Nigerian youths as endangered species

Yesterday, the global community marked this year’s International Youth Day (IYD).
The United Nations General Assembly, in its resolution 54/120 endorsed in 1999 approved the recommendation made by the World Conference of Ministers responsible for the Youth (Lisbon, August 8 – 12, 1998), and declared that August 12 be commemorated as the International Youth Day.
The Assembly also recommended that public information activities be organised to support the Day as a way of promoting better awareness of the World Programme of Action for Youths, adopted by the Body in 1995.
The Day encourages youths around the world to organise activities to raise consciousness about the situation of youths in their countries.
In order to guide this year’s celebration in different parts of the world, the United Nations also developed roadmaps highlighting three key objectives, namely, increased commitment and investment in youths, increased youth participation and partnerships as well as increase in intellectual understanding among youths.
The theme for this year’s commemoration was “Safe Spaces for Youth”.
The population of Nigeria is hovering around 200m.
About 60 per cent of the number is made up of youths.
However, the question is: “Is the Nigerian space safe and conducive for its youths to excel?” We don’t think so, given the failure of successive administrations in the country to meet the yearnings and aspirations of these invaluable assets.
The plight of Nigerian youths could be traced to the 60s after the independence.
Government at all levels had irresponsibly watched the country grow in number but not in terms of economic and infrastructure development.
With the demands of the population outstripping the provision of necessary social and economic facilities, the country has continuously found itself in deficit.
Some of the groundswells of this culture of planlessness are unemployment, youth restiveness, increase in crime rate, inadequate healthcare and educational facilities as well as other social amenities.
Those that are mostly affected are the youths because of their larger population.
And because the youths are buffeted about by the vagaries of joblessness, they are readily available to be hired for all kinds of nefarious activities like armed banditry and kidnapping.
Worse still, the average Nigerian youth is not perceived as a factor and/or a catalyst for socio-economic development of the country.
Rather, he is seen as an instrument to pursue the political agenda of politicians.
In a similar vein, the Boko Haram insurgency would not have taken root in the North-east axis if the youths that are being used to perpetrate the mayhem had been gainfully employed or available for productive purposes.
It will not be an exaggeration to classify them as endangered species.
Government at all levels has a duty to plan and secure the future of the youths of this country because the strength of any nation is measured by the size and quality of its youths.
Nigeria has failed in this regard.
However, it is worthy of note that efforts are being made by government in recent years to change the fortunes of the youths for the better through the introduction of various policies and programmes designed to empower them in order to contribute meaningfully to the socio-economic advancement of the country rather than being used as agents of destabilisation.
Many of the youths are now encouraged to embrace agriculture and other small and medium-scale businesses.
The recent signing into law of the “Not Too Young to Run Bill” is a positive development which should spur the youths into taking their destiny into their own hands.
It is high time they saw themselves as active participants in the nation’s electoral process for the good of the country.
The various youth organisations and students at all levels need to be sensitised to see the annual IYD celebration as a time for reappraisal of their participation in the socio-economic and political activities of their fatherland.
It is also through this process that they can position themselves for future leadership roles that nature has assigned to them.

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