Special assistant to the president on youth initiatives, Titilope Gbadamosi, has called for the adoption of technology especially, the Artificial Intelligence (AI) for empowerment of youths and deepening of democracy in the country.
Gbadamosi made the call at the 2024 close-out ceremony of the Accelerating Youth Participation in Governance (AYPG2024) Fellowship organised by PROMAD in Abuja with the theme: “Rethinking Youth Participation in Governance in the Era of Artificial Intelligence.”
He urged the successful fellows to downscale the knowledge gained and to take up the front seats on matters of leadership, political participation and governance of their country.
She noted that President Bola Tinubu is committed to youth empowerment in the realms of politics and economic advancement, hence he has appointed many young persons in his cabinet and other positions.
While encouraging youths in the country to square up with their peers abroad, Gbadamosi said; „The driving force behind the youths abroad is same for the youths in the country; regardless of locations we have a common tie that binds us by heart.
Those who are abroad and those who are in Nigeria, we all want a better Nigeria and we are all working towards that. Especially the young people who are very active in governance, just as those who are here are passionate about Nigeria. Those who are abroad are equally passionate about Nigeria, because there is no place like home.“
On his part, the executive director of PROMAD, Daisi Omokungbe, said the AYPG2024 aimed at improving youths‘ understanding of the use of Artificial Intelligence and its impacts in leadership, political participation and governance.
Omokungbe said Al is very important for the youths who are agents and enablers of new technology and that was why PROMAD took this year‘s fellowship from that aspect.
He said, „What we have done today is that we have brought 18 young leaders from the six area councils of the Federal Capital Territory and we have trained them on participation in governance.
The training and the insight of the keynote speaker and the panelist today has also shown how we can harness technology in terms of data, analysing fake news and for better informed decision making.“
Also, the executive director of Yiaga Africa, Samson Itodo said Artificial Intelligence can accelerate decision making that can equally advance development, spur economic growth as well as improve critical sectors of the economy and democracy.
If you are working on elections, you can use AI to clean up your voter‘s register especially if your voter register contains death and fake unqualified persons in the voter register. You can use AI to even determine and locate your polling unit. AI can also be used to counter disinformation and misinformation which is posing a huge threat in our economy and also in our democratic life,“ he said.
In her remarks, the representative of Nigeria Youth Future Fund (NYFF), Maimuna Sani, urged the participants to apply the knowledge gained from the fellowship, to hold and engage their elected policy makers and representatives to ensure that they are included in government plans, policies and programmes.
She said the AYPG2024 fellowship emphasised their commitment to strengthen youth participation in governance, to activate, amplify and mainstream youths’ voices into policy conversations.