Mr Chairman,
Party leaders,
The State youth leader,
Distinguished guests,
Members of the Press,
Ladies and gentlemen

It is my pleasure to be here today to deliver to you, the goodwill message of our national Chairman Prince Uche Secondus and the NWC of our great party PDP. They said I should inform you that the national leadership is aware of the dedication and loyalty of Edo State chapter of PDP. It is also an honour and privilege for me to deliver this message to you titled:

A March into Destiny: The Role of the Youth of Edo State

You should know that for every nation on earth, there comes a time when courage is needed and necessary on the part of free men, to stand up – without fear of intimidation – but with faith, hope, and vision, to liberate a people and chart a new course for a nation waking up from the departure of dusk into the brightness of dawn.

It is in such times, like we find ourselves today, that deeds of glory are inscribed on the archives of history, so that over time, posterity can proclaim with pride that ‘we stand today because these giants stood when we were long suppressed and our voices stolen, these men stood to give us utterances and return liberty upon the shores of our beloved country.

Nigerian youth, I stand here today, as a soldier of freedom and democracy, to tell you that no matter how strong; no matter how brutal, and no matter how vicious tyranny is, it will never triumph over the truth of good men – if free men fight for the good of all – and for the liberty of the future. Trust me, that if good men do, every tyranny will be defeated and humiliated.

Today, it is unfortunate – that after the struggles of our contemporary heroes of democracy like late Dr. Alex Ekwueme, late MKO Abiola and his martyred wife Kudirat Abiola, Anothony Enahoro, Frank Kokori of NUPENG of 1993/1994, Col. Abubakar Umar, Alfred Rewane, Rear Admiral (retd) Ndubuisi Kanu who escaped several assassination attempts for the sake of democracy, late Beko Ransome-Kuti, and the indomitable Gani Fawehinmi of blessed memory, amongst others – we are once again saddled with a draconian administration, in civilian garbs, that has disrespected every constitutional and democratic injunctions and tenets, and has imposed hardship, suppression of freedom of speech, intimidation of the right of association, and victimization of the liberty to vote and the casted votes to count.

We were making progress under PDP in this present democratic experience; elections were becoming credible, people could freely express their opinions, even anti-government views and no one would harass them, but all these changed when this APC administration came into office in 2015 and, suddenly, all our democratic and developmental gains flew out of the window.

Underage voting became a norm as this APC government, in connivance with INEC, used our kids to perpetrate electoral malpractice thereby robbing them of their innocence, and teaching them how to engage in fraudulent elections. Kano council poll is still fresh in our minds where kids as young as 6 years were used to perpetrate electoral malpractice.

Insecurity has become a daily occurrence in our lives today, as killer herdsmen slaughter Nigerians like cows in an abattoir, while an alleged technically defeated Boko Haram kidnapped 110 teenage girls from a girl’s school in Dapchi, in Yobe State, and drove them over 200km into the Chad bordered jungle of Sambisa without encountering a single security checkpoint on the way! This scenario seems like a plot by this APC government.

Under this APC government, the youths of Nigeria have become an abandoned constituency as we are under-represented in government appointments; over 10 million of us have lost our jobs within 33 months of this APC government; there is no fuel in our filling stations, prices of goods and services are three times higher now than they were three years ago, and our currency is almost becoming worthless in value. This gerontocratic government is taking us down the Zimbabwean path of battered economy.

We cannot continue like this. As youth, we are the catalyst of change and therefore must change this APC change come 2019 because; failure to do so will translate to a continuation of this unmitigated disaster of an administration that wants to kill our today and bury our tomorrow.

We must therefore resist their desperate attempt to rig the elections like they rigged out the youthful PDP Edo State gubernatorial candidate Osagie Ize-Iyamu by conniving with an INEC that has lost its integrity and soul, and the Nigerian security organizations that has shameless turned itself into an armed wing of APC.

We will not allow this to happen again. Edo State youths must become the army of truth and freedom. As youth, we must become prepared to not only vote, but to protect our votes because our vote is the guarantee we have of a better today and a secured tomorrow.

I want you all to know that even with their bullets and their instruments of oppression, they cannot defeat us because we carry the flame of liberty in our hearts and the banner of truth in our hands.

This time around, it is our duty as youths, to fight for the rescue of our democracy. This democracy is ours; passed to us by those that ran before us. We must not disappoint them and their memory; for this democracy is their legacy to us.

We must therefore do all we can legally, and within just law, to rescue our democracy from APC and hand it over to the only youth friendly political party with the will, reform, blueprint, and national structure necessary to rebuild our battered country and economy.

That political party is PDP. Let us vote for PDP.

As your National Youth Leader, I say thank you for your faith and loyalty to our party PDP, and to Nigeria. I also urge you to rise up and kill these snakes and monkeys that have become corrupt officials under this APC government. We must believe we can kill these corrupt money swallowing snakes and monkeys.

If we truly believe we can do it, then surelywe will do it for ourselves, our children, and for those Nigerians yet unborn. Nigeria is worth rescuing, for we have no other country. Let us therefore march boldly into our destiny. Let us rescue Nigeria with our PVCs.

I remain your humble servant and national youth leader Rt. Hon Udeh-Okoye SKE. I therefore declare this summit open.

Long live PDP!
Long live Edo youth!!
Long live the federal republic of Nigeria!!!

Thanks and God bless you.