Nigerians tackle Tinubu for using proposed youth conference to divert attention from failed policies

Since President Bola Tinubu’s October 1 Independence Speech, where he announced to the world that he was ready to organize a youth conference to address the many concerns of young people in Nigeria, not many have come to terms with such a move.

While some people have dismissed it as another round of political jamboree to waste the country’s lean resources, others have concluded that it was yet another smart move to win the youths’ support base ahead of the 2027 presidential election.

In other words, the president was only concerned about how to win his reelection in 2027 and not about the welfare and well-being of the youth as he claimed in the speech.

But, whatever the rationales are, the point is that the president wants to have a parley with the youths, and it would last for 30 days.

It is also given that he wants to find solutions to the challenges and difficulties currently facing the youths; at least that was clearly stated in his speech.

It is equally instructive to note that reactions have been trailing the announcement.

On Tuesday, October 1, during President Tinubu’s Independence Day Anniversary Speech, he announced his decision to organize a 30-day national youth conference to address the diverse challenges and opportunities confronting young people who constitute more than 60 percent of the country’s population.

The president noted that the aim of the youth confab was to provoke meaningful dialogue and ensure that the voices of the youths were heard in shaping the policies that impact their lives, which according to him, would be a pathway to a brighter future.

However, among the many voices that have kicked against the move is that of a group known as Voters Rights Association of Nigeria (VRAN).

The group has described President Tinubu’s proposed 30-day national youths’ conference as a national jamboree to siphon, embezzle, and squander the proceeds of the fuel subsidy fund.

According to the group’s president, Jezie Ekejiuba, also a human rights lawyer, the proposed youth conference is a national jamboree to provide another opportunity to the inept and corrupt political office holders of the current administration to siphon, embezzle, and squander billions of naira so far saved from the harsh petrol subsidy removal policy of the Tinubu administration.

Ekejiuba is of the opinion that the planned selection, appointment, or election of the delegates for the proposed youth conference would be for the same children or relatives of the current political office holders, and certainly not the children or relatives of the generality of the suffering Nigerian masses or youths.

He further argued that the president does not need such a conference to understand the challenges facing the youths in Nigeria, insisting that several protests, particularly the recent #EndBadGovernance protest, were all clear messages of what the young people are passing through in Nigeria today.

He said: “VRAN wishes to inform President Tinubu that his government does not need the so-called 30-day youth confab to be in the know of the challenges and opportunities confronting our young people.

“The #EndBadGovernance protests nationwide earlier this year were a sad reminder of the problems of not only the Nigerian youths, but also the problems of the Nigerian people as a whole, because the protests clearly threw open the challenges, including but not limited to the insecurity crisis occasioned by Boko Haram, banditry, kidnapping, high costs of food, electricity bills, transport services, prohibitive costs of education, health services, and high rate of unemployment, among others, which were caused by the sudden removal of petrol subsidy in the country by the present administration.

“VRAN contends that all that the Nigerian youths deserve now are actions and not rhetoric or voices echoing from the proposed youth conference because, as the saying goes, actions speak louder than words.

“We wish to remind the Tinubu administration that even during the military administration of Gen. Yakubu Gowon when this type of current economic crisis confronted Nigerians, Gowon, with a human face and sympathy, pitied the hungry and suffering Nigerian masses then by introducing a social security programme called the Udoji Awards to alleviate the pangs of the harsh economic policy as being witnessed currently in Nigeria.

“VRAN, hereby, calls on President Tinubu in like manner and with human face and sympathy for the hungry and suffering Nigerian masses to introduce a social security programme that will benefit the generality of the Nigerian populace by the Federal Government of Nigeria undertaking to pay the Dangote Refinery half of the cost price of a litre of every Dangote fuel product to give Nigerians a new lease of life.”

Expressing his views on the development, President of the Middle Belt Forum (MBF), Dr. Pogu Bitrus, disagreed that the proposed 30-day conference would create a forum for the president and the youths to brainstorm and come up with solutions to some of the issues bedeviling the youths in Nigeria. Rather, he emphasized that it would amount to nothing.

He noted that Nigeria has had several conferences, including the 2014 confab organized by former President Goodluck Jonathan, the report of which spelled out solutions to the youths’ problems in Nigeria, insisting that the president should just go ahead and implement the report of that conference if he actually wanted to address the youths’ challenges in Nigeria.

“We have had national conferences in the past. The last one was the 2014 confab, which gave us a blueprint on the way forward on how to achieve a better Nigeria for all Nigerians.

“Things have been addressed across the board, including even things that have to do with the youths. Rather than creating another bureaucracy for political reasons, I think the government needs to look at the 2014 confab report as it affects our youths and other areas to ensure that constitutional amendments get to a level where a lot of the problems that Nigerians are facing can be addressed,” he said.

He is also of the opinion that the youth conference, as is being proposed by President Tinubu, is a political jamboree, whose only objective is to curry the favour and support of the youth for the president’s reelection bid in 2027.

“As far as I am concerned, the proposed 30-day youth conference is a political jamboree. Mr. President is just trying to appeal to the youths for political support. Otherwise, things pertaining to the youths have been clearly spelled out in the 2014 confab report.

“Let those things be implemented so that we can have a better Nigeria where our youths can be tutored to take over from the older generation, so that there will be some mentoring along the line.

“But to just go and have another conference with the youths, to me, is a political gimmick to gain support and have a support base from the youths for the government rather than improving governance in Nigeria,” he submitted.

But, the president of Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF), Alhaji Yerim Shettima, has a different opinion. He described Mr. President’s proposal as a good idea. He noted that the youth should be seen to be engaged.

“They need to believe that there is hope around them. You need to make them believe in themselves, but that can only happen when you understand them and know what is bothering them. So, I think the government has done well. I commend the president for initiating the idea,” he said.

However, he equally expressed fears that it could end up like other dialogues in the past without any concrete plan to implement its recommendations.

“My fear is, let the dialogue not be one of those engagements where, after everything, papers will be put on the ground and that will be the end of it. There must be a follow-up to implement whatever the resolution of the dialogue will be, and I hope it works,” he stressed.

Dismissing the fear that it could be a ploy to garner support for Tinubu’s 2027 reelection bid and that the 2014 confab report contained every challenge facing the young people and solutions to such problems, he said: “I think this will be different because it will only be centered on the youths.

“The 2014 confab report was all-inclusive; everything was there, but this one will be about the youths alone because they are the direct victims of some of the problems we are facing today. So, I think they are two different things.”

Also, in his contribution, a lawyer and public affairs commentator, Ikechukwu Onodi, did not believe that anything good would come from the youth conference.

He described it as a diversionary and settlement tactic which the current All Progressives Congress (APC) government has employed over time.

He noted that its only objective is to keep the masses busy and push their attention away from the main issue, which is looting and bad governance—a development he said had brought untold economic hardship in the land.

He said: “The idea of a 30-day youth conference is a diversionary and settlement strategy of the governments over time. The main idea is to give people something to talk about while the looting and misgovernance continue.”

He also agreed with those who hold the opinion that the conference is meant to pave the way for massive youth support for President Tinubu’s reelection in 2027.

“It’s also one of the strategies towards bribing the youths for possible acceptance in 2027. You will recall that the APC was a hard sell to the youths during the 2023 general elections, and to avoid a repeat of the 2023 experience with the youth, this is one of the plans,” he submitted.