The members of the Board of Trustees of the 67 Million Youth Initiative has responded to some negative reactions to the launch of the group, with the originators of the initiative stating that they owe it to all the “delegates and Nigerians that will come forward and set the record straight for those who believe in this initiative and signed their names on it”.

According to a statement, the initiative was launched by seven people – Maryam Laushi (a founding member of Not-To-Young-To-Run), Asuquo Ekpenyong (PDP Commissioner of Finance for Cross River), Mohammad Sani Abdullahi (APC Commissioner of Budget and Planning for Kaduna State), Mark Okoye (APGA Commissioner of Budget and Planning for Anambra State), Moji Rhodes (First female deputy Chief of Staff for Lagos State), Luqman Edu (CEO FilmoRealty) and Adebola Williams (Co-Founder of RED) – representing young progressive leaders who purposefully chose to build an initiative that cuts across party lines, religions and tribes.

Recently, many of the delegates have received backlash on social media, even as the trustees explained that they have placed their reputations on the line, but they believe that it is now time we step ourselves forward and face any consequence alongside the other delegates.

In the statement released by the trustees, they explained that members have jointly signed up to the initiative guidelines so that the initiative would not be hijacked for ulterior motives. These include its vision to advance Nigeria with a new generation of leaders at all levels of politics and government, including organising and leveraging on the block vote for the interest of the collective youth.

The group also admitted its mistake in acquiring an existing twitter handle without conducting proper vetting, thereby missing previous activities and information shared by the twitter handle in 2015.

According to the group, 67 Million will not support or make any endorsement for the Presidential or Governorship races in 2019; will focus on getting as many young people APPOINTED into various positions in their states and on the national level and the initiative will support the emergence and success of young candidates across ALL platforms and will particularly endorse our members that are running for State and National Assemblies, and Local Government positions across party lines.

As revealed in the statement, “all major decisions and activities will be decided through a democratic voting process by delegate members. Once this was agreed, each trustee convinced 15 people to join this initiative as delegates. A lot of attention has been put on the Muslim APC delegates but if you carefully go through the delegate list you will find delegates from other political parties, faith and tribes”.

Calling on Nigerians to have open mind while making decisions due to information given to them, the initiative, according the board of trustees, is funded by delegates and supporters who have donated to the group.