…To honour benefactors

By Emmanuel Elebeke

All is set for Nigerian youths to elect The Next President on Saturday. The election will hold at The Next President Show 2022 organised by Superior Radio Television in Abuja.

Before the election, contestants and the Youth Governors drawn from the 36 states of the federation and FCT will use the occasion to present their manifestoes to the world and show cause why they should be voted for.

The Next President, is a reality TV show embodied in an intellectual cognitive contest in the quest to become The Nigeria Youth President.

Addressing the press, the CEO/Founder of SRTV, Daddy Chris, said, ‘‘Nigeria as we know does not have shortage of human resources but what is lacking is the effective mechanism to coordinate the human and natural resources to the benefit of her citizens.’’

He said The Next President Show is built on the premise of grooming young people as potential leaders with the hope that they will take over mantle of leadership from the ageing ones in the nearest future.

According to him, ‘‘the Next President show is out to engage young people in our Democratic processes; a show out to groom future leaders, a show designed to give young people a voice in governance, a show designed to move politics out of the polite drawing room into the clamour of the street.

‘’For this purpose, young people representing different states across the federation are here today, deliberating on issues of national importance, in their quest to be voted as the Youth President of Nigeria on Saturday.

‘‘This show is designed to start from the local government to the states and then President, all aim at constructively engaging young people in governance, and thereby grooming future leaders.’’

As part of efforts to mainstream youth into local and national politics, Chris said his organization has recognised the challenge of access to finance as one of the major challenges to youth -participation in politics in Nigeria.

Accordingly, he said the Next President Trust-Fund has been designed as a pet projects of the Youth President to support viable young leaders in Nigeria.

The SRTV Chief said they also planned to use the occasion to honour some youth benefactors who have distinguished themselves in promoting youth inclusion and helping them to grow.

‘‘We felt that a great way to tackle our challenges of poor governance is to recognise and honour exemplary leaders, so we have selected a handful of Nigerian leaders who have shown integrity and character in discharge of their duties.

‘‘The award is meant for individuals who have distinguished themselves in giving young people opportunity to progress in life, based on merit and strength of character, ranging from all spheres of the economy.’’

Also speaking on the election, the Head of Operations, SRTV, Abuja, Kenneth Paul said the idea behind the Youth President is not to create a shadow government but to interact with government and promote the message of youth inclusiveness.

According to him, contestants will be asked questions agitating the mind of Nigerians before the election and that they would be assessed based on their response.

‘‘We are set out to groom young leaders, overtime we have realised that for young people to get into power, they need to be groomed and supported. So, we are focused on youth inclusion in all political parties and activities.

Also commenting, the Executive Chairman of Abuja Municipal Council, AMAC, Christopher Maikalangu pledged his support for youth inclusion in politics.

He encouraged the youth not to be afraid to join politics but should come out and make their impact felt.

‘’Anything that has to do with youth, I will support. It is my prayer we see the young ones to take over tomorrow. It is a good thing to encourage the young ones because politics is nice thing, they should come in and take active participation in politics.

Whatever programme you have for youth, I will be part of it. We need peace and pray for good leader come 2023. We must put God first in our search for good leader because only he can give good leader’’, he said.