On setting a youth agenda

It is in the light of the above, among other reasons, that the Ebira Youth Council (EYC), was formed.

Established in September, 2001, the EYC has remained the focal or reference point for our youths, by our youths and for our youths to fight against the seemingly insurmountable marginalization, oppression, suppression and subjugation in the scheme of things.

Meanwhile, I am pained to note or read the various unwarranted flaks or banters, in our daily newspapers, amongst some of our ardently committed members, just because of free comments and sacred facts about the current socio-economic and political dispensation in Ebiraland, after the annual National Youth Summit by the EYC on November 7, 2009.

Having perused the responses for a call for “Political Sabbatical” by our erudite brother, Professor Adams Abere, (Head of Department of History and International Relation, Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna), during the said National Youth Summit, I unhesitatingly concluded to second Pastor Manjoe’s submissions in the Weekly Trust of Saturday, January 23, 2010, Page 41. We were both present in the National Youth Summit of EYC where Professor Abere’s objective paper presentation was applauded as not only a historian of repute but as an academic. People like us would have queried his academic prowess if he had been one-sided in his presentation. He averred that if such “Political Sabbatical” must be instituted, the casualties should endeavour to sponsor their younger ones (not cronies, any way) as they move to restore a positive order. Besides, as a good and known friend of Senator Ohiare, one would have expected Professor Abere to be economical in his presentation but he premised his submission on the political traumas our people have undergone and have been undergoing. That’s an academic for you. He was clinically courageous, patriotic and sincere irrespective of the time and situation. As far as I am concerned, he should be celebrated because a leader has to have certain steel in him or her to contain any eventuality.

Permit me to stress here that we should always strive to control our ambition and not to allow it to control us. The applauded “Political Sabbatical” did not originate from the EYC as a body much less its President-General, but from its Guest Speaker which was adopted by the corporate body of the EYC. It is incontrovertible because the future of Ebiraland is at stake as there seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel. This, we must address because we are all involved. But the fact remains that our current political leaders who should bear the cross are more, if not most, involved. Hear Pastor Manjoe “….They have the right to nurse ambition. Ebira is larger than the whole bunch of fossilized politicians. And the corporate wellbeing of the land stands taller than the height of any individual or group.” Period!

Yusuff wrote from Wuse, Zone 6, Abuja