By Baba Yusuf
Abuja
The global association of West African Youths (gloWAYs) has called on the Economic Communities of West African States (ECOWAS) to take sustainable measures that will increase credibility to the electoral process in Nigeria.
In a statement signed by the gloWAYs President, Baruga Abdullahi Ibrahim, at the end of its 2014 appraisal summit and made available to journalists in Abuja, the body said the measure would scrutinise, evaluate and analyses the resolve of the respective leaders of the affected states for a level playing ground.
“They must take bull by the horn and act beyond the capability of mere observers, because they would be held responsible for the outcome of 2015 elections across West Africa”, the statement stated.
The statement added that it was a source of concern for gloWAYs to create awareness on election problems to avoid using youths as political tools of violence, adding that they cannot afford to compromise their future and corporate existence.
“We view ECOWAS planned 40th anniversary celebration in 2015 as a deliberate attempt to shift attention away from the contentious issues of election in its five member states, we are obliged to give ECOWAS a useful reminder that, we will use 2015 election as a yardstick to assess their commitment to the region”, gloWAYs added.
According to the youth, their mobilisation of over 200 youth organisations across West Africa by gloWAYs and the registering of their willingness to sacrifice for democracy to manifest, was a sign of significant progress made in the political level in the sub region, “thus our solidarity transcend mere expression of sympathy.”
The youths, however congratulated the 64 beneficiaries of ECOWAS youths capacity building and skill acquisition programme that ended in 2014.
“We plead with ECOWAS to engage external partners and relevant stakeholders in other to accommodate large number of beneficiaries, annually, so that more youths will be mobilised and be meaningfully engaged in the subsequent exercise.