International Youth Day is celebrated every year on the 12th of August to bring issues pertaining to youths to the front burner. It is a day to not just celebrate them, but plan a better future for them. The UN General Assembly (UNGA) established the Day on December 17, 1999, after it endorsed the recommendation made by the World Conference of Ministers Responsible for Youth calling for 12 August to be declared International Youth Day.
This years’ celebration in Nigeria came at a crucial time after a protest mostly led by the youths tagged “Endbadgovernance Protest” or “Hunger protest”. These protests have brought out some fundamental issues concerning the situation of our youths today and what they are capable of doing, if not adequately catered for.
The popular saying that youths are the future leaders is true because any country that ignores its younger ones or fails to equip them with the right knowledge and skills to take control of their destiny is set for doom. If we fail to get it right with our youths, we would have set the path for our destruction.
The current population of Nigeria is estimated at 233,257,942 as of Wednesday, August 14, 2024, based on Worldometers’ elaboration of the latest United Nations data1. Of the number, the youth population accounts for over 70 per cent, which stands at a huge 151 million. Also, about 53.40 per cent of youths in Nigeria are unemployed, according to youth unemployment rates released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in 2022.
- Tinubu will transmit whistleblowing policy to National Assembly soon –Edun
- NAHCON Needs systemic reform – Presidency
It is an open secret that Nigeria has not been able to galvanise the talents and potentials of its youths, with many ending as invalids due to lack of the right guidance and role models. The saying that “An idle mind is a devil’s workshop” does not appear to ring a bell with most of our leaders. Youths have been made to believe that crime and criminality pay, because those who have toiled to get an education have not been properly fixed. So, the neglected and lazy ones now see education and vocations as a waste of time.
It is time to engage the youths in productive and useful ventures, such as agriculture, skills acquisition, sports, and tourism, which have all but collapsed. These are the population with energy which, if we fail to utilise, will channel the energy into all sorts of negativities. This is one of the reasons why, nowadays, so many youths engage in illicit activities, ranging from internet fraud, drug abuse, cultism, thuggery, money rituals, etc.
Serious nations that make progress plan for the future. So we can no longer keep burying our heads in the sand, behaving as if the youths and the challenges they face do not exist. The federal government needs to come up with a concrete plan for the real development of the youths. In February 2023, the Buhari administration, through the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, inaugurated a Technical Working Group (TWG) on Youth Employment and Skill Development to handle the increasing youth unemployment and skill development in the country. But since its inauguration, nothing has been heard of it again. Also, on Monday, August 12, 2024, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, during the Nigeria Police Youth Summit in Abuja, represented by the Director-General of the Voice of Nigeria, Jibrin Ndace, said the present administration has an ambitious plan to tackle unemployment in the country by creating three million jobs for Nigerian youths through the Three Million Technical Talent programme to be driven by the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy.
We at Daily Trust hope that this plan will not go the way of its predecessors and fail to see the light of the day. According to the United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, “Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals requires a seismic shift – which can only happen if we empower young people and work with them as equals.”
While congratulating the youths on their well-deserved day, we urge them to channel their energy to productive ventures and avoid anything that will not be beneficial to them, their country and ultimately their future. At the governmental level, we implore leaders and all those in positions of authority to strive harder to upskill the youths by preparing them today for the challenges of the future. This is necessary because that is also where the fate of Nigeria as a country lies.
Join Daily Trust WhatsApp Community For Quick Access To News and Happenings Around You.
