National Youth Confab: It Is An Encouraging Step-JCI President

The National president of the Junior Chamber International, JCI, Nigeria, Sandra Efemuaye, has the planned national youth conference as an encouraging step that seeks to involve young Nigerians in the task of nation building.

Efemuaye made the observation at a briefing on Friday which held on the sidelines of the ongoing JCI National Convention in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, while reacting to the October 1 Independence Day policy statement of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

According to her, even though the initiative will not wish away "all the issues fuelling youth confrontation with the government...), a development policy direction that focuses attention on youths will help position young Nigerians in a position to be heard.

The policy, she added, would provide a handy platform for integrating and supporting the quest by young Nigerians to be involved in building a more virile and prosperous nation.

“The Youth Confab is a wonderful development, it is a welcome development for us in JCI that has been interacting with the youth globally for over a century and in Nigeria for over 50 years.

“We are already exchanging correspondence with the Ministry of Youths and Sports to see how we can all collaborate to make life better for our youths," she disclosed. 

She commended the president for for the policy initiative, which described as a "right step towards the right direction",

Efemuaye pointed out that with the policy initiative, young Nigerians will prove that given the right attention, skills and support, young Nigerians make a better nation and society.

“I am particularly commending the President for this initiative. It is a right step towards the right direction because statistics have shown that over 45 per cent of the country’s population is make up of the youth and the youth are the future of any nation.

“So if the youth are given better attention, better skills and adequately supported, we won’t just have a better nation but a better society as well.

“The confab may not provide all the solutions to our problems but we would have started making appreciable steps towards fruitful engagement to further make the country great while carrying the youth along.”

The National JCI Convention, which is attracting over 1000 youth delegates, has as its theme, “Inspiring the Future”.