A non-governmental organisation (NGO) called Brain Builders Youth Development Initiative (BBYDI), under a project called “YouthGovTracka," on Friday, March 22, charged Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna State to reintroduce the Ministry of Youth and Culture to the state.
BBYDI also urged Sani to take into consideration the appointment of a young person of 35 years of age and below to man the ministry to reflect its mandate.
Recall that the immediate past governor of the state, Nasir El-Rufai, in 2019 issued an executive order and transferred the mandates of that ministry to the expanded Ministry of Human Services and Social Development (MHSSD) as a department under it.
Joy Gadani, Youth Focal Person in Kaduna State, and two others, in a written communication issued at the end of a collaborative visit to the director of youths, MHSSD, by members of "YouthGivTravha,” affirmed that the campaign manifesto of Governor Sani pledged to prioritise young people as the largest demographic in Kaduna State.
From skills development to education, sport, and health, our programmes will build and support the ability of young people to prosper, as the written communication quoted Uba Sani as saying in one of his current public engagements.
Some of the concerns raised in the communiqué include: Zero implementation framework of the National Youth Policy; zero budgetary allocation for the Kaduna Start-up Entrepreneurship Programme (KADSTEP); counterpart funding in the 2024 budget despite being captured as one of the items on the manifesto; low awareness of the existence of the policy, the absence of youth staff at the youth department of MHSSD, and the suspension of the Sir Kashim Ibrahim Fellowship from 2023, despite the N172.9 billion in funds voted for it in the 2024 budget.
