The North East Youth Initiative for Development (NEYID) has urged the Federal Government to go after the sponsors of the several killings in Nigeria and stop pointing accusing fingers at the youths.
The Executive Director of NEYID, Dauda Mohammed Gombe, said this on Wednesday in Abuja during an inaugural national youth dialogue and workshop.
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The event was to share knowledge and ideas to change the narrative that youths have been responsible for the killings and insecurity in Nigeria.
The event which was organized by NEYID in conjunction with the Plan International Nigeria, was attended by over 60 youths from the North East North West, North Central and other areas experiencing banditry; and insurgency of Boko Haram and ISWAP, to pave way for peace.
While advising government to engage the youths in nation building and governance, NEYID said that recent developments have confirmed that the ‘country has turned to something else’.
He also said that all the statistics being given about the serial killings especially in the North East were imaginary figures.
This is as Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State, who spoke virtually, at the event, expressed happiness over the commitment of the youths to tackle insecurity saying, it had confirmed that he was not alone in it.
“I will always avail myself for the youths. I am happy to see that you are part of the struggle and security is at the centre of the struggle. We will continue to appeal to our conscience,” Governor Bello said.
The NEYID Executive Director, Dauda Gombe, said time had come to change the narrative above youths and killings in Nigeria.
“The country has turned to something else; we believe that we have the solution, we have to prove that we are not responsible for the killings. Who is responsible? They are pointing accusing fingers on youths.
“Therefore, we have come together to change the narrative to tell the world who actually we are and our contribution in finding a lasting solution to the security challenges affecting this nation.
The problems are not the youths but the sponsors.
“The government, especially politicians should provide the enabling environment for young people to be in governance. We are going to issue communique to send the right message to the government to inject the right people in the right places because most of the time the government will tell you they are engaging the youths.
“But the issue is that they are not engaging the right people, everything has been politicized in this nation,” Gombe said.
He also faulted the official statistics of casualties of the security challenges in the country, saying they are untrue.
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