News

Our Priority Is To Empower, Protect Every Youth-Olawande

Published

11 months ago

December 18, 2024

… Launched a Youth Activities Dashboard

Joel Ajayi

Minister of Youth Development Comrade Ayodele Olawande has re-echoed that the priority of the ministry of youth is to empower and protect every Nigerian youth.

He stated this at the media parley for the ministry’s Correspondents on Tuesday in Abuja, where he highlighted many renewed hope initiatives that will brighten the future of many youths noting that its time for the youth to progress.

Minister expressed that in the last 40 years youth in Nigeria are unable to have access to the government until now that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu put the things right that will soon help many Nigerian youth to thrives.

He highlighted some of the initiatives, like Green House in local government, Youth Bank, Youth Trust Fund, Nigerian Youth Academy, Nigerian Youth Help Desk, One Youth 2 Skills and others that will lift many youth out of unemployment era to employer of Labour.

According to him, my objective was to ensure protection, empowerment and support for young people across the country both formal and informal.

“We are set to renewed hope of Nigerian youth, under this renewed hope agenda, every Nigerian youth will thrive. We have come to an era whereby young people bridging the gap between the youth and government.

“If there is one thing that we want to achieve as a Ministry now, it is to support the young people.

“It is to empower the young people and also to protect the young people. If we can do these successfully, I know the young people are going to be proud of this Ministry. With the help of all the directors, we have made up our mind that it is time for youths; youth for youths.

“My priority as a Minister of youth is to empower and when I said empower, aggressive empowerment

“And when I was Minister of State, we had a partnership with a lot of organisations, even within the government, departments and agencies that is why we are telling all Nigerian that the door of youth Ministry is open for collaboration. ”

Speaking further, Olawande said the Ministry has launched a Youth Activities Dashboard, that serves as a collation point for all efforts of the government targeted at the youth population.

“Today, we launched the Youth Activities Dashboard. And what are we saying? We are saying that everybody should go on this dashboard. No more sending stories to you on WhatsApp that are not correct. No more telling you that there are government initiatives that do not exist.

“We are going to put up activities that will let you discover that we have over 7,000 activities of Youth in MDAs and all that, that are not residing in the Ministry of Youth. And we have come back to say look, the collective efforts of a large number of people that believe in this country, that believe in President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, that we are set to renew the hope of the people. ”

He also said the Ministry will launch the Nigerian Youth Academy in January, which he described as the Ministry’s version of Coursera, an online learning platform.

Very soon in January too, we will be coming up with NiYA, which is Nigerian Youth Academy, that for one year now, we have been moving back and forth in planning, because whatever is not planned for very well, we are going to have k-leg.

”And we don’t want to have a k-leg. We want to have a smooth ride, and we have a smooth ride now, and we are saying it is time for the Ministry of Youth to have its own Coursera,” he said.

Olawande noted that the platform, which would serve formal youths, would allow youths to study and take online classes in their preferred languages, adding that the Ministry was also engaging state governors to have a greenhouse in all the local governments, where each local government would make products with raw materials found in the community.

“And that is why we are writing to the Governors’ Forum and the Chairman of the Governors’ Forum, that we want an active greenhouse in all local governments, in all 774 local governments. The President has given us one for Abuja; it’s in the process. Very soon they are going to give hand over to us.

“But we want a working youth greenhouse, whatever we call it, a greenhouse, in all so that we can partner with trade and investment. What we are driving at in December next year is we want to see one product, one local government.

“We want the greenhouse in all local governments to be impactful to the young people so that we can have a product in each local government. A product that the raw material is residing in that local government, not that we want to go and import.”

Comrade Olawande equally urged Nigerian Youth not to let the political gambler decive them urging them to key in into different initiative put in place by the present Administration under the leadership of Bola Ahmed Tinubu to thrive in life.

Minister however uses the occasion to congratulate the latest Africa footballer of the year Ademola Lookman and others Nigerians youth who made the Nigerian proud in football sector, urged all the youth in the country to always involve in anything that can positively project good image of this country.

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Politics

Wike’s Loyalists in PDP Suspend Acting Chairman Damagum, Spokesman Ologunagba, Others

Published

20 hours ago

November 2, 2025

The Gleamer

Cyril Ogar

The Peoples Democratic Party has plunged deeper into crisis as fresh divisions emerged within its leadership, with a faction backed by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, announcing the suspension of the Acting National Chairman, Umar Damagum, and five other members of the National Working Committee.

Briefing newsmen in Abuja on Saturday on behalf of the factional NWC, the PDP National Secretary, Senator Samuel Anyanwu, announced the party’s National Vice Chairman (North Central), Mohammed Abdulrahman, as the Acting National Chairman.

He stated, “First of all, we want to commend the judiciary over the judgment of yesterday, which is a victory for the entire PDP members all over. Nobody can claim victory over the judgment of the court. It is a judgment against impunity, against illegality. We promote unity, peace, and cohesion in the party.

“Having said that, the party did not overlook the activities of some members of the NWC who have already decided to cause disaffection in the party, which has made most of our leaders and governors leave the party in droves. I would say that this is the time to arrest such a situation and call it to order.

“On this note, after the emergency meeting, we decided, as a party, to suspend Ambassador Damagum, the National Chairman of the party, for incompetence, misappropriation of party funds, and flagrant disobedience of court judgments. We decided that we should suspend him for one month, and we will send him to the Disciplinary Committee for him to be able to answer questions.

“Secondly, we have overwhelming evidence against the National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba. We have seen the frequent press releases by the National Publicity Secretary which was confirmed that even at a point, the then National Vice Chairman suspended him for appearing or defending the party because of the unapproved frequent press releases. For us to have sanity in the party, we have suspended him.”

Anyanwu also announced the suspension of the National Deputy Chairman (South), Ambassador Taofeek Arapaja, accusing him of failing to properly advise Damagum against engaging in anti-party activities and reckless behavior.

He continued, “On that note, he is also suspended for 30 days. Now, we talk about the National Financial Secretary, Daniel Woyenguikoro. We have discovered that in the last few days and months, there have been congresses and sales of forms meant for our congresses, which were bought and paid into two different accounts controlled by the National Financial Secretary. So, on this note, he has been suspended, and we are sending him to the Disciplinary Committee. We are also going to involve the financial agencies to look into those activities.

“Again, the Youth Leader, Sulaiman Kadade, PDP Youth all over, if you watched yesterday, the youth leaders all over the country met and said that they don’t want Mohammed Kandede to be their youth leader again because he has never activated the youth wing of our party, and that wing has been abandoned. For that reason, he has also been suspended for one month.

“Finally, the Deputy National Secretary, Setonji Koshoedo who is supposed to be my deputy, is also suspended for one month. He resumed the office of the National Secretary illegally, signed all kinds of letters, especially to some states, where he has caused disaffection among our party members in those states. For that reason, he has also been suspended for 30 days.

“All of them are sent to the Disciplinary Committee to show cause why they should not be expelled from the party. The judgment of yesterday confirmed the reason why this suspension should be effective. In their place, especially the National Chairman, we are asking the National Vice Chairman (North-Central), Mohammed Abdulrahman to act as National Chairman. In the place of the National Publicity Secretary, we are going to ask the Director of Publicity of our party, Chinwen Nnorom, to take over all the activities of the party in terms of information.”

According to Anyanwu, ten members of the NWC were in attendance.

Earlier, the NWC under Damagum’s leadership announced the suspension of Senator Anyanwu, National Legal Adviser Kamaldeen Ajibade (SAN), and two other members.

Despite the scheduled National Elective Convention of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ibadan, Oyo State, on November 15 and 16, internal strife continues to grip the party.

Supporters of the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, remain dissatisfied with the leadership of the Acting National Chairman, Ambassador Umar Iliya Damagum.

Their grievances revolve around unresolved disputes concerning the South-South zonal leadership and control of party structures in Cross River, Akwa Ibom, and Plateau States. In addition, disagreements over the micro-zoning arrangement ahead of the convention have further deepened divisions within the PDP.

These ongoing conflicts eventually escalated into a legal confrontation aimed at halting the planned convention. On Friday, the Federal High Court in Abuja granted an interim injunction restraining the PDP from proceeding with the convention until further notice.

In case number FHC/ABJ/CS/2120/2025, presided over by Justice James Omotosho, the court ruled that the PDP must suspend its convention pending full compliance with its own constitution, the 1999 Constitution, and the Electoral Act of 2022.

The case was filed by three aggrieved PDP members Austin Nwachukwu, the Imo State PDP Chairman; Amah Abraham Nnanna, the Abia State PDP Chairman; and Turnah Alabh George, the PDP Secretary for the South-South zone.

They argued that the planned convention violated both the Electoral Act and the party’s internal regulations, citing the PDP’s failure to conduct valid congresses in 14 states before issuing the convention notice.

Justice Omotosho upheld their arguments, ruling that the PDP had indeed breached its constitution, the 1999 Constitution, and INEC’s guidelines by neglecting to conduct proper state congresses and failing to provide the mandatory 21-day notice to INEC.

Consequently, the court ordered the suspension of the planned convention until all internal irregularities are corrected in accordance with the law.

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