Govt Has Failed In Securing Nigeria From killer Herdsmen, Says Youth Groups

the National President,  National Ethnic Nationalities Leaders, Alhaji Shettima Yerima, who is also the leader of the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum, has said the government had failed in securing the nation from the herdsmen killing people in the North and other parts of the country.

In a communiqué issued at the end of the meeting of leadership of the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum, the youth wing of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo,  the Ijaw Youth Council Worldwide, the Yoruba Youth Council and 54 other groups, it declared that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government had failed the nation.

The groups said the meeting was necessitated by “our concern over the deepening poverty and restiveness among the nation’s youths due to long neglect by the authorities.”

They said, “Worried by the recent uncertain twists in the country which are punctuated by crises and conflicting perceptions, the leaders of Nigeria’s ethnic nationality youth groups met in Abuja to review the state of the nation.

“It’s close to three years since the present government was sworn in with Muhammadu Buhari as president and Nigerians, especially the youths, are yet to feel any meaningful change.

“It’s been one challenge after the other, from stinging poverty, to mass joblessness, to pervading insecurity, to painful fuel scarcity, to poor power supply and to a persistent instability in the value of the naira.”

As a way forward, the groups called on Nigerian youths to resist the temptations of being used as tools for the dirty jobs of unscrupulous politicians, religious and ethnic jingoists and merchants of hate and division.

The communiqué added, “We insist that the government must take visibly serious steps towards an extensive restructuring of the country as the only remaining available solution to the current economic and political woes.”

“We resolve to mobilise youths across all ethnic divides to work for a more stable and guaranteed future devoid of undue manipulation by the present crop of bankrupt elite.

“We therefore call on the youths everywhere to wake up and participate actively in the leadership selection processes in their local governments, states and the federation.”

Signatories to the communiqué included; Yerima, B. Oweilaemi (President, Ijaw Youth Council Worldwide and Ethnic Nationalities Forum of Niger Delta); Okechukwu Isiguzoro (Deputy Chairman, Ethnic Nationalities Youth Leaders) and National President, (Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Council Worldwide); and Eric Oluwole(National Secretary Ethnic Nationalities Youth Leaders and National President, Yoruba Youth Council.