The 2-Day Youth Delegates Conference which held at Reals Hotel and conference centre, Owerri between Thursday April 24, and Friday April 25, 2014, brought to the fore, the ugly side of Imo youths and the journalists invited to report the event.
Trouble started when His Excellency, Rt. Hon. Bethel Amadi, President Pan African Parliament, Johannesburg, South Africa, and member representing Mbaitoli/Ikeduru in the Federal House of Representatives, Abuja was called out to present a keynote address after a very beautiful citation of his by one of his Personal Assistants. As he attempted to clear his throat and deliver his well packaged keynote address, a pay-rolled staff of Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha’s Campaign Organization and representative of the Joint National Association of Persons with Disabilities (JONAPD) Chief Iyke Ukeje (JP) himself, crippled, shouted him down; saying, “Bethel Amadi should not speak here, take the microphone away from him, he does not consider disabled persons in his empowerment programme, we must stop him!” a totally flabbergasted and embarrassed Rt. Hon. Bethel Amadi who remained unruffled and undaunted throughout the scatting explosive remarks and rudeness, courageously delivered his well worded address with a firm promise to abide by every outcome of the deliberations as recommended at the delegates conference. The venue was brought to a state of tranquility especially after an aide to Prof. Jude Njoku, in the person of Chief Martins Opara, shouted back at Ukeje to quieten the hall. Thus failed, what looked like an orchestrated script to humiliate Rt. Hon. Bethel Amadi, who was described as imbued with esteemed political savvy, inspiring trust and respect by his colleagues, and said to have through his openness and sense of commitment to duty, emerged chairman of the National Planning and Economic Committee of the House of Representatives. As President of a Parliament of more than 27 African nations, he has consistently promoted dependable initiatives for the Youths empowerment, Gender Equality and African Development Agenda that has culminated in Pan African Parliament witnessing unprecedented growth in his time. Concluding his speech Rt. Hon. Bethel Amadi expressed great satisfaction that the conference will inspire delegates to articulate a coherent and integrated action plan for effective political participation, youth empowerment and employment generation. He noted that the present Imo State administration has played too many games with the youths and that it is high time the youths, who he sees as super structures, rose to the challenge in order to chart a partway for their own destiny, in line with theme of the conference; “Reclaiming our Destinies”. As soon as Amadi finished his keynote addressed and announced a donation of N1M to enable Imo youths celebrate with him since the day was his birthday, the journalists went wild with envy, jumped out of their seats and stormed after Rt. Hon. Bethel Amadi who pleaded to be allowed to attend to a pressing engagement. In the process of extorting more money, they lost sight of the programme, ignoring another governorship hopeful, Evangelist Chris Brown Amadi who walked in as Bethel Amadi was walking out. Out there, while sharing Hon. Amadi cash offer, the journalists took to a free for all, going after each other’s jugular over the sharing of an undisclosed amount doled out to them by Bethel Amadi. They had earlier scrambled for branded T-shirts, reporter’s note books donated by Bethel Amadi and garden eggs which ordinarily could have reached everybody in an environment of decency and decorum. On returning to the conference hall, which the left virtually empty to herald a donation of N1.5M by Chris Brown, the journalists once more swam on him like bees on honey-comb demanding for money leaving the hall empty until Prof. Jude Njoku who arrived in time to take over from Chris Brown called the youths delegates and journalists to order, asking, if they had woken up from deep slumber, and ready to take their destinies into their own hands? Njoku also educated Imo youths on basic roles on the emergence of a credible governorship candidate instead what obtains presently, where mediocre have taken over and hijacked both leadership and governance.
Courtesy: Community WatchDog Newspaper
