Youth minister, Jemila Bio Ibrahim warned against convening town hall meeting during youth restiveness

DR. JEMILA BIO IBRAHIM SHOULD BE INFORMED THAT TOWN HALL MEETING IS A WEIRD APPROACH IN A PERIOD OF YOUTH RESTIVENESS

Being text of press statement by the Concerned Youth Alliance for Tinubu (COYAT) dated this 5th August, 2024

2. chose the easy way out by arranging a controlled event like a town hall where she will have the opportunity to select the faces she wanted to see.
3. I think it was the second day of the protest or thereabouts that our attention was drawn to her junior colleague, the Minister of State, Ayodele engaging with a group of protesters somewhere in Abuja. If Dr. Jemila cannot do that, she should at least visit locations with large concentration of youth to engage and talk to them directly.
4. While we understand that the planned town hall meeting is scheduled to hold in the South West Zone, we would like to use this medium to warn Dr. Jemila to not bring her town meeting to anywhere in the North. If she cannot engage with us in places where majority of us can have the opportunity to speak to her, she should not insult us with the selection of her preferred faces to attend any town hall meeting on our behalf.
5. We also have it on good authority that the Minister has collected over 2 billion naira on the excuse that she wants to engage youth in order to stop the protests.
6. On our own, the only engagement we want with Dr. Jemila is one that is open, free and not restricted. We want her to speak to us on the streets and other places we converge as youth. She should meet us where we congregate to get diverse and frank opinions. We do not want an ‘arrangee gathering’ tagged as town hall. Any attempt to ignore this warning and hold any town hall meeting anywhere in the North would be met with stiff resistance. A word is enough for the wise.
7. Before now, Dr. Jemila finds it difficult to engage with youth who approach her, either in her office or at any public fora. If she hadn’t been talking to them before now, she should have reasoned that she has no justification to seek to engage with them now. Hence, she chose the easy way out by arranging a controlled event like a town hall where she will have the opportunity to select the faces she wanted to see.
8. I think it was the second day of the protest or thereabouts that our attention was drawn to her junior colleague, the Minister of State, Ayodele engaging with a group of protesters somewhere in Abuja. If Dr. Jemila cannot do that, she should at least visit locations with large concentration of youth to engage and talk to them directly.
9. While we understand that the planned town hall meeting is scheduled to hold in the South West Zone, we would like to use this medium to warn Dr. Jemila to not bring her town meeting to anywhere in the North. If she cannot engage with us in places where majority of us can have the opportunity to speak to her, she should not insult us with the selection of her preferred faces to attend any town hall meeting on our behalf.
10. We also have it on good authority that the Minister has collected over 2 billion naira on the excuse that she wants to engage youth in order to stop the protests.
11. On our own, the only engagement we want with Dr. Jemila is one that is open, free and not restricted. We want her to speak to us on the streets and other places we converge as youth. She should meet us where we congregate to get diverse and frank opinions. We do not want an ‘arrangee gathering’ tagged as town hall. Any attempt to ignore this warning and hold any town hall meeting anywhere in the North would be met with stiff resistance. A word is enough for the wise.