Nigeria Peace Corps bill to go for Committee of whole for Concurrence – Dickson Akoh

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…addressing Insecurity will solve Unemployment challenge

The National Commandant of the Peace Corps of Nigeria, PCN, Professor Dickson Akoh says that the Senate has introduced the Nigeria Peace Corps Bill, that it has passed through first reading and it is expected to go for the committee of the whole where it is expected to be moved for the Senate to concor with what the House of Representatives had already done leading to the eventual passage of the Bill.

Professor Akoh gave the indication while interacting with newsmen in Abuja.

“There’s nothing much to say, the Bill as we all know, was returned after the former president left it unattended amongst other 65 bills, and so far, so good, the House of Representatives did what they call recomittance and after passing through legislative processes, the Bill was passed on the 29th of February, 2024, and in March same year, it was transmitted to the Senate for concurrence.”
“The Senate has introduced the Bill and has passed through first reading, and what is expected now is for the Bill to go for committee of the whole where it is expected to be moved for the Senate to concor with what the House of Representatives had already done leading to the eventual passage of the Bill before being transmitted to Mr. President for his accent.”

On what had been causing the delay in the passage of the bill, Professor Akoh explained that the National Assembly had other national issues to address.

“If you look at the workload of the Senate they have over 800 Bills and they have been going on break, besides there are other National issues that have come up which may be considered superior to our own Bill.”
“We believe that a whole lot is being done; we do know that on the 22nd of October last year it was scheduled in the order paper for committee of the whole to go through the Bill and that same day pass the Bill, but I think they went into executive session that lasted for so long, and since then, I’ve not heard anything again, rather, we’re expecting that as the national assembly is resuming plenary, we’ll be able to get in touch with the sponsor of the Bill, and also the leadership that we know is/are familiar with the Bill to push for it to come up for passage.”

On youth development and empowerment, the Peace Corps National Commandant stressed the need for urgent actions against insecurity to prevent Nigerians from moving from rural areas to the cities.

“Like I always say, the security agencies, going by their numbers/their numerical strength, they’re doing a whole lot, they cannot be everywhere at the same time, and it’s expected that if you look at the function and core mandate being served by the Bill before the national assembly, it’s something that the Nigerian Peace Corps can be anywhere and be sourcing actionable intelligence and transmitting same to the security agencies for swift response.”

Dickson Akoh

“That is the best way to go in the fight against insecurity…and when this is done, the youth do not necessarily need to leave their local communities to come to the cities to work for government.”

As you all know, if you go to some remote communities (we all come from remote community), you’ll discover that in a village that has more than 85 villages…as far as my own district is concerned in Otukpo local government of Benue state, we only have 10 police men in a whole Division. How can those people penetrate into the nitty gritty of the community and be able to source for information.”

“So by taking a proactive step and allowing the Peace Corps program to fly…. the National Security Agency can set up a desk where our officers can send their findings as it borders on matters that may likely lead to breach of peace and security to them, and they will now in turn direct the relevant security agencies to act. By so doing, the Office of the National Security Adviser will keep tabs with happening in every location, and once there’s a directive from the office of National Security Adviser, no security agency or its operative will take it in itself to compromise any of such situation.”

Professor Akoh also urged the Ministry of Youths Development to set up a human rights desk to address issues of abuse and breach by security agencies and their agents.

The Corps also advised security agencies to target being proactive than reactive regarding issues of one chance, kidnapping and street begging across the country.

He commended government for introducing youth development bank which had impacted positively in the lives of young people in the Country.

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