What Plan For Nigerian Youth?

On August 12, 2022, Nigeria joined the world in marking the International Youth Day. The Theme this year was, ‘Intergenerational Solidarity: Creating A World For All Ages’. The United Nations enjoined countries and organizations around the world to use the entire month of August to commemorate the day. Antonio Guterres, the United Nations Secretary-General, used the occasion to call on people of all nations to, “join hands across generations to break down barriers, and work as one to achieve a more equitable, just and inclusive world for all people.”
The objective of the International Youth Day is to amplify the message that action is needed across all generations to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of leaving no one, old and young behind.
Part of the objective is to create youth-sensitive protection mechanisms, protect young people in the civic space and grant them access to decision-making structures both in executive and representative capacities as well as make their voices heard in the community.
The message aptly speaks to the Nigerian situation currently undergoing a very critical political transition. It is an election year at the end of which a new president, many new governors, and a substantial chunk of federal and state legislators will be elected. In other words, a virtually brand new set of government and policymakers will be emerging in under a year.
It is sad to note that the current process has not keyed into the global concern for intergenerational solidarity, which seeks to be inclusive of young persons, women, the aged and other minorities in the centerpiece of public decision-making, as it affects their well-being or their participation. For one, the Nigerian political system has created barriers against young persons to actively seek elections into executive and legislative offices. The stakes are stacked high against them. Nomination fees are set at limits far higher than youths can afford and then the cost of electioneering is way out of their reach.
At the end of the day the nominations were picked only by septuagenarians, who had been in government over the past 20 years, rich with money made from government coffers.
In terms of age, none of the three leading presidential candidates, including the Labour Party candidate, Mr. Peter Obi is below the age of 60. Bola Tinubu of the APC is 70 while Atiku Abubakar of the PDP is 77. It clearly appears that the older generation is not yet ready to integrate the young into governance.
This even runs against the natural law of succession, and the duty of the older generations systematically working with the younger generations to secure the future of the country and humanity as captured by the second stanza of the former Nigerian national anthem, which says, “…to hand over to our children a banner without stain.”
It is imperative that all efforts must be made to not only bring young people into governance but also to factor in their interests, concerns, aspirations and protection into the scheme of things. This is not only because the future belongs to them, but because they actually make up 70 percent of the Nigerian population, which means that what affects them significantly tells on the well-being of the country.
The facts are very damning. Youth unemployment is very high, and when they are employed, the wages are abysmally low with unsecured tenures. The effect is that young people live below the poverty line, are not able to start their families early, cannot maintain reasonable standard of living, and cannot pursue legitimate aspirations.
Many of them are forced to engage in low lives to eke out a living. Those who cannot cope in the country find desperate means of escaping to foreign countries to pursue their aspirations or do odd jobs. Curiously, many of them are able to establish themselves and make their country proud abroad. But many are caught up on the wrong side of life abroad and pay dearly for it.
Outside politics, young people are brutalized and even killed by agents of state like the police, on mere suspicions of cybercrime which are never brought to trial. A lot of young people have keyed into the global digital economy by honing their skills in ICT, which requires that they own or access devices like smartphones and laptops. For having these devices, the police have hunted and extorted them. Those that failed to pay a bribe are detained, brutalized or even killed. The nationwide #Endsars protests of 2020 that brought the country to its knees was a direct consequence of this police brutality on the youths. The protests succeeded in getting the government to scrap SARS, the notorious agency, but the harassment of young people with phones and laptops has unfortunately not abated.
A few years earlier, agitations by young people had succeeded in getting a constitutional amendment that lowered the age limit for people aspiring to run for elective office. But the high fees attached to such aspirations have not cleared the high barricades against youths running for public office.
The nation’s tertiary education sector has been shut down since February this year when public university lecturers went on strike. That means millions of youths that should be receiving tuition are stranded at home without any form of gainful engagement. A few state universities and the private universities that are not involved in the strike demand high tuition charges that are beyond the reach of many youths and their families. Government’s lackadaisical attitude towards resolving the impasse is unfortunate.
Those that have decided to work cannot find jobs, insecurity has also dealt a huge blow on agriculture, where rural youths were engaged, and even in the cities where kidnapping has become a daily occurrence. Financial institutions do not lend them credit facilities to start and run their own businesses, while corruption in government is stifling public sector engagements.
Nevertheless, Nigerian youths have remained determined and irrepressible. What they are being denied at home, they are getting abroad. Recently, 25-year-old Tobi Amusan, who left Nigeria a few years ago stunned the world with her record breaking run in the 100 metres women’s hurdles. She has kept the country’s flag flying in subsequent tournaments including the Commonwealth Games. It’s a similar story with many other Nigerian youths plying their acts in the academia, ICT, the arts and industry all over the world. They are excelling and making their country proud. They need to replicate these performances at home.
This makes the call for intergenerational solidarity by the United Nations more imperative. Without preparing the young people for the future, the world will wake up one day to discover that the future of Nigeria has been extinguished. The time to act is now. Nigeria must include its youths and women in intergenerational solidarity to guarantee a secure future for all.