2023: Vote For Competence Not Religion, Activist Urges Youths

Ahead of the 2023 general election, an activist, Hon Paul Amadi has urged Nigerian youths not to use religion as a basis for voting any candidate in the 2023 general election, but vote for competent people.

In an open letter which was made available to the press, Amadi urged the northern youths in particular to stick to wisdom bearing in mind that they are leaders of tomorrow.

He frowned at the level in which many youths in Nigeria are going through hardship which has never happened in the history of the nation, saying that even beggars cannot find anyone who is willing to give.

He said the youths are the weapons of the elders and the politicians to achieve their goals which goes to reflect their importance in Nigerian society.

He also advised the northern youths to study critically the antecedents and blue prints of the presidential candidates so as to know who can effectively put the country back to the right track with good governance irrespective of where the candidate comes from or religion.

“We can no longer afford to keep on wasting our overall human capital, and period. Nigeria needs more youths to be honourable academics, businessmen and women and contribute more to the national GDP. Poverty is not the portion of the youths.

“It breaks my heart seeing innocent children as young as six years old begging anywhere in the country when they ought to be under the care of their parents,” he added.

Ghana’s Parliament Seeks Collaboration With NASS

BY SUNDAY ISUWA, Abuja

Speaker of the Parliament of Ghana, Hon Alban Bagbin, yesterday sought for collaboration with the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS), an arm of the National Assembly to strengthen Ghana’s legislative institute.

The National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies, NILDS, is the training arm of Nigeria’s Parliament, the National Assembly.

Bagbin who led the top echelon of the Ghanaian Parliament yesterday in Abuja, met with the leadership of the NILDS and officials of the National Assembly Service Commission (NASC).

He said they were in Nigeria to get inputs from the legislative institute to gain effective legislation and governance for Ghana.

Bagbin said, “I want to thank the institute for accepting to share their knowledge. We have already engaged the staff of the NASC; we have learnt a lot from them.

“There is no way we could go back without drinking deep from the fountain of knowledge; we believe that with your extensive experience, not only in research but also in advocacy and impaction of knowledge, we will benefit a lot to assist us strengthen ours in Ghana.

“We have a training institute in Ghana which is a version of NILDS. We have seen there are a lot of gaps, a lot of weaknesses in our institute. We just decided to move out to work closely with our brothers and sisters in Nigeria.

“We want to drink deep from your fountain of knowledge and experience. To see how we could strengthen and improve the standard and services of the parliamentary institute. That is why we are here.”

In his welcome address, director-general NILDS, Prof. Abubakar Sulaiman said that the key to the survival of democracy in any clime was the legislature.

He said, “It is my hope that this interaction will be an opportunity for the two countries to strengthen their ties in the area of legislative and democratic development.

“I believe the delegation will have a lot to learn from Nigeria considering the similarities in the antecedents of Nigeria and Ghana’s history spanning from the colonial period, to independence, to military interventions and now to stable democracies in both countries.

“Everything must be done to protect the sanctity of the legislature. They must be allowed to learn on the job. There is no perfection in any system. We must nurture the institution of the legislature,” Sulaiman said.