Harnessing youth potential for national development

 

It is said that 60 per cent of the Nigerian population is made up of youth between 18 and 35 years old. Unfortunately, this is an estimated figure as Nigeria has not conducted any population and housing census since 2006. Attempts to have it done last year by the immediate past administration of President Muhammadu Buhari did not come to fruition as he postponed it indefinitely. President Bola Tinubu hasn’t come forth with a new date. There is no gainsaying that the youth of every nation is the strength of that country. They form the bulk of the students, military and other security agencies, sportsmen and women, entertainers, bureaucracy, farmers, innovators, artisans, traders and the like. Youths are citizens with valour, creative ideas and are goal-getters!

Do you know that half of the people on our planet are 30 or younger, and this is expected to reach 57 per cent by the end of 2030?  Do you know that a survey shows that 67 per cent of people believe in a better future, with 15 to 17-year-olds being the most optimistic about this? In case you do not know, the majority of people agree that the age balance in politics is wrong. More than two-thirds (69 per cent) of people across all age groups agree that more opportunities for younger people to have a say in policy development/change would make political systems better. Regrettably, globally, only 2.6 per cent of parliamentarians are under 30 years old, and less than one per cent of these young MPs are women. These are nuggets from the United Nations webpage.

August 12 of every year is set aside by the United Nations as the International Youth Day. The theme for this year was, “From Clicks to Progress: Youth Digital Pathways for Sustainable Development.” The UN explained that “digitalisation is transforming our world, offering unprecedented opportunities to accelerate sustainable development. Digital technologies such as mobile devices, services, and artificial intelligence are instrumental in advancing the Sustainable Development Goals. Data generated from digital interactions supports evidence-based decision-making. With profound impact across economic, social and environmental dimensions, digital technologies and data contribute to at least 70 per cent of the 169 SDG targets while potentially reducing the cost of achieving these goals by up to USD 55 trillion.”

The global body went on to say that “young people are leading the charge in digital adoption and innovation, with three-quarters of those aged 15 to 24 using the internet in 2022, a rate higher than other age groups. However, disparities persist, particularly in low-income countries and among young women, who often have less access to the internet and digital skills compared to their male counterparts. While there is an urgent need to enhance digital inclusion, youth are largely recognised as “digital natives,” using technology to drive change and create solutions. As the 2030 deadline for the SDGs approaches, the role of young people in digital innovation is essential for addressing global issues. By celebrating the digital contributions of youth, we can inspire further innovation and collaboration towards achieving sustainable development.”

Truth be told, digital literacy is still low among Nigerian youths. While many youths may have mobile phones and connect to social media, they are still largely far from the core digital literacy. According to UNESCO’s International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training, “Digital literacy is the ability to access, manage, understand, integrate, communicate, evaluate and create information safely and appropriately through digital technologies for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship. It includes competencies that are variously referred to as computer literacy, ICT literacy, information literacy and media literacy.” Be that as it may, Nigerians are holding their own in terms of ICT application as can be seen in the entertainment industry in creating content. Even the use of artificial intelligence is gaining momentum in this country.

Away from digital literacy, how have successive Nigerian governments been able to harness the potential of youths for national development? There have been several Ministries, Departments and Agencies established to cater to the needs of Nigerian youths. For decades we have had the Federal Ministry of Youths and Sports which President Bola Tinubu has now separated into two ministries. Tinubu has further established ministries of Art, Culture and the Creative Economy; Communication and Digital Economy as well as Tourism with mandates to support various youth initiatives. It is noteworthy that all the 36 states of Nigeria and the FCT have the Ministry of Youth and Sports.

In terms of programmes, the National Youth Service Corps was established in 1973 to foster unity among Nigerian youths who are graduates of tertiary institutions. In the course of their three-week orientation course, they are also taught life skills apart from the para-military training they receive. The NYSC Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Department does the following among other things: Sensitise and mobilise 200,000 young graduates for skill acquisition annually; facilitate the training and mentoring of 100,000 young graduates in skill acquisition and entrepreneurship development for self-reliance annually; promote public-private partnership for entrepreneurship development and self-reliance amongst Nigerian youths and promote documentation and sharing of best practices on youth empowerment in Nigeria.

The National Directorate of Employment was established in 1986 to design and implement programmes to combat mass unemployment (initiatives here include vocational development; entrepreneurship development; agriculture skills training and public works programme); articulate policies aimed at developing work programmes with labour-intensive potential; and to obtain and maintain a data bank on employment and vacancies in the country with a view to acting as a clearing house to link job seekers with vacancies in collaboration with other government agencies.

In order to guarantee the inclusion of Nigerian youth in decision-making, there is a National Youth Policy. Also, to encourage Nigerian youths to participate in politics and governance, there was a constitutional alteration popularly referred to as Not-too-young-to-run which reduced the age qualification for presidential candidates from 40 to 35 and those of the House of Representatives and state Houses of Assembly from 30 to 25 years in 2018. About six youths have been appointed as ministers in the 48-member cabinet of Tinubu while many more were appointed as his aides either as Senior Special Assistants or Special Advisers.

In his August 4 presidential broadcast, Tinubu highlighted some of the initiatives his government had taken to ensure youth empowerment and inclusion in governance to include the following:  the student loan scheme under which N45.6bn has already been processed for payment to students and their respective institutions. The Consumer Credit Corporation with over N200bn would help Nigerians to acquire essential products without the need for immediate cash payments. $620 million Digital and Creative Enterprises – a programme to empower Nigerian young people, creating millions of IT and technical jobs that will make them globally competitive. These programmes include the 3 Million Technical Talents scheme. Others include the Skill-Up Artisans Programme; the Nigerian Youth Academy; and the National Youth Talent Export Programme.

Ironically, all the aforementioned initiatives have not been able to significantly improve the living standard of Nigerian youths; millions of whom are still wallowing in unemployment and abject poverty. Little wonder they spearheaded the recent #EndBadGovernance campaign and anti-hunger protests which took place from August 1 to 10, 2024. Obviously, corruption, incompetence, nepotism, inclement business environment and limited opportunities make all the grandiose initiatives to pale into insignificance.