ABUJA— THE Senator Ibrahim Mantu-led Palliatives Committee on cushioning the effects of the recent price hike has received the positions of all stakeholders represented on the committee, with Nigerian youth calling on the Federal Government to establish Youth Mass Transit, which is fashioned along the Labour Mass Transit, to ease the high cost of transportation.
The government has earmarked a whopping N5 billion in the 2005 budget for the implementation of the palliative measures as soon as they are packaged by the committee and agreed to by the government.
President of the National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN), Mr. Ben Duntoye told Weekend Vanguard at the end of the committee’s meeting Thursday that the positions of the youths also included a suggestion to the government to create an enabling environment for agricultural activities.
According to Duntoye, "we thank the President for this initiative; as part of our suggested palliative measures, we are talking about employment for young people of this great country, we have said that we want to go back to the land. So, we want the government to create immediately an enabling environment for us to go into agriculture.
"Also, the increase in the prices of petroleum products is affecting the cost of transportation; and to that extent, we want the government to establish what we call the Youth Mass Transit to go round every local government of the country. This is going to reduce cost of transportation and make transportation easier particularly for the youth population.
"The multiplier effects of this return to the land (agricultural activities) and Youth Mass Transit would be job creation for the youth". Duntoye stated further that the youth are pushing for the immediate release of the minimum sum of N500 million for organized youth bodies "where they can use the money in form of revolving soft loans for their members that have been affected through this fuel price hike to set up small businesses".
He said that they have also suggested that government should release a sum of N10, 000:00 per student in the country through the three tiers of government to assist "those students in our higher institutions to help them defray the prohibitive costs of basic school needs".
"Government should also build hostels and go back to the idea of providing breakfast, lunch and dinner at subsidized cost through the meal ticket system", he said, pointing out "government should provide good roads, rail system as an alternative to road transportation and improvement in the power generation industry".
Duntoye called on the youth to be calm and peaceful as efforts are being made to ensure that they benefit greatly from the measures being fashioned out to cushion the effects of the fuel price hike.
"I promise to provide a responsible leadership in this circumstance. Immediately we came out of the meeting, my members have been reaching me on phone, wanting to know how far we have gone. We have talked to our members to have faith in the ability of this committee to deliver.
"The Chairman of the Committee, Senator Mantu has been very focused in the discharge of the assignment given to the committee; he has brought to bear so far his leadership and patriotic attributes in the running of the committee business and this is what is making the committee very strong and Nigerian youth believe that with his leadership of the committee, there is going to be progress", he stated.
He alleged that some people in some quarters were trying to sabotage the efforts of the committee, but stated, "the Committee is focused and the Nigerian youth are fully ready to back this committee to make it work, not like the many committees we have had in the past. This committee will work and Nigeria will be a better place in the long run".
