The Future: Youths

Youths form a vibrant part of any populace. Their input in society is vital and an integral part to any country’s economy. But this is not always the case in a country like Nigeria where the youths feel disappointed and have lost hope due to a failed system. The input and effects of leaders on youths is vital, if our leaders do the right thing, naturally the youths will follow suit. The mentality of corruption and stealing needs to be addressed, gone are the days when people worked hard for their money and made a good name. But these days all we see are people trying to make fast money. To make a change, the right orientation needs to be in place. Service to humanity should be addressed; creating a good health care system, a good education system, good roads.

There are a people interested un service to humanity in Nigeria, they are examples of good leaders who have the people’s best interest at heart; the Minister of FCT Abuja, Mr El Rufai, Donald Duke and the Governor of Cross rivers state. These are well meaning Nigerians who have each done something good in states across Nigeria. Abuja boasts of an organised and clean environment but what has happened to Lagos? In Lagos, you find youths hustling and struggling just get through the day but youths should have dreams and aspirations. When a child is young, you can tell them anything and the child will believe. Why? Neither limitations nor barriers exist in the child’s mind. It can be the same for youths if they lived in a disciplined and organised environment where education and careers are made widely available to them.

Civil conflict has affected development both directly and indirectly and has contributed to the overall suffering of the people especially where there is high level of involvement of youth for instance in the Niger Delta. These challenges, despite efforts to ameliorate them are becoming more complex in nature and have come to be identified as major obstacles to positive development of the Nigeria youths and the society in general. They include poor parentage, poor infrastructure developments, lack of maintenance culture, corruption, crime and success at all cost syndrome, which has often necessitated the agitated tendency towards emigration.

The following are some of the objectives, which can effect change in youths:
1.Apply participation process to ensure the broad-based ownership of policies and programs by the citizens especially the youth as both implementers and beneficiaries;
2. Encourage youth participation through information and communication technology especially in rural settings.
3. Scale up investment in education that is skills intensive, and effectively deploy human resources in provision of social services
4. Effective execution of Universal Basic Education program to ensure access to quality and basic education.
5. Promote gender parity in education system at secondary and tertiary levels, especially in boarding and transportation facilities for girls
6. Match vocational training and education to public and private sector employment needs
7. Promote HIV/AIDS systemic programming
8. Vigorous pursuit of public/private partnerships in the provision of efficient services for delivery of electricity, water, and sanitation services.
9. Build strategies for involvement of Youth in governance institutions of public administration, law and order and collective security
10. Facilitate dialogue and networking among young people to promote greater awareness and understanding of youth employment issues in general, and urban youth employment in particular;
11. Involve young people in policy discussions relating to the formulation and implementation of national strategies to address urban youth employment in Nigeria
12. Build the capacity of young people to participate in policy discussions relating to urban youth employment.
13. Identify obstacles to creating jobs for young people in urban areas, particularly in Africa;
14. Share regional and develop new approaches in addressing Youth problems and challenges;
15. Motivate Knowledge sharing in good practices for achieving decent and productive employment for young people in Nigeria
16. Examine strategies for effective role play by Government and Agencies in particular, can play in these processes.

Youths making a difference

Heard about SADD before?


If you haven't, SADD is an organisation run by Maria and Marita Ayodele... SADD stands for Students Against Destructive Decisions (Nigerian Chapter)

SADD encourages students to

Say:

No to Drugs
No Smoking
No to Alcohol
No to Cultism
No to HIV/AIDS
No to other destructive behaviours

For more information visit www.sadd.org