By Mike Oboh
The Young Parliamentarians Forum (YPF) has called on the Federal Government to declare a state of emergency on youth development and review the security architecture of the country to ensure peace and security Saddened by the events of the widespread protest against police brutality and the attendant arson and looting that followed, the YPF convened a National Strategy meeting to further interrogate the underlying issues behind the entrenched culture of police brutality as well as insecurity and proffer legislative solutions towards addressing them.
The Strategy Meeting further discussed the historic evolution of youth movements, challenges of Youth development in Nigeria, and the opportunities for constitutional amendments and electoral reforms. The meeting developed critical action points including accountability measures towards achieving effective solutions to Youth demands in Nigeria. Arising from this, the YPF resolved as follows: The trend of police brutality and profiling of young people which led to widespread protests across the country and the subsequent attack on the peaceful protest which led to the death of some protesters is a major violation of the human rights of citizens.
The YPF strongly condemned the killing of peaceful protesters and commiserate with families who lost loved ones through acts of police brutality or in the ensuing protest. They called on the government to ensure justice for the victims and provide succor to the families of those lost to the defunct SARS and during the peaceful protests. The YPF also called on the government to ensure adequate compensation to families of the victims, noted that the breakdown of law and order, evident in the looting and destruction of businesses and properties across the country, is a threat to collective security and national development.
The YPF condemned the looting, destruction of properties and attack on some security officers and burning of police stations in some cities and commiserated with the families of police officers and other security officers who have been killed by the hoodlums and calls for justice and compensation to the families of the victims and sympathized with those whose properties were looted or destroyed and called on the government at the Federal and State level to provide some economic stimulus support to businesses and the owners of properties attacked.
The Forum called for prosecution of those indicted as perpetrators of this violence and commended the House of Representatives for setting up a Joint Committee of Justice, Human Rights, and Police Affairs to conduct a Public Hearing on the Human Rights violation of citizens by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS)l as well as commend the Governors for setting up the Judicial Panels of Inquiry at the state level. In the interest of restitution, reconciliation, and compensation, the Forum calls on the leadership to ensure that the process is open, transparent, and allows for public participation without fear of reprisal and appealed for continued support and development of Youth Justice systems.
Given the state of insecurity in deprivation of youth to education. YPF, therefore, called on the Executive and ASUU to expedite action on the resolution of the crisis and institute a long-term strategy to mitigate the incessant strike in the nation’s education sector. States it commitment to engaging the budget process to ensure adequate and effective budgetary allocation to education, to improve the quality of education and the conditions of learning for students across all levels in Nigeria for enhanced leadership development.
The Forum is concerned at the high rate of unemployment amongst Nigerian youths. While they commended the Executive for the 75-billion-naira youth development funds, the November 1 every year as the National Youth Day, and calls on the government to ensure the release of the youth development funds. We call on the government at the national and state levels to declare a decade on youth development beginning from 2021 with a clear short-term and long-term plan, given the deplorable socio-economic condition of young people across Nigeria.
YPF acknowledges the commitment of the leadership of the 9th National Assembly to youth inclusion and the support to the YPF. The Forum further called on the leadership of the National Assembly to increase the support to the YPF and to ensure representation of more young legislators on special Committees such as the Constitution Review Committee and strengthen the YPF bid for increased Youth inclusion at all levels of governance.”
“YPF is concerned by the lack of cohesion in the implementation of activities aimed at the development of youth in Nigeria”.
They will ensure that the National Assembly expedites legislative action towards the passage of the National Youth Development Commission Bill which provides a holistic approach for addressing youth development in Nigeria and a legislative framework for the National Youth Policy implementation.
The Forum called on legislators at the national and state level to expand legislative oversight to include not only projects executed by the executive, but the implementation of legislations enacted by the Parliament. The YPF will promote the involvement of citizens in the ongoing efforts to amend the Constitution. In this regard, the Forum will provide leadership in building consensus on constitutional amendment and electoral reform issues amongst young people in Nigeria.
The Forum will support constitutional amendments geared towards promoting the devolution of powers, national integration, socio-economic justice and reforms geared towards effective deployment of technology for transparent and credible elections, cost of elections, democratic processes within political parties.
