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We'll Work with PCI to
Eradicate Cultism in AKS
-Youth Caucus Chairman
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Youth in Akwa Ibom State have of
recent risen in support of the present State Government
administration headed by Governor Godswill Akpabio. This led
to the formation and inauguration of a body known as Akwa
Ibom state Youth Caucus. The helsman of the youth caucus who
is also the Personal Assistant to the Governor on Youth
Mobilization recently in an interview with the Weekly
Insight duo of David Augustine and Emmanuel Silas spoke on
the activities of the youth caucus, the proposed partnership
with Peace on Campus Initiative (PCI), the security
situation in the State as well as other striking issues.
Excerpts:
How has it been with Youth Caucus?
So far the Youth Caucus has been striving very well. We've
had programmes that have really touched the lives of
citizens of Akwa Ibom State Youth in particular. The recent
one was the Christmas get together/end of year party for the
youth. We found it necessary that for us to have a
confluence of youths to say thank you to His Excellency,
Chief Godswill Akpabio for giving the youth a face-lift and
also giving us the opportunity to be actual partakers in the
political process in the state.
What has been the response of youths to various programmes
of government and the government itself?
Wa-oh! You can see it is a very positive response because
right now most people feel that it is sycophantic ways of
doing things wherever the Governor is going, you have a
large influx of people following him, drumming, showing
solidarity and there are times people would ask, do those
people have work? And I reply that those people have work.
For somebody that has done so well, his echo has to be heard
these youths going round forming youth groups to follow the
Governor do not have work to do. I want to disabuse that
idea because like here in Youth Caucus, you cannot say that
people in the Youth Caucus do not have handwork. We have
barristers who are practicing lawyers, my Secretary is doing
his PhD study, so a lot of people have handwork here but it
is a political process, just like Aristotle said that
everyone is a political animal, you have to partake so as to
influence the decision of others and also influence good
decision toward yourself. So that is why people really come
out to praise this man because they feel that he has done
very well.
Interms of actual empowerment, apart from those in political
offices. What other forms of empowerment have trickled down
to the youth?
Okay, apart from those in appointment because one thing you
have to look at appointment. If you want to ask, employment
is employment anywhere you want to look at it. If you have
60% of people being employed in the society that means plus
or minus, you have the multiplier effect and most of the
time those unemployed would not be felt. What is happening
now is that this is the first time that we've just been
given opportunity to come into government process. Most of
us didn't have this ample opportunity to do this as in
getting paid like me. if you want to look at me, around here
(Caucus Office), I have about 10 people working here and
this people are getting employed. So Rome was not built in a
day. We know where Akwa Ibom was and where Akwa Ibom is now
and we have to start from there. So right now, I want to
tell you that His Excellency is doing very well. In the
Youth Caucus, what actually happened the other time was that
we have been partaking in process, informing others because
mostly you have to preach this government for people to
hear. There was a time they started the recruitment of
customs and navy officer. Most time people in the rural
areas would not know, since we have our network, we just
passed the information. When we pass the information, we are
assisting people to come out. I want to tell you right now
that we have about 65 youths from Akwa Ibom State that were
employed and if you go down stairs (from the office), you'll
see the calendar which they formed their association in Kano
and Kaduna and all the names that we sent, since the have
the qualifications scaled through and we have more than 100
custom officers from Akwa Ibom. So it was a very big
empowerment and this has been happening even in the army and
other forces. As I said earlier, what cut down this process
was the communication gap. I have been sitting here in the
office right from morning. Most of the time, the youth
cannot get to the Governor, so what they do, there have to
be that anchor person. Somebody that can profer that
solution to their immediate problem, somebody that can relay
the image or the message they want to the head. So what I am
actually doing here is to sit down here as a fulcrum and
rotate around and make sure that such information are being
heard.
Now, you talked about the congress of Akwa Ibom Youths, when
is it coming up?
I said soon, like what you saw at what we called the Akwa
Ibom State Youth Summit which was for peace and nation
building. So what we are preaching as youths of Akwa Ibom
State is that you can never have a perfect society just like
any other developing society. We are preaching for people
that they should allow peace to reign. You know most of the
time if something is happening, they will say it is caused
by the youth irrespective of the fact that an elderly person
of 50 to 60 years can still perfect crime. So what we are
doing as active youths is to preach to fellow youths that
they should not be used by elders to perfect crime. Stay off
the crime and let's see who will be held responsible, for
there'll come a time that they'll not see any youth to say
this crime was being done by this youth. So right now we
made it a policy that every year we will be going on youth
summit which will give Akwa Ibom Youths a platform to speak
out their minds and also to be heard. When I say youth
summit, I mean a summit that will have local content. That
is going to the rural areas and getting people from the
small minute politics of the polity which is the ward coming
up to the state to listen. When I say polity, I mean it
because when you see them, you'll know that these are the
people that stay really in the rural areas.
That brings us to one very thorny issue. There was a time we
had a press conference with the Commissioner of Police and
he was talking about some community youth leaders, indicting
them of may be conniving, harbouring, nurturing or in what
ever form. What precipitated that one was the violence in
Oron. How do you reach out to youth to ensure that such
things don't manifest again?
What we do here is that the structure or the organogram of
the Youth Caucus is in a way that we have co-ordinators in
all the 31 local government areas of the state. We are using
the simplest way of weapon which is the dialogue and
approaching people to tell them, look, there has come a time
that you have to be peaceful, that no society can thrive
well without having a peaceful atmosphere. I want to tell
you Oron is a very nice place. Only that you should know
that a place that is a riverian, you know the qualities of
people are like and other few uneducated. But I want to tell
you that generally Oron is a nice place and I have also
lived there since my mum is from there, I happened to know
much about issues that leaders harbour criminals, there has
to be concrete proof. In law there is what we call oral
evidence and oral evidence does not count, it is the actual
fact. If a leader is encouraging this kind of vices, I think
that leader should be called to book. He is not even fit to
be called a leader. So that's my own personal view if you
may ask.
We heard recently that the Youth Caucus is in partnership
with Peace on Campus Initiative (PCI). What is it all about?
Okay, why we are partnering with PCI is that we have looked
through history, records and activities and know that the
gospel they are preaching is one that would make the society
a better and save place for people to habit. So what do I
do? I have to encourage people that are doing such things
because if you are going into the normal school from primary
to tertiary institution to preach to people that there is
need to shun cultism which we know involves kidnapping,
armed robbery which killing, maiming and others are embedded
into. So there is a way you can use dialogue to tell the
people, come this thing is an evil thing, it is an ill wind
that would blow no one no good, stay off it and people would
believe you. You know there power in convincing people. When
you speak to people depending on how you have the power of
speech, the people may likely turn their mind, when they
look at you as an example that what you are saying is the
truth. So, I want to tell you that we will work with PCI to
see how to talk to the youth because this an anchor point
for the youth. They would work with PCI to see how to go to
school, launch the PCI and tell the people that this is the
time to have a peaceful atmosphere. Because no society can
develop in a chaotic environment, so there have to be peace.
We were made to understand that there is going to be a kind
of formal kick off of statewide campaign against cultism.
Why do you think the state government is interested in that
kind of campaign?
Well, the state government is the government of the people,
for the people and by the people and any good government
would wish the people well. When you look at something that
would have to reduce the tendency of an evil deed and you
have somebody who is encouraging it, I would say that person
is a good person. The state government, knowing the evil of
cultism has decided to sponsor and also encourage PCI to go
around town, schools, nooks and crannies of Akwa Ibom State
to preach that especially, the young ones coming in would
want to be brave men and heroes. So they are prone to so
many things and this is not a good thing to do. We know that
there is no perfect society, these things do exist but there
is how you convince the younger minds coming up that this
thing is an evil and you don't need to join it.
We know the Governor for who he is, somebody who has the
interest of the youth at heart and of recent the issue of
kidnapping and violence has escalated. Is this another way
of trying to see how to checkmate this or how?
I don't think that's the way. In any society just like a
growing community like the Generous in Brazil, you check out
their crime rate when it was developing and now that it is
developed you could have seen that when a society is
developing like in Akwa Ibom, we have a good construction
company coming in and things are flourishing. So as things
are flourishing, economy is growing and people are also
coming with their bad tendencies. What I mean by bad
tendencies is that there are other people coming into Akwa
Ibom State that were not here. And I want to tell you that
before, it was noted that Akwa Ibom State never had cases of
kidnapping, it was very rare but now as things are going on,
you can see Akwa Ibom is changing from a pedestrian state to
a state of a destination and things are working well. So you
have a lot of people coming in and most time you not even be
blind about the political motivated change. People say Akwa
Ibom State is doing very well and on record it has been said
Akwa Ibom is a peaceful place, it has won a peaceful record
as a state that is the most peaceful. You know, there's
always enmity and when there is enmity in the society,
people tend to hurt what is good. You also know that when
things were hard in Rivers State, there was a hunt down on
cultism ad kidnapping so as a neighbouring state, Ukanafun,
Oruk Anam are nearer to them and all those people are coming
in here I want to state here that kidnapping is an imported
thing in Akwa Ibom and has never come to stay in the state
and would never stay. We as the youth, we are praying
because it is God that sees beyond the eyes of men. He takes
the final decision and we know that He only can solve the
problem by directing the security officials because we are
all blind men when it comes to the things of the spirit. But
I want to say that for today, Akwa Ibom as far as I am
concerned, remains the most save state in the Niger Delta.
If you want to take statistics, go to Rivers, Delta, Bayelsa
States, put together and find the average, you'll know that
Akwa Ibom State still remains the most stable state. That is
why you see a firm like Julius Berger building their
permanent camp here. If it was not save you wouldn't see
them coming here to stay. They are coming here to stay for
good.
What would it take for the flag-off of the anti-cultism
campaign, what shape would it take?
Actually when you say campaign, fine, there are procedures
to take in campaigns. First you have to take clearance from
the security officials. Since it's going to be on the street
you go to the road safety to guide you so that things could
be done properly. But the centre line is that we use this
one to send the message, and the message who are the
recipients? The recipients are the public, and how can you
be heard? You can only be heard when you speak out and you
can also be seen when you stand up. So that day we are going
to stand tall and speak out that it is time for one to say
no to cultism and kidnapping, that Akwa Ibom has to be made
a save heaven, so that we can have good people coming to
stay here and do business.
Having looked at the effort of government, what the Governor
has done. What is the stand of Youth Caucus as far as the
issue of second term is concerned?
As I had earlier said, my stand still remains that Akwa Ibom
State Youth Caucus was the first to introduce a compulsory
course for all the citizens, youths inclusive in Akwa Ibom
State. The course was tagged “GST 211”. GST is a compulsory
English course that you if you don't pass, you cannot
graduate in the University. GST 211 has been on air and all
the media houses to promote it. GST simply means “Godswill
for Second Term”. Somebody who has done very well needs to
be encouraged, supported and promoted so that's why the
entire youths of Akwa Ibom State which the Youth Caucus is a
conglomerate of socio-political youth groups coming together
to take vital decision as it affects the state. But for
today, we have come up with an idea that we have seen
somebody that have actually given us a working platform and
we need to encourage him, that's why we have launched this
GST 211 which is Godswill for Second Term. Comments
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