From Ighomuaye Lucky, Benin
The national youth leader of the Labour Party, Prince Kennedy Ahanotu, has called on the youths in Edo State to be prepared to rescue the state from the hands of the old politicians who have nothing to offer but still want to occupy the government house come 2024.
He made the call at the Edo State Youth Wing of the LP annual symposium with the theme “Reshaping Edo: The Role of Youths For Good Governance” held in Benin.
Prince Kennedy Ahanotu said the era of the youths taking the back seat should be over by now and that they will all get it all wrong if they should wait for somebody to spur them into action before they could act.
“Nigerian youths should take ownership, they should be involved in the Nigerian politics, they should not wait for anybody to help them, they should help themselves, they should take their future into their hands, enough of complaining, enough of staying behind if we could celebrate our people that died in 2020 Endsars, we could do better and I believe that going forward, Nigerian youths after this programme today, they are ready to do better and be involved in politics, and even during election, they should engage in their civic actions by coming out to vote as citizens and also run for election as well”, Ahanotu said.
Also re-emphasizing the need to be actively involved in politics, the spokesperson for Peter Obi, Tanko Yunusa, said the youth must not gamble with their opportunity but must take hold of what is rightfully theirs by being part of the decision making process in the country.
“That the youth should wake up to their responsibility and act accordingly. This is my message to them “, Yunusa said.
Earlier, the state youth leader of the party, Ken Omusi said the date chosen for the symposium was apt noting that it was carefully chosen to honour those whose quest for a better Nigeria led to their untimely death.
“Today, we have also decided to gather all our youths to talk to them on the need to be persistent in the pursuit of good governance in the country at large even in our state as the 2024 Edo State governorship election draws near.
“The reason why we also pick today is also a reminder of what happened two years ago, the Endsars, where the youths decided to gather to demand for certain things, call for good governance, some youths were killed in cold blood in Lekki Tollgate and every other parts of the country. So, these are the reasons”, Omusi said.
Continuing, “We also want the youths to continue to engage in policies and in governance and you can see our political outstanding awards given to our youths that participated in the last election both those that won and those that were rigged out, we actually appreciate everybody and we want to see more of our youths actively involved in politics”,.