The African Democratic Congress (ADC) said the Renewed Hope Agenda of the All Progressives Congress (APC) is turning the hope of Nigerian youths into hopelessness.
The National Chairman Dr. Ralphs Okey Nwosu, at the inauguration of ADC Continental Youth Council (ADC CYC), stated the APC government has no regard for Nigerian youths, whom he said, constitute about 70 percent of the nation’s population.
“The best thing that happened in this country came from our youths. Our youths abroad project Nigeria in a positive way.
“But in Nigeria, a government that wants to make the people great, a government that promised Renewed Hope, is not seeing the hope in our young men and women,” he regretted.
Nwosu stated that when Saudi Arabia, some years back, came up with Vision 2030, it set certain targets, among them was to ensure that her tourism sector attracts a hundred million tourists.
“Their infrastructure was prepared to receive that number of tourists. The amazing thing is that seven years before the 2030, they achieved that goal,” he stated.
He challenged the APC government to tell Nigerians the targets of its Renewed Hope Agenda.
“We have a government that is talking of Renewed Hope Agenda, where are the goal posts?
“What is the goal post for your Finance Minister, Aviation Minister, Tourism?” he asked.
According to him, another plan of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, was to put its oil company, Aramco into public market, “just as we decided put our own NNPC into public market.”
He however stated that while the capitalised Saudi Arabia’s Aramco, has about N2.3 trillion investment, making it one of the seven trillion dollar companies in the world, government still interfers in the activities of the NNPC, even though it is now a limited liability company.
“The idea of privatising NNPC has been on for 10 years, and about five years ago, the government of (Mohammadu) Buhari started it. It becomes NNPC Ltd. And that means government should not tamper with the board, because when you privatise, it is no longer government owned establishment.
“But no sooner that this government came on board, it sacked the management that was only two years.
“The next thing, they got into subsidy or no subsidy; the next thing, they got NNPC to go and borrow money from Nexim Bank, the first $3 billion that they borrowed,” he noted.
Nwosu called for youth empowerment, stating that the young people need to be allowed to use their creativity to turnaround Nigeria and the continent.
“The most vibrant, energetic and skilful are the over 70 percent population that the APC government has neglected.
“The young people who are ambassadors, in music and film industries, in ICT, the political leaders, instead of supporting them with their power, continued to dim their light.
“The thought behind ADC Continental Youth Council is to allow the youths the freedom to think, and the imagination to innovate, to create and co-create, to create ideas to take our country and continent to where we should be,” he stated.
