid of illegalities.
This was the position of stakeholders of the NYCN at an elaborate engagement with the Cross River State Commissioner for Youth Development, Barr Ijom Ukam, in Calabar on Tuesday.
The stakeholders, comprising former NYCN state chairmen, executive committee members, central planning committee members, eleco members, amongst others, observed that in recent time elections into the Council were fraught with so much illegalities, lamenting that the practice had not augur well for the NYCN as a body saddled with the responsibility of leadership training and mentorship.
They commended the Commissioner for the decision to bring everyone on board for the forthcoming election, saying it was a right step towards a credible and transparent electoral process. They affirmed that it was now time to right the wrongs upon which previous leadership of the Council rode to power by ensuring that the forthcoming election in the state conforms to the provisions of NYCN constitution.
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The Commissioner for Youth Development, Barr Ijom Ukam, however assured the stakeholders that as a ministry with supervisory role over the NYCN, the election would be transparent, because according to him, no one would be left in the dark about the electoral process.
While clarifying that there was no special interest in the youth council election, the Commissioner however stated that the ministry was deeply concerned about the negative press generated recently by activities of the NYCN with regards to the forthcoming poll.
Barr. Ukam thanked the stakeholders for finding time to attend the meeting, stating that their contributions would guide the ministry to come up with a template for the effective conduct of the election. He also suggested regular interface between the ministry and the stakeholders, emphasizing that no one would be allowed to interfere in the affairs of the NYCN, even as he stressed the need for everyone to be on the same page.
Meanwhile, a member of the Cross River State House of Assembly Committee on Youth Development, Hon. Omang Charles, who attended the meeting, said a five-man committee would be set up to thoroughly look at the NYCN constitution in order to set things right.
On his part, the Special Adviser to the Governor on General Duty, Barr. Ekpenyong Akiba, in his remarks, said that it was the responsibility of the stakeholders to decide on the kind of leadership that would work for the good of NYCN and the state at large.
“We owe ourselves and the younger generation a duty to fine tune the process. I want us to have for the first time an election that will be shown on the television”, he said.