#EndSARS: How Osinbajo c’ttee can curb youth restiveness – WANEP boss


Conflict resolution expert and national coordinator West Africa Network for Peace-building (WANEP) in Nigeria, Mrs. Bridget Osakwe, has enjoined the Vice President Yomi Osibanjo – led committee to involve traditional leaders in rural communities, local government authorities, youth and market leaders in the effort to address youth restiveness in the country.

Bridget said the composition of participants in the consultation exercise should also be devoid of political party affiliation as she affirmed that consultation with stakeholders and bodies is key to addressing youth restlessness as demanded by the #EndSARS protesters.

She said it is novel that the National Executive Council, NEC, on Monday set up a committee to engage Nigerian youths, civil society, religious and traditional institutions on how to develop a blueprint to curb the incessant agitations in the country.

The WANEP coordinator cautioned that should engagements and consultations be carried out along party lines and affiliations, the end result could be counter-productive.

She said, “In picking who will attend those consultations, the committee should be genuinely interested in profiling their participants. This one should not be a party affair whereby they say ‘bring all the APC members’ because those are the people that will support the APC government.”

Also speaking on how the traditional institutions can play a vital role in the current rebirth, Mrs. Bridget explained that the “traditional leaders are closer to the people, they know their people; once there is trouble in their domain, they know who to call and the perpetrators will be identified.

“In the early millennium, beautiful and well thought out economic blueprints such as SEEDS, NEEDS and LEADS as intervention programmes were rolled out but have been abandoned. We must go back to revive and review those documents to meet current challenges. Only through such means can we have successes in what the government has set out to do.”

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