By Abdul Lateef Bamgbose
The former Secretary General of the United Nation, Mr. Ban Ki-moon and other regional leaders of the Boys Scout organizations have been billed to grace the inauguration of President Muhammad Buhari, as the Patron of the Boys Scout Association of Nigeria.
David Awuna, the Chief Executive Officer, CEO, and the Chief Commissioner of Boys’ Scout disclosed this in an interview with journalists in Abuja, over the weekend when he paid a working visit to the Minister of Special Duty, George Akume, in his office in Abuja.
Billed to attend the inaugurations first quarter of 2022, are the former Secretary General of the United Nation, Banki Moon, African regional Directors, President King, of Sweden, head of Korea and other world leaders of the body.
He informed the minister that the Scouts of Nigeria were in Abuja in their hundreds for the induction of newly elected board members and national Commissioner designates, appointed by the Chief Commissioners, which attracted the support of the world body with physical participation of the Africa Scout Committee Chairperson, Mr. Victor Atipagah.
Mr. Awuna, further disclosed that “If allowed to speculate, first quarter of next year, the body will inaugurate President Buhari, as the Patron of the Boys’ scout Association of Nigeria.
“It is long overdue, this should have been done immediately he was sworn in as President, right now the Chief of Staff is one of our trustees, efforts are being made to do the investiture, that will get the government fully involved in the scouting activities in Nigeria”.
He also told the Minister that “the Act. That established the Scouts association, made President Buhari and any other President that comes after him as the patron of the Association, while the Chief Justices at the states level are the president of the Associations at the states level, while at the National level, I manage the Association, as the Chief Commissioner of Boys’ Scouts, with this hierarchy by right we are under the ministry of Justice which has a desk officer”, he explained.
The Chief Commissioner, lamented that despite the population of Nigeria estimated at over 200 million, only 3million youth in Nigeria, are members of the Association, saying that “it is so minimal , for us to make any impact, because we have 140million youths, it is a problem, efforts are being made to ensure we do our best to inculcate moral values on our youths”
Parts of the program lined up by the Chief Commissioner, David Awuna, who was just re-elected for second term in office, is the introductions of scouts in private schools and public schools, collaborations with the Nigeria Drugs and Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA.
In his response, Akume recounted his long standing relationship with the Chief Commissioner, whom he described as very intelligent and resourceful , the special qualities he enjoyed while he served him as an aide for over ten years.
He promised to set up a committee to immediately see to the implementation of the demands from the association.
