Lagos State: Monday 14th May 2018
The Lagos branch of Youth Alive Foundation (YAF) organized a partners meeting with youth organizations in Lagos state to discuss strategies that will increase the participation of Lagos state youths in the fight against corruption. The meeting which was held at the Smartx Business Hub Maryland Lagos had youth organizations identifying areas of partnership and collaboration. The project in Lagos has three strategic areas which are; Strengthening academic integrity and accountability in Tertiary/ secondary schools in Lagos State, Strengthening the capacity of YANET Lagos/ youth groups to effectively support the fight against corruption in the education sector and other emerging sector, and Public awareness to change social norms around corruption in the education sector and other emerging sectors. Notable youth organizations present were International Youth Fellowship (IYF), Women Protection Organization, African Resourceful Leadership Foundation, Africa Youth Initiative on Crime Prevention, Joint National Association of Persons with Disabilities (JONAPWD), Lagos Community Youth Volunteers, 9ja Mentors, and Beat FM.
The Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) was represented in the meeting by Mrs. Mary Omonoyan and Mrs. Popoola Oluwaseyi, ICPC Education Department. Mrs. Mary Omonoyan while giving a goodwill message commended YAF and the youth organizations present for coming together to collaborate for the good of youths in the state and expressed the commission’s commitments to support the implementation of the Y-PAC project in Lagos state. The Executive Director of Youth Alive Foundation (YAF), Dr. Udy Okon during a question and answer session made the following remarks,
“The truth is that youths are not ready to fight corruption but that is because their spirit has been broken by the prevalent impunity coupled with corrupt local, state and national systems. We must revive the spirit of youths in groups and individually to take personal responsibility towards the fight against corruption. This is what the Y-PAC project is seeking to achieve.”
The Y-PAC project is a DFID funded project that commenced April 2017 in Abuja and seeks to engage youths as active advocates in the fight against corruption through capacity building, behavior change communications and civic engagements. Y-PAC is spearheading the MADACT (Make a Different against Corruption Today) Movement. The website for the movement is www.madact.ng.
