Shekarau Angyu, the Aku Uka of Wukari and Chairman, Taraba State Traditional Council, has advised youths to obtain their Permanent Voters’ Cards, PVCs, before scrambling to endorse politicians.
“It is only when you have PVCs that your endorsement of politicians seeking elected offices can make meaning; without the cards, you are wasting your time,” Mr Angyu, paramount ruler of the Jukun nation, said in Wukari on Thursday.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the youths were at the palace to inform the royal father about their intention to hold a rally to endorse Governor Darius Ishaku to re-contest in 2019.
They were led by Samson Ado, the Youth Leader of Taraba North Senatorial District.
“I have obtained my PVC. I want all of you to obtain yours. You can’t influence anything if you don’t have the card. Without the PVC, your rally will have no effect,” he said.
He reminded the youths that it was with the PVC that they could exercise their civic responsibility to decide who should lead them.
The royal father counselled the youths to support governments’ efforts to make Nigeria a better place to live in.
“In Taraba, the governor is the father of all. At the national level, President Muhammadu Buhari is the father of all. It is in our interest to support them to succeed,” he said. .
He declined comment on the youths’ mission, choosing to rather remind them that INEC was yet to officially lift the ban on political activities.
Mr Angyu said that INEC’s continuous voters registration exercise would soon end, and advised the youths to get their cards “before it is too late”.
He said that the youths were Nigeria’s major asset and charged them to deploy their energies to positive ventures.
NAN reports that the youths, drawn from Ussa, Takum, Donga, Wukari and Ibi Local Government Areas, later converged at the Atoshi Recreation Centre, Wukari and marched through major streets of the town, calling on Ishaku to re-contest in 2019.
Presenting the certificate of endorsement to the governor at the PDP zonal office in Wukari, Ado said that the governor’s achievements had necessitated the call on him to re-contest.
According to the youth leader, the governor has touched the lives of the people in various ways.
He listed Ishaku’s major achievements to include rural roads construction, provision of water, job creation and youth empowerment.
Responding, Gov. Ishaku, represented by his Special Adviser on Political Matters, Alhaji Abubakar Bawa, thanked the youths for recognising his achievements, and urged them to always be peaceful in their conduct.
The governor pledged to continue to execute projects and programmes that would improve the living standards of the rural populace.
NAN
