The just-concluded Roundtable on National Issues put together by Development Specs Academy was held at the Nigerian Army Resource Centre, Abuja. The event which was greatly attended by Youth hammered on the fact that Nigeria's youths are faced with challenges at various levels such as incapacity, opportunities, and wrong role models. with the state of the Nation, covering security, growing citizen apathy, and the need to work toward inclusiveness and greater national cohesion were a few of the issues the Convener, Dr. Okey Ikechukwu conceptualized the framework for the Roundtable - to drive informed discussion and proffer solutions in a non-partisan manner, using Chatham House Rules.Related Articles
The Roundtable engagement focused on the following:
- Fake news, unverified and correct statements taken out of contest are one of the greatest issues facing society today. This is with regards to the deliberate mischief of iconoclasts, as well as the malevolent machinations of those who distort, misquote, or misrepresent audio and video content in order to tarnish the image of an individual, or organization
- The Aspirants to various political offices have every right to their aspirations in a democracy. Which one of them will ultimately emerge the candidate of the various parties is a matter beyond the control of the average citizen. The cost of forms for contesting various political offices is too high, elitist, exclusivist, and seems designed to ensure that only individuals and groups with heavy war chests can contest for political office. This is wrong. The proposed solutions include outright reduction in the cost of forms, by over 95% and return of the balance to the Aspirants, except for those of them who may wish to donate such excess to the individual parties concerned.
- The independent national electoral commission has made tremendous progress in the management of elections. The introduction of beavers has increased the credibility of the electoral process and electoral outcome tremendously. The only suggestion here is that INEC increases its public Enlightenment and political education programs, as information about some of the positive strides of the organization are yet to fully penetrate the society and the political parties.
- Only increased productivity and a change in our consumption patterns will shore up the value of our national currency and keep it up in a lasting manner. The CBN has made several interventions in this regard, including, among others, the Anchor Borrowers Program, which created and capacitated several farmers' cooperatives and enhanced their access to loans. It has created millions of jobs, taken many youths off the crime path, and rescued many local economies. Only economy-reflating activities, such as the foregoing, in addition to consuming what we produce and producing what we consume, offer the nation the prospect of bringing up the value of the National Currency and keeping it up.
The firm resolve was to continue driving objective national discourse, informed commentary on National Issues, commitment to Chatham House Rules, rejection of hearsay as knowledge, and the determination to keep all discussions rancor-free. Concerning fake news, distortions of original media content, and the general disregard for verification of sundry media output, the Roundtable noted that organizations like the CBN, INEC, and several others have been victims of near image damage because of this. In the final analysis, the Roundtable has called for a new approach to national conversations, sociopolitical education, and citizen engagement.
