TheCable

Tajudeen Abbas, speaker of the house of representatives, says the country will only be able to build a prosperous and inclusive digital society through the efforts of the youths.

Abbas spoke on Thursday in Abuja at a one-day training programme on leadership and digital literacy organised by the Solomon and Mary Lar Foundation.

Represented by Al-Hassan Ado Doguwa, a Kano lawmaker, the speaker said the youths are future leaders of the country.

“Remember that you are the future leaders of our nation, and it is through your efforts that we will build a prosperous and inclusive digital society,” he said.

The speaker said the national assembly has worked towards giving opportunities to young people and that is why it passed the Not-Too-Young-To-Run and startup bills into law.

“The national assembly has over the years recognised the need to ensure that young people are given the opportunity to develop their potential as leaders in the society and have come up with various legislations to empower them.

“That was why in 2018, we passed the Not-Too-Young-To-Run Bill which was signed into law by the last administration.

“This was made to remove age barriers in some elective positions in government to pave the way for young people to vie to political offices.

“The Nigerian Startup Act, 2022 was part of the innovations in information technology to create jobs for the young people in the area of technology.”

On her part, Mary Lar, widow of the late Solomon Lar, a former governor of Plateau, said she and her husband have always wanted to empower the youths.

“When we started thinking about this (event), there were three things that came to mind. Our dad left us 10 years ago and we want to thank God that he has sustained us,” the former ambassador said.

“I don’t want to feel that he has sustained us to be useless to the nation.

“Especially to say that Nigerians live in peace, unity, and love – this was when he was in the hospital.”

On his part, Samson Itodo, executive director of Yiaga Africa, said the youths should work towards deepening democracy as military rule “is not an option”.