Rep. Committee pledges to make difference in youth empowerment
Hon. Adeyemi Adaramadu, Chairman, House Committee on Youth Development, says the 9th National Assembly is dedicated to making a difference in youth empowerment and development rather than the usual stereotype of complacency.
Adaramadu made the pledge in an exclusive interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) at the National Assembly complex in Abuja.
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“This 9th assembly that we are entrusted with by the grace of God and again by the benevolence of the Honourable Speaker, right Honourable Femi Gbajabiamila to be in the committee of youth development, we want to make a difference.
“ We want to make sure that it is not going to be the stereotype that we are just in the office, I am the chairman, there is a deputy chairman, there are members, they just come to meetings, and we eat groundnuts and then drink coke and just deliberate like that and go.
“ No, no, no, we want to go out to the offices, we want to make sure that all those centres whereby the goodies are for the youth of Nigeria, we tap into, so we can get across to them and bring those deliverables out for the youth of Nigeria to benefit from them.
“We are going to do away with this era of talking things for youth of Nigeria, mouthing it, saying yes the youth constitute between 60 and 65 per cent of the population of Nigeria, fine.
“ But what are we doing to make sure that that 60 or 65 per cent we put them together and make them useful even to the populace, even to the Nation and even to themselves,“.
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Adaramadu said despite the 9th assembly and its committee being fairly new, it has set out to study the problems of youths in the country by having several brainstorming sessions with heads of youth agencies to identify and find lasting solutions to these problems.
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“ In the 9th assembly that we are coming on newly, we have been able to study the ground.
In fact, I have even seen my predecessor in office, we have sat down together we have discussed, and then all the agencies that are supposed to be under us delivering goods and values to youth development in Nigeria like NYSC, Citizenship and Leadership centre and so on.
“We have been able to meet and we have been able to know their challenges and where we can come in, then all those things are even embedded in the 2020 current budget that the National Assembly is looking into.
“Again, myself and my committee members, we have been able to go ahead to some of the NYSC camps to look at how the young adults that are serving the nation, how they are faring.
“We looked at the environment where they stay, where they live and where we think there could be things that are supposed to be done, we have already put that into our consciousness and have even gotten across to the authorities that are supposed to look at all those things.“.
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The chairman also told NAN that the committee had also met with some Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) that are willing to come into the country to assist the youth.
According to him, the committee will continue to monitor the appropriation to ensure effective implementation of policies and to avoid mismanagement of the fund appropriated.
Adaramadu said the core duties of the youth committee is to oversees anything that concerns the development of youth in Nigeria and ensure that the youth are not short-changed in any area, just as it is written in the house rules.
“ We are supposed to legislate; we are supposed to be the precursors of any legislation for youth development policy in Nigeria.
We are supposed to ensure the youth of Nigeria are not short-changed in the scheme of things, either constitutionally, legally, technically, and even occupationally,” he said.
