•Confab not for money sharing, says minister
The National Youth Conference will kick off its grassroots physical engagements in the first week of June.
Youth Development Minister Ayodele Olawande, who made this known to The Nation at the weekend, added that that of youths in the diaspora would start before May 29 through online platforms.
Olawande explained that ‘’a big website’’ for purpose as being designed to ensure that many Nigerian youths in diaspora participated.
He said:“ By May 29,, the diaspora and online engagements will start. When I return to Abuja, we’ll look at the next report, and we’ll get to build a big website for that purpose that can engage as many people as possible.
‘’And by the first week of June, the physical meetings, those that will be held across the grassroots in the country should start.
“Work is ongoing. I think they are currently at sub-committee levels because since it’s not going to be concentrated in Abuja, we’ll be going to the grassroots, so there’ll be local organising committees in all the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory(FCT), whereby the process will be managed by both government and the private sector.
The minister clarified that each state’s local committee will include youth commissioners and representatives from the private sector operating within the state.
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The process, he emphasised, is not politically driven, although it includes nominal representation from youth wings of political parties. “It is not a political thing, but there’s no way we won’t still consider politics, because, like in the committee, we have representatives of all national youth leaders of all political parties.
‘’We will also ensure that the representation of the political parties’ youth forums, all of them put together, will be just 1%. We’ll allow the process to be driven by the Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs) and all such organisations that will participate.”
Olawande also addressed concerns regarding funding and logistics, noting that the conference would be modestly financed through donations and support from development partners.