By CHARLES IWUOHA

The Enugu State Government, on Monday, urged youths to use digital advocacy and community engagement in contributing their quota to change societal ills.

The Special Assistant to the State Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi on Innovation, Science and Technology, Mr. Elvis Obi-Nwankwo, made the call during a Youth Stakeholders Roundtable Dialogue to commemorate the International Youth Day 2021 in Enugu.

The dialogue was themed, “Roles of Youth in Creating an Innovative Community Engagement in Tackling Climate Crisis and Promoting Food Security”.

The event, which attracted executives of top non-governmental organisations in the state, was organised by Town Crier Initiative Africa and LEAP Africa.

Obi-Nwankwo noted that the only way youths can subdue the current societal ills and make an impact with limited resources was for them to embrace technological innovations.

“Youths must innovatively think on how to solve the challenge of climate change and food insecurity because we cannot continue to tackle them in the same old ways and expect new or better results.

“Youths must be able to think outside the box and come out with something new, such as smart innovation, to drive a change as well as solve societal ills.

“Where digital advocacy cannot penetrate, you do practical community engagement and if possible give them better alternative to counter the wrong way they have been doing things before now,” he said.

Also speaking, the Executive Director of Heroine Women Foundation, Mrs. Onyinye Mamah, said that digital advocacy remained the surest and cheapest way of appealing and reorienting a lot of people against a particular societal ill.

“Collective digital advocacy on an issue can make much impact since with time the message will be imbibed and everybody would be saying the same thing concerning an issue and the change will certainly come,” Mamah said.

The Executive Director of Town Crier Initiative Africa, Mr. Ogene Ogbodo, noted that youths needed to make impact through volunteering their time and intellect to pursuit gainful societal programmes to effect change in the status quo.

Ogbodo said that the trust of working collective was to ensure glaring results in record time as well as encourage activists and NGOs in the struggle to make the society a better place to live.

“There is a need for us youths to synergise and work to surmount bsocietal challenges through collective efforts and sacrifices,” he said.

The President of Enugu State Young Farmers Association, Mr. Kenneth Eze, said that there were limited youths engaging in agriculture, while the food insecurity and shortage was real in the country due to low productivity.

Eze said that youths must arise through advocacy to encourage each other to take up all forms of agriculture especially modern agriculture practices in order to replace the aging farmers in the country.

The Executive Director of Daniel Ukwu Leadership Foundation, Mr. Daniel Ukwu, urged youths to take up the leadership challenge in the country by coming out with thoughtful ideas and innovation to drive change.

“It is us (youths) that will make the needed change for our generation and that of our children to be better and be able to confront challenges of climate change and shortage of food being experienced.

“God will not come from heaven and effect change here. We must think out how we will get out of the woods and get to the promise land, which is the hallmark of excellent leadership,” Ukwu said.

Update news