A cluster of organizations known as Youth Development Cluster has called on the Commissioner of Youth and Sports Development in Akwa Ibom State, Sir Monday Ebong Uko, to leave a legacy for young persons in the State. The cluster which is made up of youth-centered organizations seeking to strengthen social justice reforms for youths in Nigeria through advocacy for the implementation of national and subnational youth related policies in six (6) states made the call in an open letter addressed to the Commissioner of Youth and Sports Development in the State.
The open letter called on Sir Monday Ebong Uko to among other things, set-up a State Youth Policy Steering Committee and Technical Working Group for the formulation of the state youth policy, facilitate the release of the budgetary allocation for the formulation of the State Youth Policy as approved in the 2023 Appropriation Bill, and liaise with the Governor to assent to the Akwa Ibom Youth Development Fund (AKYDF) bill. The cluster is asking that that these actions and strategies be carried out before this administration winds down.
“Very importantly sir, we recommend the formulation of an Akwa Ibom State Youth Policy as an urgent assignment to undertake as it is directly under your purview to establish. This we believe would serve as a legacy established by your administration for the development of Akwa Ibom Youth. Convincingly, we see this as a very quick win to achieve seeing that provisions for the formulation of the Akwa Ibom State Youth Policy has been approved in the 2023 appropriation law” said the Youth Development Cluster. The benefits of formulating a state youth policy was equally highlighted in the open letter.
Additionally, the cluster reiterated the advocacy process several youth organizations and groups have undertaken since 2015 to facilitate the establishment of the Akwa Ibom Youth Development Fund (AKYDF) Bill which was passed by the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly in March 2019 and had the objective of creating job opportunities for young people, and attract counterpart funding from federal, private, and international organizations among other benefits. In the face of persistent high youth unemployment recorded in Akwa Ibom State over the years, the cluster considered the assent to the AKYDF Bill a BIG WIN against youth unemployment, restiveness, insecurity, and poverty and called on the Commissioner to speak with the Governor on the issue.
By doing this, the cluster and fourteen (14) other organizations who signed the open letter opined that history would remember the commissioner as the 1st commissioner to establish a State Youth Policy for young people and one who worked with the Governor to establish a sustainable framework backed by law for youth development in the state through the AKYDF Bill.