Youth Confab: Politicians Won’t Influence Delegate Selection, Says Minister

Minister of Youth Development, Ayodele Olawande, has assured that politicians will not be allowed to influence the selection of delegates for the National Youth Confab 2026.

Olawande gave the assurance on Thursday while responding to questions from journalists at a press conference at the presidential Villa, Abuja  on the National Youth Confab scheduled to hold in October 2026.

The minister said the 360 youth delegates who will physically participate in the conference in Abuja would be selected through an online portal opened for young Nigerians to register and participate.

He said the selection process was designed to ensure transparency and prevent political interference.

According to him, the Confab is deliberately structured as a non-monetary process, making it difficult for individuals to influence the selection through financial inducement.

He said, “Politicians should go and face politics. We have election that are battling front and back, and we have just four months to get to the reef, and politicians are needed in the unit, in the wards and everything.”

Olawande said the ministry had no intention of handpicking delegates, stressing that he, as the minister, would not be bringing anyone to the Confab.

He added that the President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, was also not interested in determining who would participate in the event.

The minister said the government wanted young Nigerians to participate organically rather than through political connections.

He explained that young people would no longer need to know the minister or have connections to people in government to benefit from youth initiatives.

“You don’t need to know me before you get initiated anymore. You don’t need to be an in-law or whatever anybody before you can apply to it. Just go and do it and we get it,” he said.

Olawande said the government wanted credible young Nigerians to come forward, participate in the process and make their contributions.

He also disclosed that the registration portal had been opened, with young Nigerians already registering, while the process had also entered a validation stage.

The minister said the delegates would be selected from the pool of registered young Nigerians on the portal.

He further said the first two weekends of the national engagement would provide an opportunity for young Nigerians to contribute to the process virtually.

Olawande said the Federal Government was determined to ensure that the Confab did not become another exercise that would produce documents without implementation.

He said the government planned to establish a task force after the Confab to collate the resolutions and categorise them according to the responsibilities of the executive, legislature and judiciary.

The minister said the government also planned to develop an implementation framework that would extend beyond Abuja to the subnational level.

He said the framework would support the implementation of youth-focused human capital development initiatives across the states.

Olawande said the government would also seek to have relevant resolutions considered by the Executive Council, while the National Assembly would be encouraged to pass bills on resolutions within its jurisdiction.

He added that the judiciary would similarly consider recommendations relating to its responsibilities.

According to him, a timeline would be set from November for the submission and implementation of the outcomes of the Confab.