I aim at a solid Commonwealth Youth Council – Adamu

What responsibilities does your election as chairperson of youth council place on you?Emerging as the first-ever Chairman of the world largest youth-led organisation could not be an easy thing, imagine to lead over 1.2 billion young people from 53 different countries, and from different ethnic, regional, and economic backgrounds. It definitely put me on a […]

What responsibilities does your election as chairperson of youth council place on you?
Emerging as the first-ever Chairman of the world largest youth-led organisation could not be an easy thing, imagine to lead over 1.2 billion young people from 53 different countries, and from different ethnic, regional, and economic backgrounds. It definitely put me on a position of huge responsibility and expectations. Being the first commonwealth youth leader, we have to learn things, then work it out, and then improve on that, and the fact that we have only two years, we have to learn fast and work harder to achieve the desired result.
How do you think your election would impact on the average Nigerian youth?
First, I will say it has given every young Nigerian a sense of pride and inspiration. Seeing your brother rising to lead young people at global level, it is a plus to Nigeria and Nigerians. As a Nigerian, I am always aware of the images I am carrying; I am carrying the image of myself, my race, my country and my continent. I will do my best to give an excellent impression of the constituencies I am representing. The Council has lots of plans for young people; we have put in place different mechanisms to support young people at different capacities, and I want to assure Nigerians and other commonwealth youths that we will use our influence to change the lives of millions of youths. With the support from every head of government, we shall be able to achieve lots for the commonwealth youth.
What is your agenda for the body?
Our concern is that how will we be remembered after our tenure? What kind of foundation are we setting for billions of young people to come in the next century? That is why, since after the election, we have never rested, we have to learn quickly, set our plans and line of actions. We are now at the stage of setting the proper foundation for the CYC. At the same time we are compiling our projects and programmes for the next two years which will guide us throughout our tenure. For the immediate things we are preparing to do in the next one or two months include: The country advocacy tour, we would wish to visit every commonwealth country, but going round the whole 53 nations in two years may not be possible considering the enormous responsibilities we also need to embark, but we will go round many of these countries as possible. The purpose of the advocacy tour is to have the opportunity to meet with the youth leaders and the youth, and hear from them, they will tell us what they want us to do for them. We will then study their National youth organisation structures, if there is any crisis within the national youth leadership, we will interfere and resolve it. We will meet the president of the country to brief him or her and advocate for what the youth want. It will give us the opportunity to establish direct relationship with the government of the country and create room for partnerships and support.
What do you think constitute the major challenges Commonwealth youth are faced with and how do you think the challenges can be tackled?
Young people constitute more than 60 percent of the commonwealth population, and they constitute more percent of vulnerability, poverty and insecurity. Youth are the hope of the present and the future, and to have a secured future commonwealth, we need to know the problems of youth and how to solve it. From a personal experience, the major youth problems are lack of quality education, lack of quality employment, and lack of professional skills. Once you gave youth the required education, and provide them with competitive and lucrative employment opportunities or trained them on different professional skills, you have empowered them. Presently, an online youth survey is going on to hear directly from them on what they think are the first six steps to improve their lives. It is done by the United Nations to hear the opinions of people, so that the global leaders will be informed as they begin the process of defining the new development agenda for the world.
What is your expectation from Commonwealth heads of state on youth?
In every two years, commonwealth heads of governments meet, and pay attention to youth concerns, and at the end of the meeting they adopt a youth commitments, which they will all agree to implement in their various countries. Our primary expectation on them is to implement these commitments, in addition to youth declaration, which is another document adopted by young people identifying their concerns and suggesting the way forward. So, CYC as an advocate for young people will follow to see that these two documents are implemented in every commonwealth nation.
What is your advice for the Nigeria government on youth empowerment?
My advice for the Nigerian government is to do more for the youth. Nigeria is one of the leading countries in terms of supporting young people, but the number of young people in the country is much, so you will still find majority of them lacking employment. But, as the government is doing more, private partners should complement their efforts. I must commend the Nigerian government for initiating the YouWin programme, which many of my friends benefited from. I also commend the Nigerian government for supporting the National Youth parliament and the council as well.
What is your opinion on the crisis within the National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN)?
I think the problem with Nigerian National Youth Council has to do with the youth themselves, priority should be given to the system rather than individual personalities, and I recommend that the constitution be respected. I learnt that three different persons are addressing themselves as presidents of NYCN, who do they want us to recognise?  My initial advice is that let them resolve their differences.
One of the CYC primary responsibilities is to unite, consolidate and unify youth-led structures within commonwealth nations. Some countries have similar problems like Nigeria; we will go and fix their problems. For countries, that do not have national youth bodies, we will partner with the governments of those countries to establish one.