Creating a Future for Nigerian Youths

 

"I call on leaders and adults everywhere to do everything possible to enable the world's youth to enjoy lives of safety, dignity and opportunity and contribute to the fullest of the great potentials."

           - Antono Guterres (9th Secretary of the UN and former Prime Minster of Portugal 1995- 2002)


Today is the International Youths Day according to the UN calendar. Every August 12th, the Youths Days is usually commemorated all over the world with a special youths session at the UN Headquarters, New York.


The theme for this year's years celebration is: YOUTHS ENGAGEMENT FOR GLOBAL ACTION. This is a wonderful theme. Here is an excerpt from the theme as it is globally celebrated:

“Youth Engagement for Global Action” seeks to highlight the ways in which the engagement of young people at the local, national and global levels is enriching national and multilateral institutions and processes, as well as draw lessons on how their representation and engagement in formal institutional politics can be significantly enhanced.

This year’s IYD seeks to put the spotlight on youth engagement through the following three interconnected streams:

  • Engagement at the local/community level;
  • Engagement at the national level (formulation of laws, policies, and their implementation); and,
  • Engagement at the global level.

 Looking at this holistically and bringing the lesson home to our country Nigeria, the present situation of Nigerian youths is pathetic. At present, youths (definition of the UN for young people) between the ages of 15 and 35 are unemployed; there is no clear blueprint for the Nigerian youths and there seems to be no hope as it it were for the Nigerian youths.


The most effective solution to the myriad problems confronting the youths is to creatively engage them in order to create a better and sustainable future. The N-Power programme launched by the Federal government is a good one,but the government should look beyond just initiating programme and churning out grants without giving the youths an entrepreneurial culture and mindset.

As it is often said, "youths are the strength of the nation." By in my own estimation, not just any kind of youths. I believe it should be youths with the right mindset, creative ability, intellect prowess and skills. Without channeling the efforts of the youths in the right direction and creative engagement, we will continue to produce youths who think that cyber crime, internet fraud (yahoo-yahoo), militarism, terrorism, cultism, rape, and idleness is norm. If we are to ask the current administration, "what is the blueprint or agenda for Nigerian youth? Does the government have a 5 year or 10 year blueprint for Nigerian youths. Early this year, I stumbled across an article by the Canadian government about a long time plan for Canadian youths. It was a 10 year blueprint for Canadian youths. In reality are Nigerian youths part of Nigeria? If yes, what programmes or initiative does the government have for them? How are they preparing the youths for a sustainable future? The other time the government decided to include the youths in the Sovereign Wealth Fund (but with another name). The problem is not actually in policies, but in execution.

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