As the youths of Akwa Ibom State join the world to celebrate the 2020 International Youth Day, Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Aniekan Bassey, has assured them of the Seventh Assembly’s commitment and dedication to making youth-friendly legislation geared towards “Youth Engagement for Global Action.”
Rt. Hon. Bassey, who gave the assurance in Uyo on Wednesday in a statement by his Special Assistant on Media and Communications, Mr. Darlington Udobong, charged the youths to see themselves as agents of state and national development.
He further charged the youth to stay abreast with the aim of this year’s celebration, which “is to shed light on the need to enable the engagement of youth by making local, national and global institutions more inclusive for the purpose of strengthening their capacity (and relevance) to achieve global action.”
The Speaker also hinted that the 2020 theme “seeks to put the spotlight on youth engagement through engagement at the community and local level; engagement at the national level (formulation of laws, policies, and their implementation), and engagement at the global level.”
According to the Speaker, “the theme for the 2020 International Youth Day is apt and seeks to highlight the ways in which the engagement of young people at the local, national and global levels is enriching national and multilateral institutions and processes, as well as draw lessons on how their representation and engagement in formal institutional politics can be significantly enhanced.”
He said “to enable the engagement of youth in formal political mechanisms and increase the fairness of political processes, the state legislature will continually contributes its quota to better Akwa Ibom. The legislature will strive to sustain policies that will restore trust in our public institutions, especially among youth.”
Encouraging the youths further, Rt. Hon. Bassey said “Though we live in an era where trust in public institutions is gradually eroding; though we are presently at war and being ravaged by an unseen enemy, the Corona Virus. Our commitment and dedication to Youth Engagement for Global Action remain unshaken, unbroken and unbowed. Together, we will stand.”
