National Youth leader of the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) Ibrahim Dasuki Jalo, has declared that the party has not endorsed and does not have any preferred candidate as the next President of the National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN), adding that the organisation is yet to conduct its election.
The APC youth leader however urged Nigerians to disregard some of the aspirants already declaring themselves as the leader of the council or associating themselves with the APC.
Speaking with the newsmen at the party Secretariat on Thursday in Abuja, Hon. Dasuki Jalo, said that the Youth ministry and minister which coordinate the affairs of the youth has to be in place before any election could hold.
He said: “There was supposed to be an election for the National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN) but we all witnessed what happened particularly that the election could not hold because of the crises, but for the reason that President Muhammadu Buhari’s government is new, therefore they have to make sure that all things are in place before they can go ahead with the election.
“Though, we hard that some people are saying they emerged the leadership of the council but to my own understanding there was no election and the party has not endorsed anybody and the party has not asked anybody to contest for any position. What we are looking forward to is to ensure that new executive council members are in place, particularly the Minister of Youth who will be responsible for the conduct of the NYCN election.”
According to him, “Our advice is that if at election is going to hold there has to be mechanism in place to ensure that things are done in proper way and in proper manner.
“Let me give example of my state, Gombe, from my investigation there was no youth council election for the past ten years, so if you want to build a structure you have to start from the foundation, so, youth council election to my understanding the youth council we election have to start from the local government to state and the federal, that’s how you get your delegates and know who and who suppose to come and vote for the national leaders.”
Speaking on the crisis rocking the council the APC youth leader said the problem has been lingering for a long time therefore APC can not take responsibility for it.
“We have to make sure that we look into it thoroughly and address some of the problems we inherited before we can come up with a position.”
Jalo also assured that youth development is one of the major three point priority of President Buhari, adding that Nigerian youths will soon be better for it.
