The Enugu State Government has advised the youths to use digital advocacy and community engagement to tackle the rising rate of societal ills in the country.
The Special Assistant to the Governor on Innovation, Science and Technology, Mr Elvis Obi-Nwankwo, made the call on Sunday at a Youth Stakeholders Round-table to commemorate the 2021 International Youth Day in Enugu.
The theme of the meeting is “Roles of youth in creating an innovative community engagement in tackling climate crisis and promoting food security”.
Obi-Nwankwo said the only way youths could deal with the nation’s societal ills and make impact with limited resources was to embrace technological innovations.
Also, the Executive Director of Heroine Women Foundation, Mrs Onyinye Mamah, said ditigal advocacy remained the surest and cheapest way to appeal and reorientate a lot of people against a particular societal ill.
“Collective digital advocacy on an issue can make much impact since with time the message will be imbibed and everybody would be saying the same thing concerning an issue and the change will certainly come,” Mamah said.
The President of Enugu State Young Farmers Association, Mr Kenneth Eze, said there were few youths engaged in agriculture, even with the food insecurity real in the country due to low productivity.
Eze said youths must arise through advocacy to encourage each other to take up all forms of agriculture, especially modern agriculture practices.
He said the measure would help in replacing the aging farmers in the country.
The Executive Director of Daniel Ukwu Leadership Foundation, Mr Daniel Ukwu, urged youths to take up the leadership challenge in the country by being innovative to drive a change.
“It is us (youths) that will make the needed change for our generation and that of our children to be better and be able to confront challenges of climate change and shortage of food being experienced”, he said.
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