Hon Nse Essien, Chairman, Committee on Youth, Sports and Security, Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly.
Abasifreke Effiong – Uyo
Akwa Ibom Youth drawn across NGOs and CSOs in the state have blast the Chairman of the House of Assembly Committee on Youths, Sports and Security, Hon Nse Essien , for failing to provide them adequate information on the Akwa Ibom Youth Development Fund (AKYDF) Bill.
The AKYDF Bill was passed by the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly in March 2019 but Governor Udom Emmanuel, has withheld assent to the Bill.
The Governor has not said why he withheld assent to the Bill. The fate of the AKYDF Bill has drawn much concern from youth across the state.
A roundtable discussion on youth organising and leadership got rowdy on Tuesday, 10th November due to Hon Essien’s inability to give satisfactory answers to questions on the fate and whereabouts of the AKYDF Bill.
The roundtable discussion held at Luton Park Hotels, Uyo, was convened by YIAGA Africa. YIAGA Africa is an NGO working on issues around elections, legislative engagements, governance and development.
“What is the fate of the AKYDF Bill which was passed by the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly more than a year ago?”, one of the youth representatives had asked Hon Essien after the lawmaker ended his keynote at the event.
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Another participant asked, “Honourable, please tell us some of the specific plans we can point out and say this and this are the intentions of the state government for the youths”?
Yet another participant asked, “what is your committee doing about security and youth inclusion in the effort at securing the state”?
The lawmaker glossed over these questions, and that caused a rowdy session at the event.
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Nse Essien who represents ONNA state constituency, the hometown of Governor Udom Emmanuel was represented by Barr Linus Ukpong.
To the first question, the lawmaker’s representative said “the Bill has passed the House of Assembly level, so it is left for His Excellency the Governor.”
He pleaded that he can not provide concrete answers to the other questions because he was not told that it was a roundtable.
“I was not told about this part,” the lawmaker’s representative exclaimed.
The failure of the lawmaker who was keynote speaker at the event to address questions asked by the youths raised strong emotions of disappointment from the participants.
One of the participants said “if we can not get answers to basic questions from the Honourable member who is directly in-charge of youth matters, then there is no point continuing with this meeting. At a time like this, the government should take the youths seriously.”
A female participant at the event added emphatically, “we will continue to engage the committee until we get adequate answers.” Other participants chorused “yes” to her remarks and clapped for her.
The moderator of the event, Carolyn Gordian, said the roundtable was planned by YIAGA Africa in close consultation with Hon Essien, Chairman of the House of Assembly Committee on Youth, Sports and Security.
“The chairman of the committee is aware of this meeting. In fact he chose this date for us when we met with him last month. We reminded him about this event few days ago, he promised to be here.
“We wanted him to come and speak to the youth. We understand that he could not make it eventually. But from the reactions we’ve got, we will get back to him for further engagements.”
Program Manager (Governance and Development) of YIAGA Africa, Ibrahim Faruk, said the youth roundtable sought to discuss “legislative actions, youth and responsive development”, “youth mobilisation, legislative actions, responsive development and accountable governance”, among other themes including the AKYDF Bill.
About 100 youth representatives from 14 NGOs attended the roundtable meeting.
Recall that a coalition of NGOs and CSOs working in Akwa Ibom state under the auspices of Youth Advocacy Clusters has repeatedly appealed to Governor Udom Emmanuel, to sign the AKYDF Bill since last year.
The AKYDF Bill seeks to create a fund to be called Akwa Ibom State Youth Development Fund with the objective of tackling youth unemployment and anti-social activities in the state by creating job and economic opportunities through an independent institution.
Part ll, item 13 (1) of the AKYDF Bill says, “at least three billion Naira (N3billion) shall be set aside by the state government for the Fund established under section 1 of this law, to be progressively increased annually and managed by the tenets provided by the law.”
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The Executive Director of Youth for Change and Social Life Development Foundation (YOFCI) Mr Peace Edem, said AKYDF Bill means everything to progressive-minded youths in Akwa Ibom state, appealing to the state government to give consideration to the Bill because of its manifest and latent advantages.
“AKYDF Bill will give a sustainable legal framework for youth development in the state and freedom to equal opportunities for young people.”
“Our organisation YOFCI played quite a number of roles in the formulation of the Bill because of its importance. Withholding assent to the Bill will cause youth resentment towards the Udom Emmanuel administration because this Bill is aimed to tackle everything about the youths: unemployment, insecurity, youth restiveness, underdevelopment, poor capacity development, criminality, etc”, Edem said in a mail-in response.
The Akwa Ibom Youth Development Fund Bill was proposed by Youth Alive Foundation.
