Saturday 31st October 2020 witnessed a large turnout of youths during an interaction session that held at Ossah Ibeku in Abia State, organized by Prisoners’ Rehabilitation and Welfare Action (PRAWA) in conjunction with Open Society of West Africa (OSIWA).

The large turnout of youths were engaged for hours discussing the role of youths in politics, economy, anger management, accountability, spirituality and other issues. The youths were also given palliative after the engagement.

 

While speaking to the media, Dr. Uju Agomoh, the Executive Director of PRAWA revealed that the aim of the engagement is to help youths redirect their energy and channel it positively.

“What we are doing today is to provide palliatives to the youths who we see as vulnerable in the society. We want them to know that we care about them. We are using this platform to interact with the youth, to find out what their grievances are, what their concerns are and then begin to engage with them in such a way that will enable them channel their energy positively while working towards self development and indeed the development of the environment.” Dr. Agomoh said.

 

She also took time to reveal why the organizations are engaging the youths,

 

“I think one thing we must understand as a nation is the great number of our proportional youths. Therefore, no nation that has this kind of demography or statistics of youths, can afford to be ignore them.

 

“What we are doing here today is to provide a platform for the youths to be heard. We cannot as a nation ignore these youths, we must learn to hear them, we must learn to walk the part with them, we must learn to hold their hands and ensure that we support them. Without the youths in Nigeria, we have no hope” Dr. Agomoh stated.

 

During the interaction, youths lamented about unemployment and the need for mentorship.

 

They revealed that the lack of basic infrastructures like electricity, good road, water is making it difficult for those who are self employed to break even. They further stated that leadership at all level seems to have ignored the needs and aspirations of the youths.

 

During further interaction, Dr. Agomoh pointed out that the youths reads news and watch TV and they see the level of corruption and unresolved cases.

 

“They see houses and cars that they know can pay the salaries of these youths. And they are bleeding with anger, so I think as a Nation we are doing ourselves a favour by investing in the youths. We invest in ensuring that there is a holistic concept of development.

“We looked at economic dimension because government alone cannot provide all the employment but certainly the government can provide an enabling environment where their businesses can run and also make policies that can enable these processes run.

“During the event, Dr Uju also pleaded with the youths not to destroy government properties but pleaded with the government to let the voices of the youths matter and also let their votes count.

“Let their voices matter, with what has happened during the EndSARs Protest we now know that the youths now has a voice. If the voices are coordinated properly, not by destroying properties, but positively, then we can get the good governance we are looking for.

“If the votes are not sold, they will be able to know those who are credible, and when they get those people in, they demand accountability” Dr. Uju said.

 

Palliatives were given to the youths who attended the event.