TEXT OF LECTURE DELIVERED BY ONIKE RAHAMAN OLALEKAN, DURING 2014 YOUTH SUMMIT ORGANISED BY YOUTH ALLIANCE MOVEMENT OF NIGERIA (YAMON), OYO STATE CHAPTER, AT SOCIAL SCIENCES LECTURE THEATRE, UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN, ON FRIDAY, 3RD OCTOBER, 2014. Theme: - Empowerment for Nigerian Youths: A Panacea for National Unity and Development protocols, INTRODUCTION Youths occupy strategic position in the nation’s scheme of things. As the nation’s most active population, youths are the major contributors to the productive economy of the nation. In the various countries of the world, youths constitute majority of people one can find in the public service, military, intelligence service, private sector of the economy, sports and tourism among others. Any nation that toys with the future of its youth is bound to face damning national crises. The starting point of this lecture therefore is to reflect on the imperative of youth empowerment in national development. Youth empowerment is hereby conceptualised as efforts directed towards promotion of youth self actualisation. For the avoidance of doubts, a youth is any individual within the age of eighteen and forty five years irrespective of gender. There is no consensus among scholars as to the bar of youthful age. In some circumstances, a person of fifty years who is energetic, bubbling with ideas, resourceful and versatile can be categorised as a youth. In essence, youthfulness is not solely determined by age chronological factors. Youth empowerment is an attitudinal, structural and cultural process to help the younger people gain the ability, acquire competence and develop skills to make rightful decisions and impactful contributions to economic growth, political development and national unity. Virtually all tiers of government, national and international agencies and non-government organizations have provisions for programmes which are centred on youth empowerment in their respective annual estimates. Investment in youth empowerment worth’s the effort. With effective youth empowerment initiatives, there bound to be drastic reduction in poverty and unemployment rates in Nigeria. In essence, empowering the youths with necessary competence and skills will go a long way in reducing poverty percentage of the society. When a youth acquires skills, he/she can use the acquired skills to feed, assist others and even invest for future use. The quest for good governance which is a universal demand is attainable only with effective youth empowerment. In my own opinion, youths who have been empowered on leadership skills will predictably do well in leadership positions when provided the opportunities. CHALLENGES OF THE NATION’S YOUTH EMPOWERMENT PROGRAMMES Politics and religion sentiments are major factors affecting the realisation of youth empowerment programmes in the country. Also, the challenge posed by corrupt practices of our leaders, affects youth empowerment initiatives in Nigeria. Of significant note is the effect of youth violence in the empowerment of the youths. Activities of ethnic militias, the groups such as egbesu boys, odua peoples congress (OPC) boko haram etc. undermine the attainment of youth empowerment goals in Nigeria. Regrettably, youth violence has equally assumed a more dangerous dimension in recent past in the annals of Federal Republic of Nigeria. Nigeria as a result of her myriad of problems and youth challenges was ranked number fourteen in the failed state index in 2011. Worse still, unemployment and poverty rates have variously been reported to be over 70 percent in Nigeria. For better clarity, a failed state is one which is unable to perform its duties on several levels. Relevance to the aforestated are the various typology of youth violence which may be in the form of student cultism, kidnapping, rape, delinquency, drug abuse, assassination etc, all are considered the consequences of poor government attitude to youth empowerment. The highlighted social vices underscore the dangers inherent in low government performance in the area of youth empowerment. In many respects, youth violence, terrorism and high crime rate could be blamed on government neglect of fundamentals of good governance, the core social responsibilities of government which are often neglected include youth empowerment, poverty eradication programmes and employment opportunities for the youths. Since 2002 when boko haram reared its ugly head in Nigeria, several hundreds of deaths of innocent souls had been recorded due to criminal neglect of youth empowerment particularly in the North East Geo- Political Zone. Fifty four years after Nigeria independence, the nation is still desperately searching for solution to her several conundrums. The level of value orientation of an average citizen contradicts or below the global ethical demand which is necessary to make our youths to be functional citizens. Without good value system, any effort toward youth empowerment will be a collosal waste. It is against this background that i wish to make a clarion call that the government at various levels should give more priority to youth empowerment, if truly we want to enjoy peace and achieve sustainable development as a nation. A graphic review of value orientation starting with General Olusegun Obasanjo’s jaji declaration of 1977 down to the second wrap which was christened National Ethical re-orientation of Alhaji Sheu Uthman Shagari regime in 1982 through Buhari Idiagbon’s war against indiscipline to the present administration ethical initiatives, I have no doubt that each of the regime had good intention anchored on achievable objectives in the area of youth empowerment but scholarly assessments and evaluation of the success rates of the programmes have not really gave the empowerment programmes under successive regimes good scores and ratings. Quick money syndrome as social manifestation and other reported cases of money rituals, kidnapping and other youth vices across the country are all products of wrong cultural norms and values. YOUTH EMPOWERMENT AS A PANACEA TO PROBLEMS OF NATIONAL UNITY AND DEVELOPMENT. Agriculture is a major sector that could assist the government in the realisation of youth empowerment. Indeed, agriculture remains the mainstay of the Nigerian economy in terms of national output and employment generation for the youths. However, the potential of the sector was neither fully developed nor realised since 1973 that the nation started to experience oil boom. Of course, agricultural practice is still characterised by peasant farming particularly in most rural Communities in Nigeria. Despite the monolithic nature of the economy with the discovery of crude oil, agriculture provides employment, empowerment and succour for majority of the Nigerian youths. Youths also need to be assisted in identifying their natural potentials and should be guided to fully develop their natural abilities. Of equal importance is child labour, increase in drop out rates in the various levels of education and the use of children for alms begging. Candidly, government need to enact laws to criminalise child labour and prohibit the use of children for alms begging. Beyond the introduction of legal control to address social problems affecting the nation is the provision of quality training for the youths to become more relevant in nation building. Again, government needs to provide intervention fund as a matter of priority to revitalise skill acquisition and vocational training centres which are lying fallow or abandoned across the country. With this, youth will enjoy genuine empowerment. In essence, entrepreneurship education must be encouraged for the youths.The curriculum of education in Nigeria when properly examined needs review/revision;the curriculum as at present is not capable of making youths to be self reliant. What the youths really need is education for relevance and capacity building. Similarly, there is the need for the schools to pay equal attention to helping the young ones develop cognitive,affective and psychomotor domains of development and learning. In the present order, unequal attention are paid to the three domains of child development and this will certainly affect the school learning outcomes and child development. In the final analysis, effective mass literacy campaign, cultural revolution and inculcation of the right value and democratic ethos are essential for the realisation of youth empowerment goals and this is sacrosanct to national unity and development. The ideology of cultural revolution is anchored on inculcation of right values and orientation as necessary for social change.Whatever the challenges facing the nation, it is my considered opinion that well educated youths with good jobs will be ready to contribute to peace and development efforts. Whereas the unemployed youths and the illiterate ones are likely to remain agent of destruction and tools in the hands of politicians. So, the responsibility of providing jobs for the youths, offering them qualitative education and involving them in community development efforts is necessary for Nigeria to remain united, peaceful and to achieve growth and national development. This is a collective responsibility of all Nigerians. I thank everybody for listening.
Posted on: Sat, 04 Oct 2014 22:14:52 +0000
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