Progressives, youths meet in Lagos, dialogue on insecurity, socio-economic crisis
–Group vows to set new agenda for Development
PRESS STATEMENT
August 22, 2020 Progressives, mainly younger people drawn from across the country will on Monday meet in Lagos for a national dialogue on Nigeria’s emerging social and political challenges.
The meeting is being organised under the auspices of National Alliance for Development, (NADEV) put in place as a people-driven platform to deal with emerging problems of insecurity, corruption, violence and a spike in ethnic row which threaten livelihood and may stem the country’s rise to global fame.
The Journalists for Democractic Rights, (JODER) is co-host for the project.
For the past one decade, JODER has been working on peace building and conflict prevention across Nigeria’s six geo political zones
In recent times Nigeria continues to witness a rise in violence, banditry, ethnic clashes, kidnapping, food insecurity and dwindling fortunes almost at all fronts.
This has been compounded by the global COVID-19 pandemic leading to fresh public health concerns amidst economic meltdown
“We are worried about the state of the nation. There is insecurity, a rise in mass killings, including women and children, growing rate of poverty and unemployment amidst primitive accumulation of wealth by the ruling class and a troubling culture of impunity across the land” the NADEV Conveners said Shettima Yerima and Adewale Adeoye said
The platform will bring together young but influential ethnic leaders, civil society groups and faith-based organisations selected from the six geo-political zones in what the promoters said would mark the beginning of a national dialogue aimed at setting agenda for development and reinvoke the country’s renaissance. Other co-conveners are Rafsanjani, Dotun Hassan, Adewale Adeoye of Journalists for Democratic Rights JODER
The group said “Without doubt, Nigeria has for a long time been led by a group of people who are poorly-prepared and ill-equipped to lead except for their ambitions for power and their insatiable greed for material wealth. As a consequence, today, Nigeria is sadly being saddled with leaders who seek for power only as an end in itself; who mobilize citizens only during elections, who continually sow seeds of division and social conflict, and thus, making people poorer and feeling more insecure.”
NADEV said the younger generation suffer the peril of exclusion from participating in economic and political decisions that largely affect them.
“The coming ones, are bound to be left at the mercy of very powerful and well connected criminals, debilitating and unspeakable poverty, corrupt and perverted institutions, strangulated economy, decayed infrasructure, and inexorable derision from other parts of the world and even from some African nations that once held Nigeria in awe and marveled at the workings of its systems and the envious and exemplary quality of its leadership.”
The group said the painful realities and the consensus is that while the provision of security and pursuit of economic welfare of citizens are the two most important constitutional duties and responsibilities of any state, the current circumstances produce a crop of leaders that have woefully failed to meet the essentials of human life leaving many Nigerians desperate, frustrated and anguished.
“This disturbing development, has now necessitated the compelling need for young Nigerians, who are clearly at the receiving end of these unbearable experiences, pervasive national calamities and gruesome injustice, to quickly come together and close ranks, in order to rescue Nigeria from those whose blind pursuit for ill gotten wealth and inordinate ambition to capture political power, remain inextricably tied up to the continuation of plunder and the destruction of our nation and its peace loving people,” the group stated
NADEV said it is awakened by the burden of shared legacies of failed hopes and shattered dreams as Nigerians are condemned to live a life of constant fear from the ever rising threats of rampaging insurgency, pervasive banditry, kidnappings, violent robberies, intermittent communal, inter and intra ethnic conflicts, mutual distrust, disabling level of insecurity and the deteriorating standards of living as politicians and their lackeys fleece the nation of its precious scarce resources.”
The new group hopes to pursue an independent, citizen-driven vehicle for socio-economic, political and democratic reforms
The platform hopes to address key areas like the bias fight against corruption, gnashing violence and insecurity, crumbling economy amidst piling loans, weak instituions, gross right violations, unprecedented and dangerous manipulation of religion and ethnicity, flawed elèctoral system, providing save heavens for criminals among others.
NADEV said “We make bold to state that unless this generation of young Nigerians, especially those within the age bracket of 20 to 55 years, rise up to checkmate and put a courageous stop to this disturbing development and to boldly halt the tradition of abandoning their fate to the unscrupulous and unpatriotic politicians by initiating a formidable, credible and transparent body that will make Nigerians to begin to feel more confident, secure and proud so that the country and its peace loving people shall start reaping the benefit of visionary leadership and a prosperous productive future.
It said further “We commit ourselves to this noble task, the bleak consequences of the emerging scenario that will unfold in the coming six months, would certainly be too hazardous to contemplate.
It is therefore a matter of urgent national importance for all the concerned classes of Nigerians as enumerated above, to quickly come together within the shortest time, to discipline their emotions and use the medium of peaceful dialogue and collective wisdom in handling and competently containing this prevailing national calamity.”