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Miracleneck

Why PDP Govs & Elders Must Ensure 35% Youth Representation In The New NWC

Why PDP Govs & Elders Must Ensure 35% Youth Representation in the New NWCAccording to population projections by the United Nations, about 62 percent of the Nigerian population are below the age of 25 years. By contrast, less than 5 percent is aged 60 years and above.It is a known fact that young people constitute over 60% of the Nigerian population and it is this class of the population that has borne the brunt of the systematic annihilation of the Nigerian economy by the APC led administration of General Mohammadu Buhari.Available data indicates that Nigeria's total unemployment rate rose to 33.30% in Q1 2021 from 27.10% in Q2 2020, and of the population, unemployed youth accounted for 53.4% in Q1 2021 from 40.8%.Young people in the PDP are yearning to be part of the solution that will librate our nation from the shackles of poverty, hopelessness, joblessness and insecurity.The energy, the drive, the passion to succeed, the innovation and invention of new ideas and ways of doing things is a major defining trait among young people.Beyond constituting the population at campaign rallies, young people within the PDP are packed with ideas and armed with innovative blueprints that entails working smart to galvanize Nigerians to librate ourselves from the current tyranny and unify our country for greatness which has been the hallmark of our great party.The emergence of new brand of young members of the party projecting the party on great light since 2013 has become very clear and apparent.However, in the last few years, young people in the party have been frustrated and without the required numbers in the decision making body, they have been left to implement strategies they do not understand because they made little or no contribution to its formulation.Attempts to coalesce forces by young people to champion the agenda of the party were also thrown into the dust bin in favour mediocre ideas that wasted meagre funds and left Nigerians wondering if we knew what we were doing as an opposition party.This malevolence against young people within the party led to the current revolt and full scale decent which culminated in the decision by NEC to hold our National convention ahead of time.As we prepare for one of the most defining conventions in the history of our great party, it has become important to draw the attention of critical stakeholders, especially our Governors who have continued to provide exemplary leadership on the need to ensure that young people form a significant portion of New NWC in order to fully maximize the benefits and contributions of the millions of young Nigerians who constitute the vast majority of our party.Unfortunately, even the non performing APC has embraced young people into its party structure while the largest party in Africa still constitutionally excludes Young People from its own Board of trustees with membership age still pegged at 60.Nevertheless, as young people we welcome the statement made by Alh. Atiku Abubakar our Presidential flag bearer in th last General Elections and former Vice President at the 94th National Executive Committeep werein hes stated that "Talking about inclusion, I will like to see a new national working committee of our party that has sizeable numbers of youths and women"Comments like these are heartwarming and shows that our fathers, elders and leaders understand our yearnings and the reality that times have changed.The 2021 National elective convention provides an excellent platform for Governor's, Elders and other critical stakeholders to critically look at the continued under-representation of young people in the NWC as well as other organs of the party to ensure that experienced young minds make up at least 35% of the NWC membership.If young people are the greatest asset we have, then it makes sense that they should form a significant part of the strategy and solution finding process that will ensure that PDP returns to wining ways at all levels.

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Miracleneck

Bartomeo:I Would Have Not Let Messi Leave If I Was Still President.

Josep Maria Bartomeu's time as Barcelona president ended in disgrace, but that hasn't stopped him from stepping forward to criticise Joan Laporta's time at the club so far.Following Lionel Messi's exit over the summer, Bartomeu has been left unimpressed with Laporta's work in the job, this despite Bartomeu's presence at the club almost driving Messi out a year earlier."They let Messi leave and that seems like a bad decision to me," Bartomeu said, speaking to Sport, Mundo Deportivo and others."Playing without Messi shows that a lot of things have to change."As president, I didn't want Messi to leave and I did everything I could to prevent it from happening."Defending his board and KoemanBartomeu continued, offering a defence of his much criticised board, who have continued to face blame for the club's current financial state."I'm not afraid," Bartomeu said. "Nobody from my board put their hand into the till. You can't hide that, and after so many months we would have known by now."Nothing came out in the audit nor when they did their due diligence. They can do whatever they want."The former president was the man who appointed Ronald Koeman as coach, and he believes the Dutchman is still the right man for the job."He's prepared," Bartomeu said. "You have to be patient to allow him to build a team without the best player in the world."I think the squad have a lot of talent, especially young talent."Barcelona - English