A human rights organization under the aegis of Plan International has enlisted the services of youths from Niger, Cameroon, and Nigeria to become agents of change in the stabilisation of Lake Chad Basin.
The organisation’s Regional Project Manager (European Union Project), Lisa Angulo said this in Abuja during a regional exchange meeting on youth leading the stabilisation efforts in the Lake Chad Basin.
According to her, the regional exchange meeting has brought together young people from the three countries to promote learning, connection, and experience sharing of international best practices.
Angulo said this would help the participating youth to create awareness among themselves on their role towards establishing peaceful coexistence in the Lake Chad region.
She said that the ‘European Union funded project would contribute to the effective participation of young people in peace building efforts.
Angulo said the protracted crisis in the Lake Chad Basin region remained one of the most severe humanitarian emergencies in the world affecting the North East of Nigeria, Far North Region of Cameroon, Lake Chad region of Chad, and the Diffa region of Niger.
“The EU Project is all about stabilisation and participation of the youths. It is a way to make sure that youths be one active agent in stabilisation of the region.
“Youths are often excluded from power and it is time they are included. We want the youths to be independent agent, use the capacity building, and the internet they are working on to help themselves and also train generation coming after”, Angulo said.
A representative of Borno State youths, Abdulrazak Abubakar, said the project had been impactful. Abubakar said that there was need to restrategise efforts toward the attainment of regional stabilisation in the Lake Chad Basin.
He added that the youths were engaged in issues that had to do with the collection of data ranging from educational infrastructures and health infrastructures in the communities.
Abubakar said that this would help them in approaching the government on concerted efforts in providing such infrastructures to the communities.
He said, “Youths from the participating countries have come to discuss issues bothering on social economic wellbeing of the youths, youths participation in decision making and regional stabilisation efforts.
“This discourse will go a long way in complimenting the engagement with other countries to ensure that youths are liberated from instability and social vices.”
Abubakar stressed that the representatives from the three countries had shared experiences and strategies the different countries had adopted to advocate for peace building, gender equality, and participation in governance.
Also, another representative from Niger, Boulama Bintou, commended the efforts of Plan International, saying that the training in data collection had helped to improve the situation of the country.
Bintou said the meeting had helped in creating awareness amongst the duty bearers on the importance of valuing the role of young people in building peaceful coexistence, community development, post-conflict reconstructions, rehabilitation, and rebuilding process in the region.
A youth representative from Cameroun, Arsa Ngatsme, said that they were ready to implement the experiences to fast-track development in the country.
The Lake Chad Programme is a joint initiative from Plan International’s Country Offices in Cameroon, Niger, and Nigeria as well as its West and Central Africa Hub.
The project was established to address the crisis in the Lake Chad Basin through an integrated and regional programme approach.
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