We Will Engage Stakeholders in Education Sector to End Strike, Says APC Youths Wing

Emameh Gabriel in Abuja

Newly inaugurated national youth leadership of the All Progressive Congress (APC) has said that it would engage the Ministry of Education to provide an atmosphere for talks between the government and academic union to end the strikes affecting academic activities in the country.

The National Youth Leader of the APC, Mr. Temidayo Israel, stated this yesterday while fielding questions from journalists during his first official visit with his deputy, Jamaru Kabiru, along with zonal youth leaders of the party and their deputies to the party’s national headquarters, Abuja.

Timidayo who emerged as one of the consensus candidates during the APC’s national convention in Abuja at the weekend, said they came to pay gratitude to stakeholders of the party and to thank them for their support leading to the successful outcome of the party’s national convention.

He noted that they would begin to engage stakeholders’ in every sector of the economy, especially the educational sector, which he said was key to development.

He said: “Education is a leveler. It brings the child of the poor man to the same level of the child of the rich man. So education is vital for us.

“What we are going to be doing as a council of youth leaders is to sit down and begin to identify the stakeholders we are supposed to engage to push issues. We are going to make attempt to also sit down with other stakeholders, especially the Minster of Education to lend our voice.

“We are not part of the major stakeholders but we can only go, intervene, advocate and also lobby in our own way. We will make sure by the grace of God that together we will do things in our power to serve our generation and to ensure that we speak and remain a voice for young progressive, having in mind that if we do that, we can mobiles for our party in the coming elections,” he noted.

Meanwhile the youth body has also called on elected members of the party at all levels of government to fulfill campaign promises made to Nigerians to ensure that youths mobilisation is made easy for them as the general election approaches. 

He said that while they acknowledged the fact that the challenges of “unemployment experience in Nigeria today was not peculiar to the nation, he explained that they would begin to remind the party of her promises to the Nigerian people through regular engagements.

Temidayo said: “The greatness that we want to share and spread across Nigeria is not only going to be done by one man but by the collective effort of three generations; the generation of our fathers, the generation of our national chairman and national Secretary and the generation of myself and my colleagues who are here.

“What we also want to do is to work with all the publicly elected officials under the APC to begin to ensure that they fulfill their promises. They will make our job easier if they fulfill their promises within the confines of their capacity.

“When they do that, it is easier for us to be able to go and say you see what your governor has done, you see what your commissioner has done and you see what your councilor has done. And it is going to be easy for us to mobilise.

He said they would engage governors on the platform of the party, commissioners, senior special assistants, councilors in local government and work with them to ensure that they deliver true value to the young people across the country.

“We believe that our party has the vision to transform Nigeria and to bring about change that people would be happy about. We want to contribute our own experience and skills to the growth of our country.

“We will not relent, we will come together, we will mobilise and we will work with stakeholders to ensure that our country can receive the benefit of the progressive.

“What we are going to do is to begin to identify the various stakeholders we need to work with. In the private sector, political sector, the civil society sector and we will begin to engage them on we can find the solution to the challenges facing our nation and our young people.

“This is not unionism, this is not Aluta, but the emphasis is about the word ‘progressive.’ They started far back in Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s Action Group. The progressive ideology is about social welfare system, it’s about service to the people and it’s about leadership of excellence and that’s what we want to restore back into the youth wing of our party,” added Temidayo.