The youth, as it
is fondly said, are the leaders and hope of tomorrow. And this is an undeniable fact since they are the
pillar upon which a nations future is built . This group of young people with
great potentials will be great assets to any nation if their energies and
creativity are tapped and utilised (Ahmed: 2013). So investing in them and bringing them to
participating in the activities of our society will hold a bright future for us.
The call to empower and develop Nigerian youths is not a new clamour; it has
become stale rather, though it has continued to make headlines because of how
cardinal the topic is to the sustainable development and prosperity of any
nation.
Again, the most
active group in any nation are young people and they comprise a larger
percentage of the labour force. Any nation that taps into this extra-ordinary
potential will definitely be making a tangible and feasible plan that will eventually
ensure her well-being in the present and also in the future. However prosperity
in this concept does not only mean economic boom, rather it cuts across every
indicators of well-being such as good health, social stability, security,
absence of corruption, human and infrastructural development among others.
According to Ahmed
Razak, youth empowerment is mostly ill-defined and wrongly perceived in Nigeria
by parents, the youth themselves and the government. He said: ‘’parents as
major stakeholders often perceive youth empowerment as sole responsibility of
the government. The youth themselves neglect self development and empowerment,
wholly depending on white-collar jobs;
while the government sees youth empowerment as an avenue to initiate policies and
programmes although the programmes make little impact on their lives because
they are soon hijacked by corrupt government officials for
self-aggrandisement.’’
Youth
empowerment should not be misunderstood for giving out motorcycles, tricycles
and taxis to young boys as some state government has always portrayed in their
youth empowerment programmes. Though these vehicles may empower the youths
financially, but the concept of youth empowerment and development is not
limited to that as it has a lot to do with capacity building and participation.
This paper
therefore aims to x-ray the
different youth empowerment and development strategies and their benefits to
Nigeria’s future. There is no need to say that the future of Nigeria will
definitely be in shambles if the youths are not supported, empowered and
developed. If the nation fails to invest in the youth so that they would be
able to take up the challenges facing the different facets of the economy, then
she must be warming up to entertaining a gloomy future.
According to the
former secretary general of the United Nations, Koffi Annan, the progress of
any nation lies a great deal with the youth: If they are empowered, they tend
to work out a sustainable development but if otherwise, the future of the
nation will be in ruins. He said: ‘’young people should be at the forefront of
global change and innovation. Empowered they can be the agents for development
and peace. If however, they are left on society’s margins, all of us will be
impoverished. Let us ensure that all young people have every opportunity to
participate fully in the lives of their societies’’
Strategies for Empowering and Developing
Nigerian Youths and their benefits
Youth
empowerment and development is a diverse concept that touches different facets
of life. This is because the empowerment strategies is affected by so many
factors like education, policy making and politics, sports, capacity building,
health-care, gender equality, job creation and so on. Nigerian nation should
review these factors as some of their approaches to developing and empowering
her young people.
Education
Education is an
indispensible tool in any programme for youth empowerment. Diogenes Leartius
averred that: “the foundation of every state is the education of its youth.’’ Sound education undoubtedly is the bedrock of
any developed nation. (Amatanweze: 2012). Through education, the youths acquire
knowledge and get exposure. This makes them to be civilized and equally
enlightened. It brings with it the wind of change as different skills and
knowledge are imparted through it. Nigeria’s education system should therefore
be repositioned to make it capable of carrying out these responsibilities. The
standard should be stepped up in other to bring it at par with what is
obtainable in the developed world. The tertiary education given in Nigerian
schools should be able to produce graduates that are job creators and not mere
job seekers. It should be able to make the youths independent of government
jobs upon graduation and should therefore be equipped with necessary facilities
and our curriculum restructured to enable the students prepare themselves for the life after school. Entrepreneurship
and vocational training should be made to form a part of our education
curriculum, while the National Youth Service corps is to be restructured to be
a compulsory one year of entrepreneurship training and skill acquisition
(Ahmed: 2013).
The 26 percent
of the annual budget of a nation stipulated to be given to the education sector
by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation
(UNESCO), is yet to be met by the Nigerian government. As of now she can only
achieve 8.5percent which is a far cry to the agreed percentage. This poses a great threat to the education
sector, the major sector that is saddled with the responsibility of promoting
skills and capacity building of the youths. However, the recent dismal performance
of secondary students in external examinations is a presage that the sector is
going from bat to worst and needs drastic urgent attention.
Policy Making
Another way of
getting the youths empowered is by creating a place for them in the policy
making of the nation. This unarguably, enables them assist and contribute their
own quota especially in those policies that affects the youths. If this
platform is provided, there will be no need for demonstrations, riots, breaking
of law and order in order to get government’s attention, as early dialogue with
the youth will rather help to iron-out things. Their ingenuity and ideas from
their young creative minds can also save the nation from their national
plights. Just like Pearl S. Buch said: “the young do not know enough to be
prudent, and therefore they attempt the impossible, and achieve it, generation
after generation.’’
Many Nigerian
youths have actually proven their mettle in idea generation and innovations. Many
more have achieved wonderful feats in technological inventions that even the
whole world is amazed at their achievements. This therefore shows that young
ones always have something to offer in the policy making of the society and
should be given the chance to do so. Ban Ki-moon admonished: “let us
acknowledge and celebrate what the youths can do to build a safer, more just
world. Let us strengthen our efforts to include young people in policies,
programmes and decision-making processes that benefit their futures and ours.’’
Adequate Health-Care
To ensure the
securing of a bright future for Nigeria through youth empowerment and
development, health issues especially those that has direct link with youthful
life must be effectively addressed. Health problems like HIV/AIDS, STDs and others
must be tackled vehemently using every possible approach. The campaign against
these scourges must be stepped up to forestall the loss of vibrant members of
the society-the youths, to the menace. When the youths are protected against
these deadly diseases, it enables them to pull their resources into worthwhile
ventures. Again, unwanted pregnancy is
another problem that can mar the future of the youths especially the female
ones. In the light of this, young girls should be sensitized on the consequences
of premarital sex and how to manage peer pressure.
Worthy of
mention in this discussion is challenge posed to youth development by drug and
substances abuse. The youths are the most hit by this menace and it is becoming
prevalent day by day. Available data in
Nigeria reveals that young people between the ages of 11-35 years constitute
the high-risk group to drug abuse, (Okorodudu: 2013). Therefore measures
employed in stemming this vice should be reviewed in other to make it more
effective.
Skill Acquisition and Job Creation
One cannot do
justice to a topic on youth development without mentioning skill acquisition.
This is a tremendous strategy that is capable of working marvellous in taking
the youths off the streets. It helps them to be self employed after garnering
knowledge and skills for different crafts and technology. They eventually
become change agents as they will be relevant in the bid for industrialization of
the nation. This also gets them busy as they are empowered to create jobs for
themselves and for other young people and thus staying away from crime. Mohammed
Abdullahi in his CIPMN 2012 Second place winning Essay called on youths to
embrace skill acquisition as a way to curb joblessness. He said: “individuals
should strive, and encourage others, to acquire the necessary business acumen
needed to chart a pathway to economic buoyancy. The acquisition of entrepreneurial
skills in carpentry, tailoring, painting, plumbing, etc., should be embraced.’’
The youths therefore must not be hell bent on getting white collar jobs.
The Graduate
Internship Scheme (GIS) programme initiated by the federal government is a
welcome development that will help the youths competent and efficient in their
respective chosen career. This program if continued will drastically reduce the
rate of youth unemployment as they will be made employable and job creators as
well. This therefore is a spectacular way of investing in the youths. YOUWIN programme
which is aimed at expanding the pool of entrepreneurs by supporting youths with
entrepreneurial talents to expand their existing businesses or set up new ones so that they
can employ other youths (Momodu:2013), is a strategic programme that shows
commitment to the youths. If this programme is upgraded to be able to absorb more
youths, then many Nigerian young people will be highly empowered.
Unemployment is
evidently one of the pivotal challenges facing Nigerian youths. According to
figures from the national Bureau of statistics, the unemployment rate in
Nigeria is about is about 23.9 percent. This is highly above the world average of
14.2 percent (Momodu : 2013). It is no longer news that most industries in
Nigeria have gone into moribund as the environment continues to be unfavourable
to investments and industrial production. The unavailability of certain
amenities that are the base of industrial production for example adequate power
supply, has been a big set back to the nations industrialization drive and thus
a bane for youth development.
The youth also
have roles to play in this project as the contribution of every stakeholder is very
crucial for its success. Ban Ki-moon in his remark to youths on 2010 Young
Atlanticisit Summit said to them: “You have to take ownership of tomorrow. For
that to be possible, you have to strengthen your capacity and widen your vision
as a global citizen’’. The youths must show interest in their future and get
themselves trained for self reliance so that they don’t depend on anybody for
employment. They should rather complement the government’s effort for a better
future. This is because no government all over the world can boost of providing
employment for 100% of her citizens (Ahmed: 2013).
Youth-Led Media
A platform
should be created whereby young ones can always air their views. This youth-led
media should provide young people with the opportunity to always speak out on
issues concerning the interest of youths and national development. Initiatives
like Campus Life pages by the Nation Newspaper and Campus Square pages by the
Sun Newspaper are commendable examples that have offered voices to Nigerian
students to constructively criticize situations in their campuses and also in
the nation at large.
Young people
should be given audience as they are in a better position to point out their
needs. Therefore providing an avenue for their opinion will make work easier
for the leaders as their problems will easily be recognized and remedied. The
youth themselves should see that they do not abuse the recent improvement on
communication technology such as social networking and the internet. They
should make meaningful utilization of the innovation to empower themselves and
contribute to the growth of the nation.
Sports
Yet another
beneficial strategy is sports. Most of the people involved in the game of
sports are young people. Nigeria however is blessed with abundance of talented
youths in different sports activities. Efforts should be made to see that these
talents do not waste unutilized by developing young people in sports and
creating a favourable environment for them to grow in the game and be able to
feature even in the international levels. The government, private bodies an
youths themselves should invest in the sports sector to see that talented young
people are given the training needed to enable them win trophies and medals in
competitions. This will offer a great number of the youth lucrative employment
and also yield income for the nation. According to the United Nations, sports
can contribute to economic and social development, improving health and
personal growth for people of all ages and groups. The organisation added: “we
underline that sports can foster peace and development and can contribute to an
atmosphere of tolerance and understanding. …sports can play a role in achieving
millennium development goals by contributing to education, health, development
and peace in developing countries. ’’
Implications of not Empowering Nigerian
Youths
If the youths
are not empowered and developed, they will make a mess of the leadership
positions when the elders eventually hands over the baton. It is because they
have not been trained or given the chance to get close and see how things are
been done. As a result they will lack exposure and knowledge and will be in
bondage of naivety and ignorance. Giannini A.P said: “I leave everything to the
young men. You’ve got to give youthful men authority and responsibility if you
are going to build up an organisation. Otherwise you will always be the boss
yourself and you won’t leave anything behind you.’’
If the youths
are not empowered they find it difficult to get job as they cannot offer what
is required of them in the labour market. This however leads to gross rate of
unemployment and poverty. Since a hungry man they said is an angry man, they
therefore become aggressive and social instability sets in. This draws back development as the society is
brought under the threat of insecurity caused by the insurgence by the jobless youths.
They are left with no other option than to vent their grievances and
disappointments on the general public.
The Movement for
the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND) saga and the amnesty programme is a
perfect example of the consequences of not empowering the youths. When their
soil and water bodies got damaged by oil spillage, they got depowered as their only
sources of livelihood was grossly destroyed. In order to survive, they took
solace in weapon and attacked the progress of the oil industry and the nation’s
economy was heavily threatened until they got empowered again with the amnesty
programme by the federal government. Normalcy returned to the region,
insecurity reduced drastically and oil production improved. This is because
many of the militants were absorbed into the programme where they are been
trained to be independent and useful to themselves and to the nation.
In order words,
if the youths are not empowered and developed, they become unqualified job
seekers, therefore increasing the rate of unemployment that eventually triggers
off youth restiveness, increase in crime rate, and engagement in multifarious
forms of social vices. According to Professor Festus Iyayi, “…high levels of
youth unemployment pose dangers for the stability of the extant social order.’’
This will work towards hobbling the progress of Nigeria and her future prosperity
will be a mirage. The youths have a lot of energy and potentials that if not
helped to direct them into good use
becomes a threat to national peace and progress.
Conclusion
By and large, an
empowered youth is a productive youth, competent and effective. He is not
afraid of challenges rather; he is brave and always ready to deliver. Therefore
youth development will equip Nigeria for both present and future challenges and
will helps her survive adverse conditions successfully. And hence a bright future
guaranteed for the Nigerian nation.
By Kingsley T.O. Amatanweze
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