Community youth associations in Lagos State under the aegis of Lagos Community Youth Development Initiative (LCYDI) are demanding for total reformation in government at all levels to create avenue for inclusion of youth in governance and take welfare of Nigerians as most priority.

Speaking after a recent emergency meeting of the organisation, LCYDI Chairman, Amb. Akanni Michael, described the #EndSARS protests as a results of long-term neglect of youths and bad governance in Nigeria which has caused a distrust of the system.

“We are not motivated politically but we realised that Government in Nigeria need urgent Reformation,” he said in a statement made available to journalists in Ikeja.

Michael lamented that “several years had gone by and same stories kept popping up in the nation about the issue of bad governance and corruption within the system. We should not forget that Youths are major stakeholders in Community and also contribute close to 70% of population in Nigeria. We are sidelined in the scheme of things from the local government to Federal Government.”

He noted that the “the #EndSARS & #EndPoliceBrutality campaign had given birth to more demands which also need urgent attention of government at this time. The ongoing protests across the nation have no specific leader leading the protests, youths seized the opportunity to make more demands on pressing issues in the country because of the obvious neglect they had experienced from the leaders. Government should not just engage some set of individual but representation should come from Community level.”

The LCYDI Chairman believes that things must be put into proper perspective if Nigeria must move forward.

According to him, “A new social value system should be considered where youths are assessed at all levels in the nation’s leadership. The challenges facing youth development in Nigeria will not let anyone have peace of mind if the right things are not done.

“The issue of deploying military to stop the peaceful protests, he noted, will definitely not solve the matters because this is democracy, adding that government should be ready to take responsibility to people’s demands at all level. Government must realise that certain things cannot happen with force as the worst will happen if the military is meted on protesting Youths who are sacrificing their time and energy to put forward demands that will affect the country positively, compare to other developed nations.

“Our leaders should not forget that youths are important in all sectors of society. They drive labour and create prosperity in regions and this should be acknowledged. Nigeria youths are hard working in diverse areas. They need the kind of atmosphere at which they can believe in themselves and put their ideas to work and make comfortable living.

“It will not be easy to swiftly put to an end the protests because it has no leader. This unfolds to us the resilience and the new kind of philosophy driving the youths.”