Friday 3rd JULY, 2020: STATEMENT BY OYV ON THE PLIGHT OF THE YOUTH AND ATTEMPTS BY GOVERNMENT TO ADDRESS THEM
OPERATION YOUNG VOTE (OYV)
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LUSAKA
Friday 3rd JULY, 2020: STATEMENT BY OYV ON THE PLIGHT OF THE YOUTH AND ATTEMPTS BY GOVERNMENT TO ADDRESS THEM
By Guess Nyirenda (Mr.)
Executive Director
THE Youth anywhere in the world, are not only a critical and inevitable human capital and resource in development but must also be treated and seen to be treated as an integral component.
While we at Operation Young Vote appreciate the efforts by the Government of the Republic of Zambia in trying to respond to the plight of the Youth in the country, we are of the very well-considered view that the acts by Government are somehow a cosmetic intervention meant to attract the youth vote – which is the majority block in the 2021 general elections and disjointed and seem to be acts of desperation.
Maxwell Simbuwa is a Zambian Children Young People and Women in Development (ZCYPWD) member
It is quite shocking and worrying that a Government that has a ‘perfectly’ developed and launched (and supposed to be in operation) 2015 National Youth Policy and its accompanying Implementation Framework and the Youth Empowerment and Employment Action Plan, can begin to work in such an haphazard manner where almost all Ministers are paraded to address the Youth.
This clearly shows that Government generally and the Minister of Youth, Sport and Child Development in particular have been sleeping all this time regarding matters of Youth.
President Edgar Chagwa Lungu with Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD) President Edith Zewelani Nawakwi
As OYV, we retaliate our message for the 2020 National Youth Day Commemoration that we gave on the 12th of March this year on the theme “I take the lead”. The 12th March statement is reproduced at the end of this statement for the benefit of those that could have missed it.
The admittance by the PF Government that it has fallen short of the expectations of the Youth is well noted on one hand but the haphazard mode of addressing the plight of this very important sector of society due to panic is not sustainable.
It is seemingly some strategy to win the favour of the youth in relation to their numbers for 2021 election.
We again would like to remind the Government that the Youth are not homogeneous but heterogeneous in nature meaning that any intervention to answer to their plight must be as comprehensive and all-encompassing in outlook, strategy and implementation as possible following what the policy framework espouses.
We further would like to note and advise that these haste intervention which were supposed to have been done strategically and with focus from the time the PF ascended to power or better still at the time of launching the National Youth Policy, its Implementation Framework and the Youth empowerment and employment Action Plan in 2015, are likely not to yield favourable results for the youth but rather cause more confusion.
In conclusion we at OYV are convinced that what the youth are interested in right now are NOT HANDOUTS But:
a) Respect for their rights to express themselves and engage in any national discourse as partners or equals and not second class citizens whose significance is only realized and respected in the run up to and during elections;
b) Policy directions espoused in the National Youth Policy, its Implementation Framework and the Youth empowerment and employment Action Plan of 2015 which is supported by a progressive law and not the archaic NYDC Act of 1994; and
c) Other proposal contained in the OYV 12th March 2020 Youth Day Commemoration Statement as attached.
For and on Behalf of Operation Young Vote (OYV)
Guess Nyirenda (Mr.)
Executive Director
Guess Nyirenda
