ASABA----As the president Buhari's ministerial list continue to attract ambivalent reactions, the Senior Special Assistant to Delta State Governor on Youth and Community Development, Hon. Egbo Victor Okemena (JP), has described as dangerous and preposterous to sustainable development, the deliberate attempt to exclude the youths who constitute over 68% of Nigeria’s total population from decision-making and governance processes as shown in the ministerial list submitted to the Senate.

Hon. Egbo who is also the president of Isoko National Youth Assembly, said the concept of youths as "leaders of tomorrow" has regrettably constricted a very important social category to the political fringe and reduced a demographic majority (the youths) to the political minority in Nigeria.

The youth leader argued that it was wrong to preclude the youths from participating in making decisions and government policies that will ultimately affect them.

He said it was shocking to find a man who was a minister in 1982 (33 years ago) nominated again as minister in 2015 by a government that is serious about changing the old order of doing things.

Is it that we are in deficit of qualified and competent youths', he ask rhetorically.

The governor's aide said we need to disabuse our mindset and deconstruct our thinking about the concept of youths as leaders of tomorrow if we have misconstrued it to mean a tomorrow that may never come for the youths.

The youth leader recalled that in the good old days, Nigerian youths were given opportunities in governance and they were extraordinarily outstanding. Some of them were M.T. Mbu who became minister at 25, Richard Akinjide at 32, Maitama Sule at 29, Yakubu Gowon at 35, Audu Ogbe at 35 etc.

Hon. Egbo advised that rather than recycling the same old circle, Buhari should take advantage of the teeming distinct category of our youths who are highly educated with proven competence and prepared, to effectively drive national transformation.

In every progressive thinking society, it is the youths that drive the process and Nigerian youths are arguably the most, talented, intelligent and sophisticated in all areas. Presently, four Nigerian youths are in the United Kingdom's legislature to help them run their government', he continued.

Egbo further appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari, who himself became head of state in 1983 at age 41, to consider youth inclusion in the remaining ministerial list.

He also advised president Buhari to reconsider his decision to double as both president and petroleum minister as it's a clear violation of section 138 of the 1999 constitution as amended which states that, "the president shall not, during his tenure of office, hold any other executive office or paid employments in any capacity whatever".

http://histempleglobal.com/index.php/2015/10/08/ministerial-list-hon-egbo-condenms-youth-exclusion-warns-against-constitutional-violation/