Immediate past Governor of Delta State and APC 2019 Delta South Senatorial hopeful, Dr. Emmanuel Eweta Uduaghan has said that Niger Delta youth leaders were becoming articulate and active contributors to nation building.
Uduaghan was a Special Guest of Honour at the maiden Isoko Youth Summit organized by the Comrade Ovie Umuakpo-led Executive of the Isoko National Youth Association (INYA) at the Civic Centre in Oleh at the weekend.
Dr. Uduaghan who is a big fan of progressive-minded youths used the opportunity to speak to Isoko youth on the theme: “Retooling the Isoko Youth for Good Governance and Political Participation.”
He remarked that he had always been an admirer of the Isoko nation, especially the academically-inclined Umuakpo-led INYA, who had won his heart via an interview program on one of the national television.
He hailed the Isoko youth leader’s vibrancy on the said program and admitted that Niger Delta youth leaders were becoming articulate and active contributors to nation building.
The former Governor stated that Isoko youths must enthrone education in their activities if they wished to be involved in the engine room of governance; adding that the dynamics has tilted away from “deve” and violent arm-twisting of government or oil firms so as to get humongous compensations and contracts to service expensive lifestyles.
Continuing, he made a case for more educated Niger Delta Youths to be at the helm of youth groups as their knowledge come very handy in partnering with developmental initiatives for the economic advancement of their area. He also tasked them to acquire requisite skills that would make them employable.
“Yes, the oil companies might be at your backyard but if you’re unemployable, you leave them no choice but to hire competent hands from other areas. But when you are skilled, even the government would join in your cause because no father wants his son to suffer in the midst of plenty.”
The APC Delta South Senatorial Hopeful anchored his speech on his plans for youths when he emerges Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, in 2019.
“Our youth must strive to be peaceful and united in their agitation. Peace gives birth to good children any day. By God’s grace, when the people of Delta South give me their senatorial mandate in the next election, I will largely involve our youths in the security of our communities as well as oil installations therein. It would be a win-win for our youths who would be paid for securing a peaceful business environment for investors and companies to operate optimally. This will run concurrently with the 5% community ownership of industries that I am proposing in our area. As a crisis manager, I know that once communities have a sense of ownership in the operations of companies, they will protect their facilities jealously.”
