Obinna Odogwu, Abakaliki
The International Republican Institute (IRI) has called on the youths in Ebonyi State to participate actively in the politics and governance of their state.
This, it said, would give them the opportunity to contribute in making government’s policies that affect them and as well maximize the gains of democracy available to them.
The call was handed down to the young people, on Tuesday, in Abakaliki, the state capital during a training programme it organized for 20 youths drawn from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) which was held at Monabliss Hotels.
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State Coordinator of IRI in the state, Mr. Ani Chukwueze Anthony, said that the training workshop tagged Young Political Leaders’ Academy was largely to train the youths on the tenets of democracy so they could carry on the message to all the nooks and crannies of the state.
Ani’s words, “We call it young political leaders’ academy. The programme is all about bringing young people; the marginalised, the youths within political parties to train them on how to carryout research in order to assist political parties to access and gather information based on citizen’s need in order for the party to inculcate them into their manifesto and then, when they win election, they can use it to address those needs. They are the foot soldiers of the party.
“The youths, from the information we have gathered, don’t even see themselves as ones that have the right to participate; at least, most of them.
“But we are trying to make them have self confidence in themselves and equip them with the basic knowledge that can help them better our democracy today.
“It happens that a lot of them don’t even know what democracy is all about but with the experience they will gather here, if they happen to emerge as the leaders of their political parties in the nearest future, they will know the rudiments of democracy.
“And our mission is to better democracy everywhere in the world; with this, we have achieved a lot. If these people get the basic knowledge at the inception, they will do better and they will advance democracy.
“That’s the pillar of International Republican Institute (IRI). So, we are trying to equip them so that they can carry out the mission”, he added.
In his speech, the Youth Leader of the PDP in the state, Sam Igwe, lauded IRI for coming up with the training workshop.
He said that the rich content of the lectures would benefit the youths of the state and would ignite more interest in political participation among them.
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Also speaking, the Deputy Chairman of APC in the state, Jeff Ogbu, praised IRI saying that the training would help the youths to “understand the internal processes of party organs.”
“The youths will be equipped with pragmatic skills that will help them to add value to all the parties across all the value chain”, he added.