The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, has challenged the young legislators on charting a course in preparation for the Nigerian youth taking the mantle of leadership at all levels of government in the country.
The speaker noted this on Saturday in Abuja at the strategy meeting which was organised the young elected lawmakers in the National Assembly, themed “Rethinking Youth Development in Nigeria” in partnership with the YPF, Yiaga Africa, Centre for Legislative Engagement (CLE), Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD) and ActionAid Nigeria (AAN).
While declaring open the Young Parliamentarians Forum (YPF) National Strategy Meeting and Retreat, the speaker urged youth to think outside the box stating that they should consider an amendment in the constitution to the definition of federal character.
He said “when we talk about Federal Character within the context of appointments, infrastructure and the rest of it in the constitution, Federal Character as it is, is limited to where you are from, like your ethnicity”.
“So, when you are talking about Federal Character you look at all those things and they are what make up the Federal Character.
“You talk about so, so percentage of women, so, so percentage of youth, that is the true meaning of Federal character and I think that is what should be reflected in the constitution,” Gbajabiamila said.
He said that as presently defined in the constitution, federal character is at variance with the nation’s realities as it limits national opportunities to geographical location alone without consideration for gender, persons living with disabilities (PWDs) and age classification.
Also, the Chairman of YPF, Rep. Kabir Tukura noted that the forum visited the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo and the Speaker of the House of Representatives and it was agreed that the YPF should come up with a white paper to be submitted to President Muhammadu Buhari.
He said Nigerian youths deserve a voice in the country and deserved to be heard and treated fairly, adding that treating young people fairly is to treat the citizens fairly as the youth constitute 70 percent of the population.
Tukura said that following the #EndSARS protest, the forum took some steps to ensure that the demands are met and it does not occur again.
He said that the demands are genuine and that there is a need for a general overhaul of the way things are done especially in the security sphere.
