By Emmanuel Asuquo

Dr. Muiz Banire, the National Adviser of the All Progressive Congress (APC) has called for the active participation of young people in the political leadership of the country. He spoke on the importance of and connection between youth participation and political outcome.

“To some extent, the majority doesn’t determine the outcome of elections in Nigeria; the minority, through political parties’ primaries elections decide who we end up voting for”, Dr. Banire stressed. The APC National Adviser made this call at the TIE Nigeria “Speak to Leadership” summit in Lagos.

In a similar vein, Oluwaseyi Sodola of the International Project Management Association Nigeria (IPMA) has advised the government to create a structure that utilizes the knowledge and skills of young people in governance at every level. He termed the initiative ‘Youth Based Knowledge Economy’ which, if implemented according to him will align the experience of the older generation with the thoughtfulness of younger people in the establishment of better institutions in Nigeria.

TIE Nigeria, an initiative of the 2014 Fellows on the Good Governance team of the Carrington Youth Fellowship Initiative (CYFI) program of the United States Consulate is a non partisan youth based organization that champions the information of Nigerian youths on governance to facilitate strategic civic dialogues and promotes peaceful youth led calls for accountability and transparency in government. Speak to Leadership Youth Summit according to the organizers, “the overall objective of the summit is to introduce the culture of participatory leadership in governance to the youth by helping young leaders understand the structure of government in Nigeria”.

The summit was attended by young leaders and some leadership expert including Mr Uchena Achunine, Executive Director, Centre for Values in Leadership; Mr Chuks Ojudi, Project Director, Reclaim Naija; Mr Olukayode Majekodunmi, a Senior Counsel at SERAP amongst others.