The National Orientation Agency (NOA) in Plateau has organised a one-day summit to sensitise youth in the state on policy making and national development.Speaking at the event on Thursday in Jos, the Director of the agency in the state, Mr Nanyak Zingkat, said the objective of the summit was to improve youth participation in policy making, nation building and national development.Zingkat said the event was also aimed at acquainting young people with the programmes and policies of government.
He said the summit would avail the young people with the opportunity to acquire the needed knowledge in addressing the challenges inhibiting their active participation in governance.“The youth constitute the larger, critical and active part of the population of every nation, and any developing nation that refuses to recognise this, is mortgaging its future. “Over the years, most Nigerian youth feel they have been abandoned and forgotten; they have so much concerns affecting them, ranging from unemployment, insecurity, and what have you.“So, we decided to put this summit together to engage and inculcate in the youth the culture of reorientation for national development.“We also organised this event to keep the youth abreast with government programmes and policies,
”he said.The director explained that the summit would propel feedback from the youth which would be communicated to the government for action.Also speaking, Chief Michael Makwal, Chairman, Larger House Plateau Youth Council, who chaired the occasion, described the summit as “timely”.Makwal said discussions at the summit would proffer solutions to the challenges facing the youth and the country.He thanked the agency for organising the programme, saying that it would go a long way in ameliorating some of the challenges facing the nation.The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the summit has the theme: “Youth Participation in National Development”.
It drew participants from various youths groups, cultural and religious groups and security agencies, among others.Highlights of the event were paper presentations on Impact of Youth Participation and Involvement in Policy Making and Governance; Insecurity and the Nigerian Youth: the Way Forward and Strategies for Engaging Nigerian Youth for Economic Growth. (NAN)
