EMPOWERED YOUTH: DRIVERS OF NIGERIA'S SOCIO- ECONOMIC GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT

OVERVIEW:

I remembered vividly those days when we were much younger, when we could buy a lot of lunch in school with one naira and still have enough kobo as change. When our standard of living was reasonably measurable with the nation’s GDP. When we worked with all the energy in our being academically and otherwise to meet up with our dreams of the leaders of tomorrow because we had role models. 

But…where did all those passions, zeal, ambitious hopes disappear to, as each and every single day goes by? Is that dream of leaders of tomorrow, one of their literary tricks to get us stuck in the mirage of hopes without fulfilment? Is there really hope for the persons between the ages of 15 and 24 according to the United Nations? Are our appearance, freshness, vigour, spirit (characteristics) of one who is young turning out to be an illusion?

 Let me not bore you my beloved readers with all those questions. But the truth remains the Nigeria’s socio-economic growth and development will remain as it is or go worst when the family, religious bodies, government does not take the bull by the horn through empowering the youth.

DEFINITION OF YOUTH:

“Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them”

               (Ecclesiastes 12:1 KJV)

Youth is the time of life when one is young, and often means the time between childhood and adulthood (maturity), it’s the appearance, freshness, vigour, spirit etc. characteristic of one who is young.

Under several definitions youth exist within UN entities such as Youth Habitat 15-32 and African Youth Charter 15-35. According to the United Nations, youths are defined as persons between the ages of 15 and 24 years, it is an experience that may shape an individual’s level of dependency, which can be marked in various ways according to different cultural perspectives. Youth is the stage of constructing the self-concept which means (self-construction, self-identity, self-perspective or self-structure) a collection of beliefs about oneself. 

The self-concept embodies the answer to “who am I?” The self-concept is the time a person’s life in which they make choices which will affect their future. Our question lies more on, how many youth in this nation really know who they are? 

For the purpose of this essay, our focus dwells more on youths in Nigeria. Youths in Nigeria includes members of the Federal Republic of Nigeria aged 18-35. Many African girls experience youth as a brief interlude between the onset of puberty and marriage and motherhood. 

Nigeria as a nation, is somewhat may excluding the youths who are the foundation of growth of any nation from the issues that matters in the nation in the political, social as well as communal developments. It is with this aching that I ask this question; is there really hope for the Nigerian youth? 

The major socio-economic issue facing the youth of our world this day is the growth of youth unemployment, which reached new heights of 22.5% across the European Union, and the precariousness of labour market conditions reveals that the gap between labour market “outsiders” and “insiders” is widening. One of the most dramatic possible consequences of this growing divergence could arguably be the disenfranchisement of labour market outsiders, especially young people from social and political participation. It is because of these dramatic possible consequences on youths that the need of empowering the youths comes into play, so as to boost the socio-economic growth and development of Nigeria.

One major component in youth engagement in the society that is overlooked is youth empowerment. It should be noted that when youths are empowered, they have the skills, critical awareness, and opportunities to positively impact their own lives and the lives of other individuals, organisations and communities. Our nation has to be intentional about the way youths are incorporated into communities and organisations if truly they want to empower them.

EMPOWERING YOUTH:

This means to be willing to share your adult power and privilege in order to make the community a better place for both young people. It can also be to include youths in decision making processes, honor the youth voice, understand and implement their honest opinions and ideas for effective socio-economic growth and development of the country. No youth deep down is happy about the current state of the nation and that is why empowering the youths is paramount so that they give back to the nation what they’ve got. 

Hence, when the youths are empowered, there will be a great rise in the relationship between economic activity and social life; there will be a continuous improvement in the overall well-being and in the standard of living of the people. 

From the socio-economic thematic, an empowered youth is meant to enjoy basic needs that are essential to live a life of dignity, which includes:

• Access to quality education
• Better health care
• Decent housing
• Safe drinking water and good sanitation
• Equitable distribution of a nation wealth.

For an empowered youth to really boast of socio-economic development, they must have a standard GDP, standard life expectancy, standard literacy and standard level of employment which are the measurable indicators.

Hence, rise in positive changes in laws, changes in the physical environment and ecological changes will be assured for the nation. If the nation empower the youths, the socio-economic objectives will be met which include:

• Promoting self-reliance in development and building capacity for self-sustaining development
• Accelerating socio-economic development to achieve sustainable development and poverty eradication 
• Strengthening policies, delivery mechanism and outcomes in key social areas including education, combating of HIV and AIDS, and other communicable diseases
• Ensuring affordable access to water, sanitation, energy, finance (including micro finance) markets, ICT, shelter and land to all citizens especially the rural poor 
• Progress towards gender equality in all critical areas of concern including equal access to education for girls at all levels
• Encourage broad based participation in development by all stakeholder levels.

“Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it”. 

        (Proverbs 22:6 KJV) 

This is truly what an empowered youth needs to be drivers of the socio-economic growth and development. The youths, the family, the church and the government has a major role to play to achieve the above socio-economic objectives as well as inculcate in the youths the existence of a supreme being in their lives for growth and development.

THE YOUTH:

“All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made”. (John 1:3 KJV). 

In essence, the youths, the empowerment, the socio-economic growth and development was made by Jesus Christ. For the empowered youths to be the driver of the socio-economic growth and development, he needs to know that he was made by God, to really be a driver of growth and development.

The youths needs to believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment (1John3:23 KJV), as well as love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. (Mark 12:30 KJV).

The youths needs to know that with their strengths they can do nothing but with Christ they can do exceedingly, abundantly and above all they can ask or think.

Therefore for any youth to be an empowered youth, Christ has to be priority and the author; they have to understand they are made by God through their procreation to any family they find themselves; they have to know that the strengths they have is really from above; and without Christ they can do nothing.

With this conviction established, the youths can and truly with the heart of love be the true drivers of socio-economic growth and development. It takes a willing heart of love, a heart of passion, a heart of commitment to really identify the missing gap and be the change he/she wants to see. 

In a nutshell, an empowered youth who must or be a driver of socio economic growth and development must believe in the name of Jesus Christ, believe in him/herself, believe he was made by God to influence and impact his/her world without shying away from responsibility and not allow other peoples’ time line be a yardstick of his fulfilment, should identify his/her place of higher calling (educational, socially, spiritually, financially, career wise) to stay on the right track, should always know that with God everything is possible for the fulfilment of purpose as well as faith every step he/she take in God for the accomplishment of purpose.

THE FAMILY:

The family is the key indicator of this empowered youth. The family is the bedrock where this socio-economic growth and development is birthed, nurtured and projected for the world to see the light in dark times. The lives of these empowered youths can be influenced positively or negatively as a result of the family they come from. I agree to some extent that your background is not a ground to whatever one will become but if the foundation be destroyed, what can the righteous do?

 A wrong foundation will go a very long way of marring the youths, emotionally, socially, psychologically and otherwise. Because the youths are in the high rate of exposure to influence especially that of peer pressure and environmental factors. With this in mind, the parents have to train the children; God has blessed them with in love and with all diligent to prepare them to be best solutions and not problem to the nation. 

The youth during childhood stages should be fed with the right things especially practical word from the word of God, be nurtured in a sound environment i.e. the home no matter where its sited but the parents should also know that these may not come easy except by the power of God and fervent prayers and encouragement to the children; hardly will the youths trained up from this kind of homes be influenced with peer pressure or join the bad eggs in the society because he/she has being groomed, nurtured in discipline and morals backed up with pure word of God and effective prayers.

 But the reverse is the case for a family with wrong foundation; because the key people that constitute the family especially the head of the family is not aligned to the head of the church (Christ).

 Hence the empowerment he gives to the body of the family (which is the portion where the youth is found) will truly be biased. 

A model empowered youth through the family should reflect the fruit of the spirit stated in (Galatians 5:22-23 KJV)

22 “But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,

23 “meekness, temperance: against such there is no law”.

When the above becomes a lifestyle of the youth, the family can beat her chest with all confidence that she has truly empowered the youth for the socio-economic growth and development of Nigeria.

THE CHURCH:

The church has an active role to play in empowering the youth. This empowerment goes beyond youth Sunday/week in the churches, it goes beyond Sunday school, it goes beyond fasting and prayers without results and the way of life is nothing to write home about, it goes beyond covering the truth and leaving the youths to act the way they like in churches without discipline.

The ministers of God should be the role models to the young ones within the confinement of the church. The church should empower the youths with sound unadulterated doctrines, sound discipline, sound way of life, sound tutorship and mentorship, sound truth and system of leadership which is not biased or selfish profit-oriented but built on love and kingdom advancement for nation building just as Christ our role model has shown us.

The church should empower the youth with skill acquisitions, talents exhibitions, purpose discoveries, that will enable the young ones maximise their potentials. 

If possible the church should intentionally assign each youth to each spiritual adviser just as the academia have academic adviser to enable the youths learn, expand their horizon, be focus oriented rather than being victims of snares and dangers of juvenile deliquescence, societal vices and perilous times.

The church should at a very tender age help the youths identify their self-concept so that they can confidently answer the “who am I” self-concept question for the socio-economic growth and development in their various field of speciality. The church need to go a long way of practising what they preach for the conviction of the faith and hope of these youths.

The greatest empowerment the church can confer to the youths who are the drivers of Nigeria’s socio-economic growth and development is ´Love´.

For any nation, Nigeria inclusive to experience a rapid turnaround in her socio-economic growth and development, the youths through the church should be empowered basically with (Mark12:31 KJV)

31 “And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these”.

When this is practicably visible, the church can boldly stand and indeed say they’ve contributed to the quota of empowering the youth to boost the socio-economic growth and development of Nigeria.  

THE GOVERNMENT:

The government is created to give life to the people she is governing. Life in the sense that the basic standard of living are met. 

I remember a conversation that I had with a friend on certain issues as regards good governance; it will shock you what we concluded on as regards the place of the youths. 

As we got to a point where we had to come down and complete the rest of the journey we started on a tricycle with our legs and on messy road as it was during the rainy season. The road was so bad that even a pregnant woman whose delivery date has not come will put to bed automatically on encountering that particular road. 

As we dialogued how the government had gone blind on the maintenance factor of the social amenities, we went beyond seeing the bad state of the road and also analysed how, what and where our government channel all allocations for basic amenities for her people on? It dawned on us that the people with the youths inclusive are in a marred state as the government cannot be held accountable of how the annual budget and various allocations are utilised. 

But if these social amenities are put in place; there will be low population of the poor citizens in the hospital as a result of outburst of diseases and unconducive environments, the standard of livings of the people will appreciate to a wonderful extent as well as the GDP of the nation.

The government should empower youths in diverse areas such as the health sector, the environmental sector, the social welfare sector, the political sector etc. so that the nation will not regress when the former leaders are no more. The hospitals, the schools, the markets, the streets, the opportunities, the employments, the salaries, the voice of the youths should be structured to engage the youths for empowerment in their various abilities, capacities, gifting and callings of every youths in Nigeria.

We concluded the conversation on low maintenance capacity on infrastructures hence leading to drudgery and suffering in the lives of the citizens. Let’s say the road, during road construction the engineers that was awarded the contract at the end of the day because of greed, corruption and not placing humanity first to save lives will end up using cheap and inferior materials for the construction of the road which will not last within the project lifespan not to talk of serving the purpose in which it was created hence citizens become casualties’ of fatal road accidents, hinders movement and reduces opportunities for young investors to harness opportunities within their reach as a result of a mistake that was not gotten right from the foundation. 

Again, if all these basic amenities were put in place as well as their maintenance capacities put in order, there will be no need for citizens flooding the hospital beds, if the waste management systems too were put in place, there will be no need for outburst of communicable disease reducing the population, if the government gave the youths their place and do the needful with removal of ambiguity, if there could be a transparent government with sound vision and who has the mind of the people as well as feels their heartbeat; everyone from the suckling babe through the youths down to the aged will continually contribute their own quota for the progress of the nation. If the government can understand that every cry of just a citizen is worth a billion investment then this nation will be marked for excellent.

The youth is the foundation, the youth is the strength, the youth is the voice of every nation, and the youth is the hope and the building block of the country. Eliminate the youths and have the nation crumble down. But what can our youths of this day say? Our hopes are vanishing, some are crumbling down due to greed, selfishness, intoxicating power, corruption, bloodshed, injustice, religious barriers, hatred, shortcutting, foolishness, timidity, etc. 

“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land”. 

(2 Chronicle 7:14 KJV)

The land of Nigeria needs to be healed. The negligence the nation have on the youths needs a healing touch…they are the harvest, already rotting in the field, the youths are already decaying without even exploring their potentials that are being squeezed before actualizations…

If we continue to say it does not matter, I wonder what the future will hold for the beautiful ones who are not yet born!

The youths needs to be bold as empowered youth. Not empowered to be just bodyguards, not empowered to be suicide bombers, not empowered to be assassinators, not empowered to be highway robbers, not empowered to be drug addicts, not empowered to be sex workers, not empowered to be  hawkers on the roadsides and in the streets, not empowered to be graduates after four or five years of struggles in the universities, polytechnics and colleges of education to end up in their parents homes but graduates doing exploits in their field of study as well as skills, the youths needs to be empowered beyond being psychos that life struggles have tormented and left them a shadow of themselves in the psychiatric homes as a result of hard drugs they felt was the lasting solution and a redeemer in their dark days of frustration. 

Not empowered to be bad boys and girls in the hood fuelling juvenile delinquency but good boys and girls making impacts for their neighbourhood to cheer in time to come!

Billions of youth has lost the patience, millions are on the verge of giving up, thousands or more are disowning this nation on daily basis as a result of seeking for greener pastures. The hopes of the youths needs to be revived, the government needs to be quick to restore her before the walls are dismantled, before the strengths become weak, before the poor state become abject poverty state, before the harvest becomes rotten in the field.

The greatest empowerment the government should give the youths is to give them the voice to explore in their various worlds for the growth and development of this nation. They should be given the chance to grow, learn, try, fail, corrected and succeeds. 

Deep down the heart of every genuine youth in this nation, if given the chance and voice is to turn things around for good for this nation. The empowered youths are truly a driver of the socio-economic growth and development because the ideas within them when brought to limelight will be a light for Nigeria to see. The empowered youths are like the candle set on the hill which cannot be hid! Hence, the government should ensure that the youth empowerment programmes provided or that will be provided are not literally youth empoisonment programmes. 

The programmes should be unbiased, should be corrupt-free, should be impactful, should really deep down be an elixir and truly empower the youths beyond any agenda or vision.

The government should really beat her chest if on an average even the illiterate youths, the parentless youths and less privileged youths will have access to education and also be empowered to harness their creative skills of arts, culture, craftiness etc. 

The literate youths should be provided with legal grounds to soar beyond their professional horizon, instead of hiring foreigner for that contract, it wouldn’t be too bad if they are integrated to the system to earn a living and give the beautiful ones that are not yet born a living too. Also the gap which the youths are to occupy in the political system should be filled with the legitimate and rightful youths who have be scrutinised and met up with the standard of the jurisdiction of the Federal Republic of Nigeria for socio-economic growth and development. The government should therefore look out for the ripe harvest and maximise them potentially because the secret of progressiveness is through the learnt art and act which is genuinely passed on without any corrupt sense or sentiments.

With that, the government can boldly stand and say indeed we have fought a good fight and truly we have invested and empowered our youth bearing in mind that every citizen is her responsibility. 

CONCLUSION:

“Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man”.

(Ecclesiastes 12:13 KJV)

For an empowered youth to really be a driver of the socio-economic growth and development in Nigeria, in all his/her attainments, achievements and fulfilment- must fear God and love his neighbour as he/she loved him/herself for Nigeria to be great in the midst of our cultural diversities. 

Make the moment count! Billions of souls needs you to stay strong and true to the course of your youthfulness! One love Nigerian youth! You’re indeed youthful and useful!

Thank you! 

Merry Christmas and A Prosperous Youthful Year!!!