By Ken Bur
As part of efforts to mitigate the impact of climate change in Nigeria, the National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN) has concluded plans to embark on activities to that effect.
In a new year address today, the NYCN National President, Comrade Solomon Adodo said such efforts have become necessary in view of the devastating implications it has on the youths and threat it poses to national development.
“It is also a known fact that climate change poses potent dangers to the world presently and Nigeria is not isolated. It has been responsible for food shortages, health hazards and security challenges particularly between pastoral cattle rearers and crop farmers.
“We shall therefore work at combating desertification by embarking on a massive afforestation project that should ensure easy availability and accessibility of livestock feed in any part of the country while also gaining Nigeria significant carbon credit. We therefore call on the relevant government agencies and international bodies to rise and play their roles of partnership to achieve this global clarion demand.
“We also call on the Governments of the respective States to make appropriate land available for this afforestation project. All Nigerians are invited to endeavor to plant a tree this year”, Comrade Adodo emphasized.
To kickstart the process, Comrade Adodo planted a tree at the Unity Fountain in Abuja.
He used the occasion to appreciate the moves so far made by President Muhammadu Buhari and his dexterous team alongside the State Governors that have performed creditably well nothing however that there are doubtless downsides and areas where the country have fared better on the various indices.
He also stressed that the prime task of the NYCN in 2020 is to harness the latent innovative/inventive potentials of Nigerian youths and convert same to productivity for wealth generation and massive jobs creation.
“It remains an incontrovertible fact that Nigerian youths rank amongst the most innovative, inventive and hardworking anywhere in the world; yet this promising minefield has not been tapped from. We shall therefore set to the task of maximally utilizing these raw assets of national wealth.
“On this note, we shall embark on a nationwide interaction to identify the felt needs of our youths in the respective states, we shall also map out the potentials of our youths to tackle their peculiar challenges in consonance with the solutions we synthesize together along the lines of the comparative advantages of production in the respective locations.
“We shall therefore float an “Idea Bank” whose duty will be to task the minds of the youth to intuitive productive positive thinking, safely store these ideas, and readily release them when matching investments are made available. It is a known fact that nations which have developed have all done so latching on refined thinking and research bolstered by an unflinching determination to succeed. These countries have moved from third world to first world; it is now the time for Nigeria to make her great leap and take her place in the front lines”, he added.
Comrade Adodo further reiterated the commitment of his administration to achieve the daunting task of rapidly growing the economy by borrowing a leaf from nations that have fared relatively well and domesticate such patterns of success along the lines of Nigeria’s peculiar resource endowments and capabilities which will incorporate forging stronger ties with the Asian Youth Council and every other youth body of countries that have emerged stronger from their prior economic and social challenges.
“It has not escaped our notice also that some appointees of government have chosen to relapse into their Chairs of comfort without doing the needful in terms of performing according to the mandate as spelt for their organizations in order to fast track the attainment of the Next Level Agenda. We therefore call on all Ministers, Directors General, Heads of Government Agencies and indeed all appointees of government to remain on their toes in ensuring that good governance percolates to the grassroots addressing the felt needs of the masses. We shall thus maintain consistent vigil over the activities of the respective Ministries, Departments and Agencies to the extent that anyone identified to be working antithetical to Mr. President’s direction of moving the nation forward will be decisively dealt with within the precincts of the law.
“Finally, we use this medium to call on the Nigerian Youth not to despair as we have reached the end of the tunnel and light has come. Let us embrace peace, tolerance and hardwork as virtues that shall sail our nation to safer shores. Let us all play our roles in reining in crimes, terrorism, corruption and all forms of vices that have militated against national development. If we stand together in determination, we will survive and succeed but if we despair and fight we will be destroyed. Nigeria is a great Nation and that greatness is within each one of us”, he concluded.
