The Speaker of the Oyo State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Ogundoyin has called on the Nigerian Senate and the House of Representative to make conscious efforts towards politically empowering Nigerian youths and women.
Speaking on Tuesday in Abuja, at the 25th Nigerian Economic Summit tagged- Nigeria 2050: Shifting gears, Ogundoyin noted that the Nigerian government needs to create more political opportunities for youths if the current ageing leaders really care about the future of the country which they will leave behind.
While speaking with newsmen, He said Not-too-young-to-run act which lowers the age qualification to contest elections into public offices are laudable, however these may not be enough in getting youths involve.
He said, “Our representatives at the Senate and House of representative need to work on further amendment of our constitution to provide more affirmative political opportunities for the youths and women.
“There are countries even here in Africa where certain number of parliament seats are reserved for youths and women. For instance, Ugandan Constitution makes provision for its parliament to have one woman representative for every district and the youth have five reserved seats each too.
“We can replicate this too in Nigeria. Our youths are innovative and ready to work, but only if we're given the opportunities.
“I got the right opportunities to turn my farm business around, I got here because I was given that opportunity. But not every competent youth has that opportunity.”
He said Oyo and Kwara State Governors are obviously championing the operation get the youths and women involve presently with the number of young persons and women appointed in their cabinets.
Speaking as a panelist on Leadership in 2050, insights with Nigeria’s Emerging Leaders, Ogundoyin said that reduction of out of school children and improving children education in Oyo State is one of the primary goal of the PDP led administration in Oyo State.
According to him, when out of school children reduced to five percent within 10 years, then 2050 can look safe for Nigerians as a country.
“For Nigeria to be positioned within a global competitive arena over the next 30 years, we have to improve our education sector to a stage where information and technology can be adopted, mastered and reproduced by us.
“We also need to diversify into agriculture to produce enough for our consumption and also feed other nations through exportation. Our decaying infrastructures have to come to life and youths have to be involve for us to be able to sustain and advance our giant strikes as a nation,” he added.
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