Niger Delta National Youth Leaders and Stakeholders’ Forum (NDNYLSF) has called for inclusion, funding and support in the National Council on Niger Delta, even as they asked for the approval of the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs.
The group also wanted the federal government, international development partners and other stakeholders to do everything possible to ensure that all the abandoned projects in the region were completed.
Addressing a press conference yesterday in Abuja, the group emphasised the need for other parastatal under the ministry to still retain their structures and terms of references, adding that it had become necessary to avoid project duplication and improve institutional and budgetary capacities.
While appreciating government’s efforts towards the amnesty agenda and empowerment of ex-militants, president of the group, Prince Felix A. Ihonre, said the population of “peaceful and development-oriented young people working towards peace and development of the region far outweighs and remarkably overwhelms the militant groups.”
“It, therefore, becomes economically and socially expedient for an improvement in government strategies to evolve a conscious mechanism to massively engage and empower youths working in peace building, social and political issues, and community development structures across the Niger Delta states.
“These youths will, in turn, naturally engage in the assignment of protecting government infrastructures and contractors and workers of companies operating in the States of Region. This improved strategy will go a long way to discouraging militancy and encouraging massive youth participation in peace building platforms and activities,” he said.
