A Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) based in Gombe, Dandalin-Matasa Initiative for Rapid Development, has lauded President Muhammadu Buhari administration for creating employment opportunities for thousands of Nigerian youths.
The NGO said on Tuesday that it is committed to preparing young people towards better society through capacity building and other areas.
The Executive Director, Mr. Bachama Yusuf, said in the last three years of Buhari’s stewardship, youth in the country have been given priority through various programmes that were introduced.
“In the area of youth empowerment, we have seen conscious effort by the government in bringing youths to a new level in terms of their lives and development.
“Youth were empowered and given opportunity to be self-reliant, particularly through the N-Power where thousands are benefiting.
“Now young people have more confidence in the political and governance system in Nigeria.
“Before it was like all hopes were lost; because everything has to do with whom you know.
“However, President Buhari-led administration saw that as long as you have a genuine cause, citizen can decide and bring whoever they want to bring on board.
He further said in spite the achievements there were areas that need improvement, adding that youths were not adequately represented in the present administration.
“Looking at the cabinet, how many young people are in government, for instance the Minister for Youth is not a young person.
“From the initial stage, we thought Minister for Youth will be a young person at least not less than 40 years that knows the plight of the youth.
“I am appealing to the government to look at the possibility of involving more youths.
“Please Mr. President, we want to be seeing the faces of youth at the helm of affairs at various levels,” he pleaded.
Yusuf, therefore, called on the government to introduce additional initiative to augment the N-Power.
But Advocacy for Advancement of Peace and Harmony in Africa Initiative (ADAPHAI) carpeted President Buhari over his Democracy Day’s speech, where he described Nigerian democracy as being ‘nascent’.
The National Coordinator of the group, Comrade Sulaimon Suberu, in a statement on Tuesday said for the president to describe Nigerian democracy as ‘nascent’ after 19 years shows that he is passive and ignorant of democratic progression, and as such, he is retrogressive and static.
Suberu stressed that Buhari’s assertion perfectly confirmed his thoughts and orientation on national growth and development, which according to him have been “abysmally slow” with adverse socioeconomic effect.
He argued that the practice of democracy for almost two decades has changed the status of democracy in Nigeria from being nascent to more entrenched phenomenon, and to the path of maturity.
The Peace Advocate explained that the president should be the vigilant force with high degree of sensitivity and consciousness to gauge the development of adopted political system of his country.
“It is indeed unfortunate that despite the enviable progress and advancement Nigeria has made in sensitive and important democratic ingredients like :Electoral system, Judiciary, and even legislature, Mr Buhari still sees our democracy as being nascent.
“Can anyone equate our electoral system of today with that of the first dispensation of 4th Republic where elections were characterised with unabated irregularities and monumental fraud with impunity, I mean between 1999 and 2007.
“The judiciary had gone through a thorough transformation from being a mere backing dog to a striking force of sort, with serious reforms to get rid of bad eggs.
“Compliance to court judgments is no more a matter of choice but a bidding force on every citizenry irrespective of status.
“Without mincing words, the Nigerian parliament of the first dispensation of the first republic, where it was the executive that determined who constitutes the leadership of the legislature has changed for better, giving imprint of independence to that hallow chamber.
“Despite all these feats, our democratic experience still appears to Buhari as just the beginning with no iota of progress?
“Obviously, that pattern of reasoning by a chief executive of a nation is not only strange and bizarre, but completely absurd.
“I am convinced that Nigerian leadership is in need of better cognitive display, with requisite sensitivity and responsiveness that guarantee national narrative of hope”, Suberu said.
The group, however, charged the presidency to be more transparent and open in the usage of trillions of naira claimed to have recovered through it’s different anti-corruption crusade, saying fighting corruption goes beyond reeling out figures without corresponding clarity of its usage.
On its part, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) described Buhari’s speech as “uninspiring, hollow, full of self-praise and false performance claims, without addressing issues agitating the minds of Nigerians.”
In a statement by its National Publicity Secretary Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan in Abuja on Tuesday, the party noted that the address is the worst since President Buhari took office in 2015.
According to the main opposition party, the presidential address was garnished with a list of phantom projects and executive regurgitations, inherently designed by his handlers to sway Nigerians and divert attention from the many failures of this administration.
The statement added: “The few Nigerians who bordered to listen to the address were miffed that, in the most insensitive manner, Mr President failed to show the littlest empathy to millions of citizens groaning under the worst form of poverty, starvation and economic hardship occasioned by his misrule.
“President Buhari’s aloofness to the plight of Nigerians is manifest in all the lines of the speech.
“In fact, no line in the supposed Democracy Day Address had any inclination towards justice for victims of abuse of human rights, reported executive high-handedness, illegal arrests and detentions, extra-judicial executions as well as victims of killings and daily bloodletting in Benue, Taraba, Zamfara, Kaduna,Plateau, Borno, Kogi, Yobe and other parts of the country, by insurgents and marauders.
“Mr President, on Democracy Day, had no words of assurance on the unrelenting violation of our constitution; assault on the National Assembly and erosion of personal freedom of citizens.
“The President said nothing on the humongous corruption going on under his administration, where APC leaders and cabal at the Presidency have stolen over N10 trillion, mainly from a sector under his direct supervision.”
PDP also noted the fact that the President had no committing words towards the conduct of free, fair and credible 2019 general elections, apparently overwhelmed by the avalanche of his public rejection ahead of the polls.
The statement further said: “Incredibly, Mr President’s handlers chose to subject him to a fantasy trip, making false performance claims with phantom projects, muddling up economic statistics and ended up worsening his already diminished public perception.
“This is exactly why the PDP had earlier advised President Buhari not to border to address Nigerians on Democracy Day.”
According to the PDP, Nigerians have reached a consensus that the 2018 Democracy Day celebration was the last for the Buhari Presidency and the APC.
It further opined: “Our citizens have endured under the misrule of the APC, keeping their hopes in the 2019 elections to get back our democracy on the platform of the repositioned PDP.
“In solidarity with Nigerians, the National Working Committee of the PDP has already held a meeting where it reviewed the circumstances and will formally address Nigerians on the issues of misrule of our nation in the last three years.