11 November 2008
Lagos — According to statistics, Nigeria has a youth population of 80 million, with 64 million of them unemployed. Abimbola Akosile spoke with the Founder, Youth Empowerment and Enterprise Development (YEED) Initiative and Executive Director, Momentum Africa Initiative (MAI), Abuja, Mr. Rufus Aiyenigba, on human capital investment and related issues. Excerpts:
You head a youth-oriented NGO in Abuja. From your research and experience, can you give a brief analysis of the youth structure in Nigeria?
Going by statistics from National Manpower Board and the Federal Bureau of Statistics, Nigeria has a youth population of about 80 million, representing 60 per cent of the total population of the country.
Out of this figure, 64 million youth are unemployed, while about 1.6 million are under-employed. This means they are not productively employed. All over Nigeria, we have a disenchanted array of young people between the ages of 15 and 35 that are unemployed, under-developed, despondent, alienated and restless with its attendant social problems.
There are over seven million children of school age that are not in school. This is evidently a wastage and inhibition of potentials for national development and economic growth. The foregoing is no doubt a grim statistics and a picture of our poor human development index.
Given such a large youth population in the country, how best do you think their potential can be harnessed and channeled into positive economic development for the country?
A sure way of harnessing the potential of our youth and the only viable panacea to breaking the prevailing vicious cycle of unemployment and under-development is to build the capacity of our youths and equip them with life skills, support, training and mentoring for positive engagements on national development.
We must find a way of channeling and galvanising their potential and inspire them for positive living. That is the way to go.
What, in your view, is responsible for the despondent situation of the youths in Nigeria?
The reason for the despondency is not far fetched. Nigerian youths have not been well motivated and inspired by the state. The youths need positive role models as against the 'rogue' models they have been exposed to over the years.
Our educational system is no more functional. Gone are the days when secondary school leavers were well equipped to be absorbed into productive economic engagements. Many of our university graduates today are not readily employable going by our experiences and interaction with them.
You find out that a great deal of re-training and induction programmes are needed to be conducted on them when they are to be considered for jobs.
This situation is quite a misnomer for a country that seeks to be enlisted in the league of leading world economies some twelve years away. We must appreciate that human capital is fundamental to national goals and aspirations.
Many vices have been associated with the youths, from armed robbery, cultism, political thuggery, e.t.c. How can these issues be addressed and a re-orientation occur?
A society that shirks its constitutional and primary responsibility of building its strategic human capital base stands the high risk of breeding deviant and rebellious citizenry.
What we have in our hands, armed robbery, cultism, cyber-crime, political thuggery, hostage taking, etc. is a direct negative effect of the failure of the state in her duty to the citizens.
We can turn the tide through a deliberate effort towards giving the youth a sense of belonging by engaging them in governance and policy formulation as it relate to them while also providing the enabling environment for them to be empowered.
The National Youth Development Policy put in place in 2001 must be meaningfully implemented and the necessary structures to ensure its effectiveness must as a matter of necessity be developed.
Doing the forgoing will for sure give our youth a new sense as stakeholders and they will take ownership of the Nigerian project with a re-oriented sense of duty towards building the nation.
Some analysts believe agriculture, as a major non-oil sector, is capable is turning around the economy for the better. Do you subscribe to this view?
There is no visible alternative to agriculture in boosting our economy and changing it from a mono-economy driven only by oil. A massive investment in agriculture will boost food security and reduce unemployment if made attractive.
Dry season farming, fish farming, snail production etc. are high earning investments. We cannot quantify the positive multiplier effect of a right investment in agriculture on our economy. Here, the government must compel our mega banks to really give high consideration to micro-credit for agri-businesses.
How can we check rural-urban migration, where the youths flee the hinterland for already-overstretched urban areas?
Poverty and unemployment are the major causes of rural-urban drift. Dearth of basic infrastructure and opportunities for better life, businesses and fulfillment in rural communities contribute to the challenge.
We can stem rural-urban migration especially among young people if our governments provide the enabling environment that engenders economic empowerment and fulfillment in the rural communities QUOTE.
Search for greener pastures is the key reason for the drift. Getting the rural hinterland developed through sound economic governance will go a long way in checking the trend.
In what key sectors do you think government can invest in youths for maximum gain and development?
Government has the capacity to make massive investments in the critical sectors of the economy that will generate maximum development gains. Investment in Agriculture, Information Technology, Sports, Arts, etc. will provide the veritable platform for youth empowerment and sustainable development.
The zest and energies of the youth could be positively channeled through the sectors mentioned. We also need a great deal of inspirational leadership, sensitisation and information to change the orientation of our youth from the present culture of rent-seeking and make them imbibe delayed gratification and hard work.
Can you outline a few successful initiatives undertaken by your organisation for youth empowerment in Nigeria?
Cognisant of the reality that the 21st century belongs to economies with requisite pool of human capital, our organisation, Momentum Africa -a human capital development NGO through the instrumentality of its Youth Agenda Programme- has up the mandate of youth empowerment in the country.
The YEED Initiative seeks to build the bridge into Nigeria's future by unlocking the latent potentials of our young people for productive socio-economic engagements.
Own ethos is to syndicate, strategise and synchronise our voices, knowledge, skills and networks to motivate and empower our young people for the development of self and nation.
Some countries Eastern Europe countries like Serbia and Latvia are reported to have handed over the reins of government to their youth population, with positive results. Can a similar scenario work in Nigeria?
I have always emphasise that for Nigeria to align itself with the current global paradigm shift that is placing leadership on young people, we need to make heavy investment and interventions in human capacity development in the country.
Skills acquisition and capacity building are described as essential to national development. Yet hundreds of thousands of youths who emerged from the tertiary institutions are jobless. How can this unemployment syndrome be adequately tackled?
One thing we must get right in our quest for youth empowerment is education for living. We must structure our academic curriculum to provide employable skills to our young people such that they can achieve self-determination and self-reliance upon graduation.
The syndrome of unemployment can be tackled if the education our schools provide is such that opens windows of opportunities; enhance skills and mobility; and give real empowerment to our young graduates. Then, we will be fast-tracking our ascent to the league of world leading economies.
Can you think of an innovative way to channel the energy and human capital of youths in this country for the common good?
Our organisation has been able to identify some young people with viable business ideas and vision; we have helped build their capacities through training, internship and little start-up funds and seed money.
We have conducted seminars and entrepreneurship training for young people. We try to educate their mind on self-determination and live their dreams.
We are pushing for collaboration to draw resources from the synergy and partnership with some State governments and corporate bodies in the task of building the capacities of our youths in order to make them competitive in this era of globalised economy.
We have secured the endorsement of some Nollywood stars, esteemed political leaders and reputable model entrepreneurs for YEED Initiative. We hope to embark on national campaign soon to empower and project successful personages as models for our young people to emulate.
The issue of cottage and small-scale industries is another area of interest. How can we encourage the youths in this country to consider small-scale self-employment before white-collar jobs in a bid to move the country forward?
We must begin to expand the frontiers of self-help and self-reliance and shift our focus from institutional help. We must give hope to our youth; the wealth creation 'know-how' and the needed support by way of requisite skills to become change agents in the nation economy.
Our youths should be encouraged to imbibe volunteering and social works, networking, sports and entertainment. They can only give consideration to small-scale self-employment if they see that our government is not paying lip service to the building of micro-enterprises.
If institutional support, infrastructure and enabling environment is provided and access to micro-finance is made simple, the youth will no doubt be motivated to embrace the idea of self-employment.
What, in your view, would constitute a conducive environment for the youth to actualise and maximise their potential in Nigeria?
Conducive environment for the youth to maximise and actualise their potential is centered on right policy (pro-youth policies) and planning on the part of government.
There must be a data base to help government implement youth development policies; adequate infrastructure, incentives mechanism, reward system to promote hard work and also diligence amongst our youth.
Citizen participation in governance will build trust and confidence of the people in the government. If our youths are given consideration in policy making, they will surely be inspired to be good citizens.
Some say good governance should begin from each family unit, and that parents also have roles to play in properly moulding responsible youths to ensure a relatively crime-free society. Do you support this view?
Good governance is a responsibility of all of us, the leaders and the led. The fulcrum of sanity in any society especially in Africa is the family unit. Parents have the primary role of shaping the personality of their wards. They are the first teachers and character goldsmith of the youth.
What we become in our adult lives is a function of nature and nurture. Those values we soaked while growing up, and the environment that shapes our organic character contents are important. So, the parents and the society both have the joint responsibility of moulding responsible youths for responsible citizenship.
What are the expected roles for each stakeholder in Nigeria, to properly guide and harness the youth population for maximum growth and development?
All of us are stakeholders in the task of guiding and harnessing our youth population for maximum and national development. Leaders in government must provide the needed policy framework.
Parents must give the youths good training and good up-bringing; the religions must emphasise godliness and righteousness; the corporate institutions must provide support and the media must project positive images and role models to inspire and motivate the youth for positive living.
In the final analysis, we are all victims of our errors of omission or commission in our duties to our young people and humanity in general.
Read comments. Write your own.
Copyright © 2008 This Day. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
MYname is Aishat Foluke Folayan,am 15 years old i attend TheLearingfield Secondary School Satellite Town. well i want to talk on Nigeria developing as a country i think if Nigerian can work on their natural resources they will be able to make this country develpoed,everything can't be done by the government ,we need to work hand in hand to make this county a great country a great nation in times likethis where by Nigeria are beinging to have economy turn down ,as a country we need to be strong. If government can employ industrious worker,vivaous graduates i don,t think Nigeria will be listless when developing i believe Nigeria is a great nation lets make it a great nation ,we can't keep depending on oil we have our farmers who are ready to work , if we farm well we can use the farm money to open up our own indusrtries ,i think the foreigners have over nationalised us,example all noodles sold in Nigeria are that of foreigners and it is our farm product they are using for this nooddles ,Nigeria will need to seat up. i will take you back as far 1953 when we were met to be given independence because Anthony Enahoro requested for it and Ahmadu bello said we should given indenpendces when particable nd the caused the kano riot on 1956 we agreed ongaining independences come 1960 we were not given totally until 1963 Nigeria need to wake we are the best in the world i don't see why we need to be slaves to fireigners for a very long time . pls i need a fast reply