Lagos — Among the many entitlements which Minister of Youth and Social Development, Senator Akinlabi Olasunkanmi, named as the rights of the Nigerian youths included the rights to life, participation in policy formulation, decision making as well as rights to housing, legal services, healthcare, recreation education and training.

Empowerment Rights

The proper coordination of these rights, he noted, will harness potentials of youths and transform them into the leadership they need to take over control in the future.

Olusunnkanmi said that the enjoyment of these rights, which he tied to human capital development, was timely in view of high youth unemployment rate in the country and the receding fortune of the tide of the global economy.

The minister added that Nigerian youths are captured between the ages of 18 and 35. As it is evident in the crisis in the Niger Delta region, this age group is the most active, most volatile and the most vulnerable segment of the country's population.

"This age group requires social, economic and political support," the minister said.

"Therefore, their rights must be guaranteed since they are regarded as future leaders and, in deed, the greatest investment for the country's development, In other words, without youths, there can be no future for any nation. To the extent to which a country can reproduce itself as well as sustain itself is dependent on their existence."

Inclusive Agenda

The rights of youth in Nigeria are captured in the Seven-point Agenda of government, the minister added. In specific term, Senator Olusunnkanmi said his ministry has initiated a process for the formulation of a National Action Plan on Youth employment to enable the country respond to the challenges of youth unemployment and underdevelopment.

The government is diversifying the economy from oil and gas to agro-allied sector and it is to this industry that the minister said youths should redirect their surplus energy.

Although the minister, who was represented by Mr. Dauda Kigbu, did not elaborate on opportunities for youths in agriculture, he said the task lies in the creation of enabling environments for youth enterprises to thrive.

It is for this purpose that the federal government is urging every state to establish and fund vocational and entrepreneurial skill development centres where students of tertiary institutions can undergo industrial work experience scheme for a period of six months.

"Participants in the National Youth Service Scheme would soon be mandated to attend advanced courses in entrepreneurship at these centres," the minister said.

Practical Scheme

To make the scheme work, sites and services are to be created for enterprises and access to credits made easy. The establishment of informal sector cooperatives for bulk purchases of raw materials, leasing of equipment as well as marketing and facilitation of young enterprises are parts of the policy.

Meanwhile, government plans to use external agencies to evaluate such public sector agencies as the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP) and the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) to make them more result-oriented.

"Through this," the minister told the student-youths at the academy, "you will be able to create a synergy of energy that will promote peace, security, development and human dignity."

Bone of Contention

The problem came when two guest speakers at the academy's opening ceremony, Prof. Julius Ihonvbere and Prof. Osita Ogbu, who had been advisers in President Obasanjo government, openly questioned the integrity of the Nigerian elite to work to realise a future for youth, which would be better than the one they inherited.

Ihonvbere, who spoke first, faulted government's youth policy largely on the account that youths themselves were not aware of the existence of the document for which they were the primary beneficiary. "How can there be a youth policy and the youths are not aware of it?" he said.

The main argument of the former social activist was that Nigerian leaders are conspiratorial and duplicitous in their dealings with citizens.

He suggested that the implied confidentiality of the public document specifically crafted for youth empowerment was a typical example of elite design to deny youths the enjoyment of the fundamental rights, to which the minister listed that they were entitled.

He said, for example, that Nigerian elite who willingly cooperated amongst themselves and promoted the interests of companies in which they had stake without fighting would intentionally act divisively outside the board rooms so they can manipulate the populace for their selfish gains.

They should take action to change the country for the better and not leave things for God. "Don't listen to the leaders of Arewa, Ohaneze and Afenifere," he said.

The views of the Nigerian system by Dr. Osita Ogbu, who was economic adviser to former President Obasanjo, were as radical as those of Ihonvbere.

He said that leadership and followership were voluntary and not a matter of rank or position. Because Nigerian elite had been unable to demonstrate this natural link between leadership and followership, it would rig elections to get to and remain in power.

This was why, he noted, Nigerian politicians would lobby their party chairmen to win elections and get 'automatic tickets' to get re-elected.

Knowledge is Power

Ihonvbere and Ogbu emphasised knowledge as the key tool for social transformation and said the country would not progress until the values system found use for knowledge. "This is the only country where knowledge has become a liability", they said. The two men had run for the governorship of Edo and Imo, respectively.

Both were pushed to the wall when youths asked them how the young might implement the moral life which the old prescribed. However, the experience of Senator Joy Emordi, another speaker at the event, would deal a devastating blow to the system because it was proof of the positions of Ogbu and Ihonvbere.

The senator used the personal battles she waged to get elected to the National Assembly to illustrate perseverance and how young people can view their own struggles in life.

She recalled that 'some big people' in her state said she was not to get to the National Assembly. She did not only defy their will and emerge victorious, although she lost two out of her four year term in the process. She was even able to return to the hallowed chambers of the National Assembly.

Emordi, the chairperson of the Senate commission on education, said she was sponsoring a bill to include citizenship education in school curriculum, and also championing the inclusion of entrepreneurship in Nigerian universities.

Patriotic Fervour

It was natural that the issue of patriotism came up at the opening ceremony of the launch of the academy where the minister spoke. The way youths and indeed citizenship is conceived in Nigeria and America came into sharp focus because of a chain of fortuitous reasons.

These included the facts that the day of the event, July 4, was American national day and Mr. Brian Browne, the executive director of the Ken Nnamani Centre was an American. Additionally, the two guest speakers at the event, Ihonvbere and Ogbu, trained in America.

Browne, who grew up in Florida, is a former career diplomat and has spent most of his professional life in Africa. His book, 'Scratch the Sky: Stories of Life,' is based in Nigeria and the United States of America.

It was understandable when Brian Browne said that he saw the launch of the academy as a historical event. "We have a collective decision to make," he began his welcome address. "Individually, each of us has a decision to make."

He saw Nigeria as a vehicle and asked rhetorically whether she should idle about and become one of the developing nations of the world known only by its size and potential or whether everyone should his or her shoulders so that 'this mighty vessel' is pushed "towards the true direction of its greatness".

Browne's questions were rhetorical. He already knew the answers to them. According to him, establishing the centre, and by their attending it, both the school and the students have agreed the Nigerian condition should be changed "in an inspiring and humanitarian manner."

The Nnamani centre boss spoke with evident pride about the significance of the American national day and the document which secured it. "This is the day that we Americans cherish and honour as the birth of their nation," he said.

"On that day, 233 years ago, a small group of intrepid men gathered in the confines of a humid and stuffy hall to affix their names to a now famous document, the Declaration of Independence;

"Since then, the American continued, the document has etched its name not only in the history of America but in world history. Since that moment, anywhere people seek justice, thirst for freedom, or hunger for a better day, they cite the words and sentiments expressed in the Declaration of Independence as inspiration and as evidence of the rightness of their stance."

"In Nigeria, we fight not against vast arrays of soldiers and their armaments," he continued. "We fight the armies and battalions of underdevelopment, a foe more relentless and merciless than any of the human variety. Thus, what you confront upon the battleground of history is no less a war and may be even a greater one than the one America fought to claim independence."

Browne concluded that, in a fundamental way, the academy embodied the core principles of the Declaration of Independence.

Academy of Hope

A member of board of trustees of the Nnamani Centre, Chief Joe Okoli, extended further that concept of the academy. According to him, it comes from the one established in ancient Athens by the philosopher, Plato, and that it intended to use the educational methods of that early Greek history of learning.

Among these was the possibility that the students will learn from the academy and they will, in turn, enrich the academy. Athens also had another leadership lesson for the Nnamani academy because Athenians believed that it was the responsibility of citizens to shoulder the responsibilities of society.

Okoli, who is the managing director of the Nigerian Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), said that his challenge is to educate the Nigerian elite that invest in the welfare of the poor and vulnerable in society is in the interest of everyone. This included mentoring, for which Plato was famous, which is a part of the plans of the academy.

According to Dr. Sam Amadi, the director of programmes and research, the course is a combination of formal instruction and practical exercises. Students will be taught issues of citizenship, governance, economic growth and development.

Others are globalisation, social justice and electoral reforms. In the course of the weeks ahead, experts from the World Bank, DfID, UNDP were expected to feature in the programme.

Private sector leaders were also to deliver some modules of training at the programme. One of them, Mr. Okpachi Momoh, said his company, MTN, was a leader in the communication industry and a believer in positive change and the transformation of society.

Youth academy was launched as a result of the belief that young people have the capacity to play important roles in economic and social development. They are creative and can use creative thought to transform society.

Amadi said that the academy will introduce other interventions in the future to enhance the skills and capabilities of various Nigerian youth.

The first batch of the students started last Saturday and will be running for eight consecutive weekends so that students who are holding regular jobs can also attend.

The programme is a part of the centre's programme on economic prosperity, democratic governance and political stability in the country. Amadi added that it is a faculty for training young people to become leaders who can transform their society.

"The centre's focus on engendering transformative leadership is one critical ingredient missing in our quest for economic and political development," Amadi said.

"We recognise that without transformative leadership, Nigeria will not achieve its national development priorities. The problem of leadership cannot be left solely for elected officials. Civic responsibility is an essential component of national leadership."