The Young Innovators of Nigeria (YIN), says it is working to engage politicians to ensure they are held accountable, deliver their mandates and promote innovation when elected into their offices.
Andrew Abu, the President of the group said this in Abuja.
“Young innovators are working on getting our political aspirants on a debate to ensure that there is good governance starting from the gubernatorial and local government level.
“We want to ensure that our politicians are held accountable to their promises when they are elected into positions of power.
“It is important we engage them, especially in the area of technology and innovation because without innovation, we will not move forward.
“We are using our platform to engage these politicians for the development of every sector because in the building of our nation, everybody has to be involved,” he said.
Abu, however, said that the organisation was waiting for candidates to emerge after the primaries, adding that it would start the debate from Benue.
He said that the debate would include aspirants from Plateau, Niger and Kwara states.
“If the mandate of the people is delivered at the grassroots, it will influence governance at the national level,’’ he said.
The president said that accessing the aspirants for such a task would be difficult but the organisation had machineries in place to motivate them.
“We know that getting politicians for a debate is not going to be easy but we are sensitising our youths not to vote any aspirant who avoids the debate.
“Our politicians need to convince the masses on why they should be voted into power, so if they run away from the debate, then they are not guaranteed of our votes,” he said.
Abu said that the organisation was carrying out sensitisation programmes for women and youths to ensure they vote the right candidates into power.
Abu identified that women and the youths constituted up to 70 per cent of the voting populace, hence the need for them to get it right.