Bello Shagari, Dokubo Igbe And The Politics Of The National Youth Council Of Nigeria -By Gaddafi Ibrahim Tanko

After nearly 13 years of crises in the leadership of the national youth council of Nigeria, comrade Bello Bala Shagari, the state chairman of NYCN in Sokoto state, was unanimously elected as president of the nations apex youth body by delegates drawn from critical blocs in the NYCN including voluntary organizations affiliated to the council as well as members of the then National transition government of the organization.

The Gombe youth council convention which was supervised by the federal ministry of sports & youth developments and other critical stakeholders was meant to bring an end to the needless crises, internal wranglings, and feud bedeviling the council.

But that was not the case while the convention planning committee under the leadership of a veteran in the politics of the council and a former chairman of chairmen of the council, comrade Chinedu temple, had concluded it job of conducting a free and fair elections and returned a winner to the office of the president of the council as well as other members of the national executive committee, the Murtala Gamji, led faction of the council announced plans to conduct a parallel convention at Portharcourt after initially congratulating Bello Shagari vide a text message.

The Portharcourt convention ultimately produced the leadership of ambassador Dokubo Sara Igbe, who was the then rivers state chairman of the council as president.

At first, the ministry of youth and sports did not give much attention to ambassador Dokubo Sara Igbe and his group, preferring to deal with Bala Bello Shagari and his leadership describing them as the authentic leadership of the council.

Carried away by the euphoria of the recognition given to him by the ministry of youth and sports comrade Shagari carried on with the conduct of his affairs as the president of the council, unknown to him the ambassador Dokubo led group had instituted an action at a port Harcourt High court seeking for some reliefs among which is to recognize them as the authentic leadership of the council.

The Court granted the reliefs sort by Ambassador Dokubo, which was never appealed by Shagari and his group according to a credible source at the federal ministry of youth and sports.

But in a sudden twist of faith immediately after the conduct of the 2019 general elections, a motion was moved by comrade Chibuke Echem during a NEC meeting of the council calling for the suspension comrade Shagari citing gross misconduct, incompetence and other sundry allegations.

However, certain elements in the council interpreted the suspension of the president to be a punishment for supporting the reelection bid of governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal and by extension the PDP. It was said that his purported support to the PDP led to the recognition of ambassador Dokubo Sara Igbe as the authentic president by the ministry.

It is important at this juncture to call on the national youth council of Nigeria, it parent body the ministry of youth and sports, voluntary organizations affiliated to the council as well as other critical stakeholders including the presidency to come to intervene in the crises dogging the council,and bring to an end the needless litigations and bickering within the council which would not take it anywhere,but rather continue stunting it growth.

It is also important that the National youth council Nigeria is made truly independent and autonomous and not joined to the apron strings of the government which has contributed in no small measure to the decimation of the council and It progress, ultimately making government most especially the supervising ministry a cog in the wheel of progress, because every government feels that the council must be led by people answerable to it which does not suppose to be the case.

In other African countries like south Africa and the Gambia.the youth council are independent like that of the republic of the Gambia which has succeeded in galvanizing, promoting and enhancing the participation of youths in governance and the countries development.

It is to the credit of the council that a substantial number of youths are holding key positions of government and authority thus mainstreaming youths into the governance structure of the country thus making there own contributions to the country’s development.

It is important that the youth council in Nigeria takes a cue from the example set by other African countries and other developed countries across the world because the future of our country lies with the youths, making us critical stakeholders in our respective countries national development.

Gaddafi Ibrahim Tanko is a student journalist at the Taraba State University Jalingo, he can be reached at Gaddafi_i@yahoo.com.