Abuja Communities Launch FCT Youth Network
By: Prudence Okonna
Abuja Original Inhabitants Youth Empowerment Organization (AOIYEO), has launched the Fellowship of Community Trustees Youth Network also called FCT-Youth Network to always harness and aggregate their positions.
The new pressure group is expected to represent the collective interest of the sixty-two wards and eight hundred and fifty-eight communities in the Federal Capital Territory.
Speaking at the occasion over the weekend, the Executive Director of AOIYEO, who is also the Special Adviser to the FCT Minister on Youth Matters, Isaac David, said the Network was created to bring youths together while engaging the government on their plights such as marginalization to ensure that every young person in the FCT can enjoy the dividends of democracy.
According to him, ‘’The youth network is a platform to galvanize the youths to air their grievances with one voice and create opportunities for them. ”
David added that they want to operate a platform devoid of protests where there is a youth leader who can dialogue with the government having unified the thoughts of all the members of the Network.
Also speaking, an Abuja Youth Advocate, Yunusa Ahmadu said the platform is called a Youth Network because it is for both natives and non-natives alike and the projection is to demand accountability in governance.
Describing the structure of the network, the project manager of AOIYEO, Bitrus Lawrence – Garki said the FCT-Youth Network will have spokespersons at the community level, coordinators at the ward level, representatives at the Area Council level, and a youth leader for the whole of FCT; adding that this is to ensure that when youth leader speaks, it is never in doubt that he represents the collective thought and concerns of Abuja youths.
The FCT-YN, Lawrence-Garki said is modeled after the UK youth parliament, which is to serve as a bridge between the youths and the government, with no affiliations with any political party.
The launch of the FCT- Youth Network brought together youths from every part of FCT, where it adopted by-laws, inaugurated ward coordinators, presented the activity of the year, and appointed an election committee.
