Chairman of the House Committee on Women Affairs, Kafilat Ogbara has urged leaders to make way for young people and prepare them for effective future leadership.Ogbara made the call yesterday when she received a delegation of Students Parliament who paid her a courtesy visit at the National Assembly Complex in Abuja.
The lawmaker, who emphasised the need to get young people involved in everything in the society, commended the organisers of the programme for the gesture they had demonstrated inorder to elevate the younger generation.”Most times children are left behind. I am happy with this national leadership conference being organised today in Abuja by Bamidele Salam. We need to start including our young people in everything that we do,” she said.Nigerian Children’s Parliament had urged the federal government to earmark and channel a substantial percentage of the savings accrued from the removal of petroleum subsidy into improving and expanding access to quality education at all levels in the 2025 budget.It said this should be with a focus on infrastructural development, capacity building and recruitment of qualified educators.It also called on the federal government to allocate a defined proportion of 50 percent of the subsidy savings for the rehabilitation and enhancement of the health sector, with a special focus on maternal and child health services.It also advocated for the establishment of dedicated welfare programmes aimed at addressing the nutritional, psychological and social needs of Nigerian children, using part of the savings to fund school feeding initiatives, promotion of child rights and child protection services.It urged relevant ministries, departments and agencies of government to put in place a transparent framework to track and publicly disclose the expenditure of these savings in accordance with set targets and measurable outcomes, thereby ensuring accountability and trust among citizens, particularly children: Founder of CALDEV, Salam stressed the need for children to be active participants in shaping the future.He said the underpinning philosophy of the programme was hinged on the necessity to convoke the largest and most diverse gathering of children leaders across Nigeria.This, he said was to promote national cohesion, loyalty, unity and integration, as well as foster patriotism among the participants who cut across the north, south, east and west of the country.
