Reflexions about Nigeria’s Youth.
“Learn from the past and rewrite the future”, were the only words I held firmly to during the International Youth Day conference.
What could I learn from a distant past to develop the future, I reminisced. Was it the youth movements of the 1930s – 1960s whose sole purpose was to put an end to colonial rule? Or a youthful Mohandas Ghandi’s sojourn to South Africa during apartheid for self-discovery? It dawned on me that the burden of the past and the challenges of the present had given the Nigerian youth a gigantic responsibility for the future.
The global importance of the youth can be situated within the context of the International Youth Day which was first celebrated in 1985. In 1995, the World Programme of Action for Youth with 15 priority areas was adopted by the General Assembly. These priority areas are; education, employment, hunger and poverty, health, environment, drug abuse, juvenile delinquency, leisure-time activities, girls and young women, participation, globalization, ICT, HIV/AIDS, youth and conflict, and intergenerational relations.
The general belief is that addressing these priority areas will develop the capacity of the youth to make change. This belief is shared by me.
With the right environment, the potential for the youth to positively develop the country is high. Unfortunately, the Nigerian socio-economic space is not ideal. The numerous challenges facing the populace despite an abundance of resources is a contradiction which must be addressed by all. In the socio-economic context of Nigeria, the youth can be employers of labour.
The youth constitute a formidable demographic force in every state of the federation, and they are going to assume responsibility for various sections of the country in the future. Despite this imminent responsibility, there is no consensus as to the specific role the youth can play in the country. The Nigerian youth should be aware that development is a collective agenda which doesn’t require role apportioning.
Nigeria’s secret weapon is its supercharged and vibrant youth. The youth willing to swim against the tide of negativity to achieve progress. The potential for the youth to bring about change should not be downplayed. Three youth saw the need to address the unemployment situation in Nigeria, and therefore created a platform where graduates can connect with potential employers and apply for various jobs. Today this platform is known as Jobberman, and according to the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics, it is the foremost online recruitment service in Nigeria receiving over 200,000 job applications per month.
Nigeria’s youth must be the solution to the plethora of problems facing the country. It has been established by the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics that there is an employment problem, what can the youth do about this? Acquiring skills relevant to the workplace is a step towards bridging the unemployment gap.
The action plan for the youth willing to build a peaceful and developed society should include; questioning what society considers the norm; because what is popular is not always right. For years, apartheid, the slave trade and colonial rule were considered norms, but that changed when the youth began to question the norm. Questioning the norm leads to change!
Selflessness, perseverance and sacrifice are attitudinal changes that must be embraced by the youth.
The Youth must be critical about the present, and be willing to act towards a developed and peaceful future.
