The need for youths to remain focused and engage in capacity building, has become imperative for their emergence as leaders in the political scene. This call was made by the acting youth leader of the Rivers State caretaker committee of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Omuboye Hewart Sukubo.
Sokubo, said youths must create platforms to continuously engage themselves,” to avoid been hoodwinked, manipulated and used by some parochial leaders to champion their ill-advised fights, while they continue to mar” their growth without creating headroom at the leadership strata. A statement sent to Africa Update on March 6, by Sukubo, following the Supreme Court judgment on the lingering leadership tussle in Rivers State, reads:
Dear Rivers APC Youths, I congratulate you all for showing unwavering commitment, courage and steadfastness all through the period of travail, the unfortunate and avoidable crisis we had, that also denied us participation in the 2019 general elections and bragging rights to celebrate feats at different levels. It is now time to come together, no matter the “purported” divide, to engage ourselves, evaluate and define our role in the party, to guide against liquidating our worth by adding value in the task of nation building.
As youths, we should build and have character that can position us as catalyst for significant change in political power-sharing dynamics and economic opportunities. If we realise that we are the creative force, laced with dynamic sources of innovations to be relied upon, the leaders that are still occupying our place in the political space will slide away and assume their next level position as our advisers. We must have the character to be trusted and relied on, we must organise ourselves and be formidable to be effective to getting the desired sustainable result.
We must prove that we are willing, energised, reskilled, prepared and self-motivated to tour the political journey and emerging worldview. We must create platforms to continuously engage ourselves, to avoid been hoodwinked, manipulated and used by some parochial leaders to champion their ill-advised fights, while they continue to mar our growth without creating headroom at the leadership strata. We must identify our problem and define it. We must appreciate that our problem is the difference between our actual situation and our desired situation So, to solve our problem, we must possess a positive mindset, traits like capacities for deep thinking, feeling for one another, and behave in ways that will benefit the party in particular and make governance seamlessly integrated at all levels.
Again, we must be prepared to display fluid and crystallised intelligence to issues, when we are presented with opportunities to serve in whatever capacity. We must refrain from been available as unconscientious foot-soldiers, bought over with stipends for social media assignments because the wrong use of social media has made inroads in the destabilisation of the party. The social media should be used basically to promote the party and its activities, and also earn social capital to have easy inroads in politics and in other endeavours that will give our society the needed focus. I thank the leadership of our great party in Rivers state, for playing by the rules of the game and abiding by the decisions of the judiciary. Thank, and God bless you.
