PIG-D Town Hall Meeting Held in Osogbo

By Jide Afolabi, Osogbo

The Promoting Youth Participation and Inclusive Governance for Development, PIG-D, Town Hall Meeting was held in Osogbo, Osun state, today, Monday at the Leisure Spring Hotel.

The programme was organised by Oluwakemi Akinyemi and sponsored by YIAGA AFRICA with the support of the FORD Foundation.

According to Akinyemi, the objective of the meeting was to “educate the public on the need to mainstream youth in political leadership and decision making process” and “to provide platform for young people to speak about issues relating to democracy and how policies/law can improve youth political inclusion.

The meeting which brought youths from different background across the state together, provided avenue to enlighten the citizen’s on youth Affirmative Action in democratic and governance process.

Participants were divided into four groups and extensive discussions on issues around governance and youth’s participation in governance was held and various leader’s presented their report’s at the end of the discussion.

Issue’s of bad economy, poverty, god-fatherism, limited participation and lack of transparency and openness among others, were identified as major challenges confronting youth’s participation in governance. However, all the groups agreed that there was need for political education among the youth’s.

Meanwhile, the “Not Too Young To Run Movement” has kicked against automatic tickets for aspirant’s and called for a free and fair party primaries in Osun state.

The group stated this in a press release signed by the Movement, a copy of which was sent to City Mirror News, encouraged parties to, “uphold the principles of transparency and accountability in the conduct of primary elections”.

The group stated further that parties should make available, ‘credible list of delegate’s’ and venues of the primaries available and accessible to the public.