The Bonny Youth Federation serving as an instrument of advocacy for the youths, with has representatives from the major ancestral settlements that make-up the Bonny Kingdom, whom are addressed as Delegates, yet there is no recognition of the organization outside the borders of this community.
Having existed for more than two decades, with no significant difference or what I call reasonable impact and sustainable developmental milestones, Mission Statement and Vision. Incidental to what I have observed as a cause of this, is her “kindergarten” Constitution or Bye-law.
Her Executives have a two-year serving term with each administration coming and leaving without a bearing. Everyone of her previous administrations have built on a selfish strategy to sustain its activities, until the two years term is completed and a new administration commences, with no focus and yet the youths of Bonny expect so much from this Organisation.
During the organisation’s early years it had used a traditional strategy known as tying of ‘OMU’ (palm fronds) to compel the multinationals to yield to her peanut plights, which has produced results based on the naivety of the indigenes, no doubt. Time has changed, the multinationals are now familiar with this old and outdated strategies, like an HIV virus, they have developed what medical science calls resistant strain to this strategies.
Administrations come, administrations go. Yet the organisation’s strategies have remained the same yielding no results. The people’s needs and desires are no longer the same as in the 80s and early 90s, the indigenous population has tripled and the effect of massive influx of Nigerians and other nationals into the community is a discussion for another day. The youths are now frustrated, many have lost confidence in the organisation. But the irony is that no one has thought of how to change its belated and long-outdated strategies and approaches.
How long did it take the founders of this organisation to bring it to existence? I tell you, more than two years. Now think! If it took the founders (a particular group of associates with one vision) more than two years to build and bring this organisation into existence. Do you expect one man to develop and implement modern strategies and approaches to meet the expectations of over a hundred thousand youths with poor intellectual foundation? For you to achieve such you must be a superhuman.
Our individual problems are enormous and expectations differ. But we must begin to garner selfless intellectuals to begin thinking for us, before we can scale up and prioritise our basic needs based on their order of importance like the Economists would say.
I have my own view on this discourse, it might be different from yours, but please do not criticise me. We must cultivate the soil and plant before we can start thinking of harvesting. It will take time but we need patience and motivation to remain focused and on course to avoid distractions because it must surely come.
We must study and do an analysis to understand the key issues. Arising from our learning process we must design innovative measures to address the identified challenges. And finally we must build partnerships.
The journey begins with the reorganisation and restructuring of the Bonny Youth Federation to meet current societal needs. This is what we all must bear in mind. This implies that all good hands must be on deck. In an attempt to power the ignition, we must first be recognised by national and international laws.
This draws me to a phenomenal conclusion that the organisation must be registered to achieve its full potentials.
The public is yet to know that the administration led by Barrister Simeon Wilcox has made it a focal point of duty to ensure that the organisation is registered. In the process of achieving this, the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) rejected the name "Federation", reason being that you can’t have a name federation, inside the Nigerian Federation. Consultations were made and the word nearest in meaning to what the organisation stands for was introduced - Assembly.
By virtue of the provisions of the Constitution the organisation operates on, a decision to change the name of the organisation cannot be undertaken by an individual alone. This issue was brought to the floor of the Congress to be decided upon. What do you expect from a gathering of untrained, traditional, conservative-based legislature?
As important as this is to the future of the Organisation, and by extension, the benefits it will yield to the youths of this community, we still have many delegates who kicked against it. That is to say, the delegates that are being sent to represent us are still naive and I see it as a very serious setback to the progress of this organisation, which needs urgent intervention.
As a ready solution to curbing this issue, Houses should send their most competent representatives to the Bonny Youth Federation. And if anyone thinks he/she is more enlightened than those representing us in the Bonny Youth Federation, then they have to stop complaining and make efforts to become a Delegate.
How can a person say he/she have sight and yet a blind man is leading you?
PARTNERSHIP: A nation can’t survive in isolation, which is what the Socialists say. If a nation can’t survive alone how much less a small organisation like the BYF. Bonny youths must start to build development-oriented partnerships internally and externally.
EXPERTISE: It is only a man who knows better, that can constructively criticise. Why will you who knows the way out, sit and complain instead of proffering solutions? We need our good heads and best hands to be directly involved, it doesn’t matter how old you are, as long as you are not yet a Se-alabo, we even have a Warisenibo as a delegate and we await to partner with the Amaopuseniapu and Amaopuereapu in the development of the Bonny Youth Federation.
The Local Government and Traditional Council are not left out, like I said all hands must be on deck. They must help in funding the reorganisation and restructuring process. They must as a necessity commission and finance a top management consultant to provide ideas on how best to restructure and reorganise the Bonny Youth Federation. They must commission an independent committee of experts in various developmental fields to provide a report on what the Bonny Youth Federation has done right and wrong in the past and what TO DO NEXT.
In my own view, part of what I think should be done in this reorganisation and restructuring is:
Reducing the number of elected offices to one and the rest will be by appointment. This will keep the organisation on course and we will have one vision and one leader to follow. This has been the bane of Bonny Youth Federation with 12 elected officers. We have 12 manifestos and each officer will work assiduously to keep to their campaign promises on their manifesto thereby creating unnecessary chaos among executive members and most frequently resulting to power tussle within the organisation.
Minimise the duplication of roles and responsibilities.
Redefine more carefully, the schedules and duties of key officers, departments and units.
We must have a strategic plan, not only to do better than we did years back, but to reposition the organisation to become one of the best Youth organisations in Africa and the world.
We must introduce Leadership Management Courses and Legislative Workshop/Training and orientation.
We need to improve the legal framework of the organisation and introduce the Bonny Youth Legal Defence Fund. A committee that will be self-actuated and independent, capable of soliciting for funds and subsidising the cost of seeking legal redress and intervention for the common Bonny Youth.
Finally, our planning methodology must improve and must be timely to avoid procrastination. Reorganization and Restructuring alone will not give rise to a perfect organisation because there will still be challenges, but it will help us to deliver to the satisfaction of the ordinary youths' expectation. And it will be credited to our partners on account of the support given.
In the past deliberate efforts have been made to undermine the functions of the organisation, this we must bear in mind to avoid distractions. There are better models we must learn from. Reorganisation and restructuring are important, but it’s not enough for the developmental sustenance and socio-economic transformation of the Kingdom. But this is only the starting point. They are important and necessary, but they are not sufficient. I repeat! It is only the starting point.
We must keep on lifting the bar. It must translate into good governance for it to be truly transformative in addressing the key challenges that a kingdom like ours witness.
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