Minister of Special Duties and Intergovernmental Affairs, Sen. George Akume has offered an insight as to why President Muhammadu Buhari assented to the Not Too Young To Run Bill.
The minister, who met at the weekend with the National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN) led by its President, Solomon Adodo, explained that the decision speaks volumes of the President’s confidence in the youth’s ability to take the nation to greater heights.
Akume acknowledged that the youth play key roles in agriculture, manufacturing, security and other sectors of the economy and assured the NYCN of the President Buhari-led administration’s commitment to partner with the youth in delivering good governance.
According to him: “Youth are epitome of energy, creativity, patriotism, excellence and commitment. The government recognises that the youth are prepared to take the nation to greater heights. Recently, the Not Too Young To Run Bill was signed into law by Mr. President and this is a clear demonstration that he believes in the ability of the youth to do greater things.”
“Over 60 per cent of our population is made up of the youth. Therefore, every development efforts has to take into cognisance the place of such a huge segment of our population. The President in his wisdom decided to sign this legislation into law to further inspire the youth to contribute their quota to national development.”
The minister further explained that the government has made agriculture, mining and other sectors very attractive for youth engagement, adding that there were also economic stimulus programmes to cushion the impact of COVID-19 on businesses.
Earlier, the NYCN president, Solomon Adodo intimated the minister of their efforts to support the federal and state governments’ efforts toward job creation, security and economic development.
Adodo pledged to mobilise its members to key into development programmes of the Federal and State governments.
He explained that the COVID-19 pandemic has proven that the western world which Nigeria and other African countries look up to were no demigods hence the difficulty for them to contrive immediate solution to the pandemic and stressed the resolve of the youth to seek home grown strategies for the rapid industrialisation and economic development of the country.
