Ogun Prioritises Youth-led Strategies For Enhanced Security

The Special Adviser to the Ogun State governor on Media and Strategy, Hon. Kayode Akinmade, has said that Governor Dapo Abiodun-led administration has taken measurable steps that reinforce youth empowerment as a foundation for community security.

Akinmade stated this on Friday in a keynote address delivered at the NUT Secretariat, Kuto, Abeokuta, during a one-day Youth Security Summit, themed “Youth-led Strategies for Community Security,” organised by the Ogun State Chapter of the Nigeria Youth Organisation in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Youth Development.

According to him, this is because the youth are not only the leaders of tomorrow but the defenders, innovators and nation-shapers of today.

He stated that their insight, creativity, and courage are essential to the safety and progress of the state, adding that when young people embrace leadership, insecurity retreats; and that communities grow stronger when they lead with purpose.

Akinmade, who highlighted the Ogun State government’s initiatives to empower youth and promote community security, including training over 21,000 youths in vocational and digital skills, and strengthening the Amotekun Corps, urged the youth to contribute to securing their communities through community intelligence, digital early-warning tools and civic influence.

He said, “The challenges of our time – cybercrime, cultism, drug abuse, highway threats, and emerging community vulnerabilities – demand approaches that combine institutional structure with the insight, creativity, and innovation of our youth.

“Youth-led security strategies do not mean assigning policing duties to young people. Rather, they refer to structured avenues where the youth contribute meaningfully to securing our society through community intelligence, digital early-warning tools, civic influence, campus peace building, social media awareness, neighbourhood vigilance and technology-enabled reporting systems.

“These approaches capitalize on the unique strengths of our youth – their digital fluency, social engagement, and deep insight into community trends.

“Notable achievements include: training of over 21,000 youths in vocational and digital skills through OGSTEP and related initiatives – reducing unemployment pressures and strengthening lawful economic pathways; skills development for more than 31,000 residents via the Ogun State Skills Fund – building human capacity and reducing vulnerabilities that contribute to insecurity, and graduation of the first cohort of CyberSquad Digital Technicians from Ogun TechHub after a 3-month intensive training – with the programme set to scale toward 10,000 youth trained by 2027.”

Other achievements of the Abiodun administration, he noted, included “strengthening of the Amotekun Corps, including recruitment of additional youthful operatives and enhancement of operational equipment to deepen community policing across the state; renewed anti-cultism campaigns in tertiary institutions and expansion of counselling and mentorship programmes for at-risk youth” and “rehabilitation pathways for youths affected by drug abuse or vulnerability to crime.”

He also noted youth enterprise and empowerment initiatives across the state, including skills-acquisition programmes in local governments to promote self-reliance and reduce socio-economic drivers of insecurity and improved lighting and safer public spaces in selected corridors to deter crime and enhance evening movement across communities, saying that these achievements reflect a deliberate effort to integrate youth empowerment with long-term security outcomes.