Fresh crisis is brewing at the national conference as Youth delegates to the conference yesterday threatened to disassociate themselves from the outcome of the committees’ reports over their exclusion from key committees of the conference.
Addressing newsmen at NICON hotel where 10 of the committees are sitting, head of the Youth Delegation, Comrade Ben Duntoye said all their protests to the secretariat of the conference about their exclusion from key committees has not elicited any response. He said that there has been subtle blackmail of the youths since the conference began, anytime they express views that run counter to the position of the elderly delegates. “It is interesting to note that of the 493 delegates, the youths have only 18 representatives which is a marginalization of the majority by the minority considering the youths population.
“We started the conference with a subtle blackmail that we should respect our parents at the conference once it is noticed that our opinion varies with the status quo. As young Nigerians well brought up with rich cultural values, we have immense respect for our elders at the conference. But we also understand that we can respectfully disagree and insist on our position except a superior position emerges. It must be understood that we are here in our official capacities to represent the youths and not to massage the egos of some people.” He further declared that when the conference ran into problem over some grey areas and a 50-man committee was constituted to resolve the contending issues the youths were completely ignored. “When the 50 wise men convened, a serious omission was made by not having any youth representation. Is the leadership saying that we have no youth who can represent their interest on key issues that were discussed and agreed upon?
“Again, 20 committees where constituted and the principal officers refused to see the wisdom in young delegates being represented in each committee despite even after we raised objection at the plenary. We appreciate that one of us emerged a deputy chairman of a committee.
“While we appreciate the importance of the economy, environment, energy, labour, transport, civil societies and sport in our nation’s development; how come we were omitted from equally critical issues like devolution of power, restructuring of government, public services and political parties”?
