By Bilesanmi Abayomi
Some youths in the Agboyi-Ketu Local Council Development Area (LCDA) have urged the Chairman, Mayor Dele Oshinowo, to enhance community development through continuous youth engagement and involvement in governance in the area.
Delivering a key note address on youth engagement in governance, Mr. Adeyemi Thomas noted that the involvement of youths was the only civil participation to bring the people at the grassroots closer to the government.
Over the years, it has been the government that champions the course of governance. However, we also observe that there is a disconnect between the government and the people, and people are not aware of the politics and programmes of the government.
“When our politicians came before us, there was what is called a social contract. They entered into a social contract with the people. They have promised that they will implement all their campaign promises when they get to the office.
“Therefore, we need to hold our government accountable for all of their campaign promises. How well are they doing it? And that is an act of civic engagement, and you need to be involved,” he said.
Thomas said the youths should not castigate a government that is not doing well if they have not even made any effort to make the people in government accountable.
He added that on the part of the government, they need to engage the community more, asking the community for the benefit of citing a project when such projects would not benefit the community.
Thomas said the summit was a mix of civic participation and community engagement, which would further community development.
Speaking, Mr. Tosin Ogundipe, the Special Adviser, ICT & Infrastructure to Mayor Dele Oshinowo, Chairman, Agboyi-Ketu LCDA, explained that the summit was basically to enhance development in society through engagement and involvement.
Ogundipe said this was because the available statistics in this area showed that the youth were the largest and they felt their fathers and mothers were getting old and the youth must now get involved.
He said it was now left to them to bring this awareness about youth involvement in governance to street by street in the LCDA.
According to him, we will try our best to tell the people to connect to our social media page on Facebook, which is “agboyi ketu voice.” Like our page so they can get the latest activities of the LCDA.
He promised that the council would also create more connectivity so they could make the community better.
In his opening remarks, the Youth Group Stakeholders Summit, YGSS President, Kayode Ojo, noted that the essence of the summit was to make them feel the impact of governance so rapid growth could meet the needs of the old and young in the community.
Ojo said the summit came at the right time and in the right direction to improve community development and self-determination.
“I am all out to be nominated as the President of YGSS and today, I will be having a maiden edition of this gathering, which is the first and definitely won’t be the last.
“This is something that we will be having from time to time, probably every quarter, and I believe that this is going to change the face of governance and social community development as a whole.
“Our gathering today is not about a party, but it is more importantly about how we can work together as a team. Our goal is to help our community’s social and economic development.
“Why we are here is because we want to bring the government closer to us and we want to be closer to the government,” he said.
Ojo said he believed that governance was all about the grassroots, adding that when they could not feel governance, then there was no government.
Some youths that participated in the well-attended summit during the answer and question sections complained of a lack of social amenities such as motorable roads and pipeborne water in their area.
They also complained of the lack of a drainage system, affordable health care, empowerment and employment opportunities for young people and a lack of youth involvement in governance policies and programmes in the area.
Reacting, the Agboyi Ketu Youth leader, Hon. Toheeb Durosimi, while appealing to the youths, recited the achievements of Mayor Dele Oshinowo of Agboyi Ketu in all critical sectors amidst a paucity of funds.
Durosimi noted the lackadaisical attitude of the youths towards governance and their representatives as councilors might be responsible for barriers to effective communication.
He urged the youths to get involved in the decision-making by attending councilors’ town hall meetings and getting closer to their representatives.
The youth leader added that the chairman could not be everywhere at the same time; however, their councilors should be in the best position to advocate for their community’s needs.