Nigerian Youths Must Not Lose Hope

Recently, the international community celebrated the youth of the world. August 12 was first designated International Youth Day by the United Nations General Assembly in 1999, and serves as an annual celebration of the role of young women and men in society. It provides an opportunity to raise awareness about the challenges and problems facing the world’s youth

Every year, International Youth Day centres on a particular theme that addresses crucial challenges encountered by young people. The theme for International Youth Day in 2023 is ‘Green Skills for Youth: Towards a Sustainable World.’ Here in Nigeria, the event was commemorated by speeches and events by various individuals and organisations, targeting the youth segment of society.

In his message, President Bola Tinubu saluted Nigerian youths for their vibrant energy, innovative spirit and limitless potential. He also assured the youths that the entire nation will leave no stone unturned in helping them to achieve their aspiration.

He acknowledged the growing interest and impact of many young Nigerians in technology-related fields across the world and vowed to honour his campaign commitment of generating one million new jobs in the digital economy for them to contribute more to national economic development.

And in line with the theme of this year’s International Youth Day event, the president stressed the need for the youths to get on board his administration’s agenda of expanding green job opportunities and advocating renewable energy solutions as an integral part of Nigeria’s current and future energy mix.

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On his part, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi, encouraged Nigerian youth to remain positive and hopeful for the coming of a New Nigeria, which, he said, will be anchored on youth development and productivity.

As the world celebrates this annual youth anniversary, the Nigerian youths are having a torrid time in their country. They are beset by a lot of daunting challenges today that imperil their future and threaten to derail the fulfillment of their undoubted potential. First, they are let down by social and education systems that have failed to adequately prepare them for the challenges of the modern world. According to reports, due to the insecurity across Nigeria, the number of out-of-school children have risen from 10.5 million 10 years ago to about 20 million today, with about 30 percent of Nigerian youths lacking any form of secondary education.

Also, apart from the countless industrial disputes and shutdowns at different levels of the education sector, particularly the tertiary level, the content of the instruction does not prepare them to be innovators, entrepreneurs and self-sufficient like their fellows in other climes.  Coupled with a political system that has failed to turn the country’s enormous natural and human resources into industrial national wealth, it is no wonder that Nigeria tops in the ranking of countries with the highest rate of unemployment in the world, with a 33.3 percent, which is expected to rise to 40.6 per cent due to the continuous flow of job seekers into the job market. The matter is complicated by the job racketeering and the allocation of available job spaces to the high and mighty, rather through competition and merit, leaving ordinary Nigerians in desperate struggle for survival.

With this high rate of youth unemployment, where more than half of the population in their productive ages are not working, the nation will continue to stagger under the weight of many socio-economic and security challenges.

This economic underdevelopment of the youths has already manifested in violent struggles across Nigeria, in the forms of Boko Haram insurgency, banditry, kidnapping, cultism, drug trafficking and abuse, advance fee fraud, ritual murder and violent separatist agitations. The idle mind, they say, is the devil’s workshop.

Then, there is the brain drain where young Nigerians are relocating to other countries in search of greener pastures. Referred to in local parlance as the Japa syndrome, our youths, seeing no hope in their fatherland, are fleeing the country through whichever means they can, with some risking their lives as stowaways or going through North Africa where many perish either in the deserts or drown in rickety boats trying to cross into Europe.

As a newspaper, we decry the mismanagement of the country by successive governments to the point that most of our youths cannot live a decent life through honest labour. We decry the bad examples set for them by the elite who see the youth as vulnerable people to be exploited and used as thugs and hoodlums to wreak havoc on their countrymen.

We, however, appreciate and salute several of our youths who have risen above the limitations set by their society to become world beaters in the areas of sports, music and entertainment, technology, industry and academia. These are some of the good examples the nation’s youth should look up to and not lose hope.