The Nation Newspaper

Tag: youth

  • Youth and national development

    Without a doubt, youth are the foundation of positive and negative picture of any society. Their energies, inventiveness, character and orientation define the pace of development and security of a nation. Through their creative talents and labour power, a nation makes giant strides in economic development and socio-political attainments.

    In all societies of the world, virile youth is the bedrock on which national integration and development is predicated. The youth are the backbone and the building blocks of any nation. It is a fact that the stronger the youth, the more developed a nation is. The role of the youth in the nation-building process cannot be overemphasized as countries that develop and utilize their youth in the right directions seem to be more developed. The energy and brightness of the minds of youth act as torch-bearer for a nation. There is a confirmed connection between the prosperity of a nation and its youth development system.

    The late British politician and writer, Benjamin Disraeli, rightly described the youth of a nation as the ‘trustees of posterity’. It is in the reality of this that many nations have made concerted efforts in galvanizing integrated approach in putting in place youth development structures that have a very high propensity to be a catalyst for their national growth. On the contrary, the countries which fail to realize the importance of the youth lag behind in every aspects of life.

    The 2017 edition of International Youth Day, themed: “Youth Building Peace”, was aimed at stressing the principal role anticipated of the youth in global peaceful coexistence among the people and the drive for positive change for development through the transformative and resourceful force of the youths which has been identified by national leaders globally including Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari.

    Any nation that denies its youth the necessary enabling environment to enthusiastically participate in nation- building merely does so at its own perils. Nation-building is a dynamic process that calls for the participation of all segments of the society, including the often-overlooked and undermined youth population and youth resourcefulness that will provide an invaluable speed for the progress of any society as well as its development.

    As youth are brought into and connected with national issues and programmes, they can participate actively and contribute to decision making at multiple levels. As youths are engaged in more sustained positive relationships with adults, other youths, and national development programmes, apart from realising that they are valued citizens of their nations, such collaborations and participation may lead to skill enhancement, empowerments and confidence-building traits, which will help prepare them for active interest and involvement in nation-building.

    It is important to note that young people play a crucial role in the prospect for development and should therefore be included in all national development plans and programmes, but reality shows that attention to youth has not been sufficient and more needs to be done considering the practical implications of shifting perceptions of youth and the role they can play in the society.

    In Nigeria, the greatest challenge confronting the youth today is unemployment which has become a great challenge to national security. Despite alleged success of various youth   empowerment programmes across the country, over 54 % of Nigeria youth remain unemployed. The unemployment record in the country clearly portrays an increase in idle hands across the length and breadth of Nigeria. It is often said that an idle mind is the devil’s workshop, so an unemployed youth is a disaster going somewhere to happen. Activities of groups such as Boko-Haram, Niger Delta militants, Biafra agitators and recently, the Baddo group have serious implications for national security in the country. Sadly, some of these rebellious groups have youths at the forefront of their nefarious activities.

    It is a known fact that youths possess a transformative force. They are creative, resourceful and enthusiast agents of change. Therefore, the need for youth to be listened to and productively engaged cannot be over-emphasized in every context. Youths can determine whether this era moves towards a great peril and more positive change. Let us support the young people of our world so they can grow into adults and a true platform for more powerful leaders of coming generations.

    Unfortunately, in our clime, youth are not being given the needed platform to freely express themselves. Though they have always been touted as ‘future leaders’ since God knows when, our nation clearly needs a spiritual or physical veil remover for us to act the saying ‘the future is now’ for us to stop saying the potential leaders of tomorrow are too young to lead alongside other flimsy excuses.

    Around the world, there is a growing recognition of the need to strengthen policies and investments involving young people. We need a properly marshalled policy aimed at harnessing the innate and budding potential of the youth. In Nigeria, the youth almost do not have a voice in the scheme of things. Unemployment, lack of opportunities, faulty educational system, repressive political system, dwindling economic fortunes, among others, are mostly responsible for the suppression of the voice of the youth in our dear nation.

    However, it needs to be stressed that the Nigerian youth need to be more focused, creative and disciplined if they are to actually become real agents of change in the country. The agriculture and Information Communications Technology (ICT) sectors, especially, represent areas where the youth could truly make enormous impact in the country, if only they could become more forward-looking.

    The trend of rural/urban migration by Nigerian youth has drastically reduced the capacity of agriculture sector to sustain the economy which has capacity to provide job for over 70% of the youth. Sadly, lots of youth idle away in cities rather than getting engaged in agriculture at the country-side. Similarly, advancement in ICT presents numerous prospects for the youth to become creative, productive and prosperous.  Unfortunately, rather than exploit the positive and resourceful sides of ICT, some youths have turned it into a tool of defrauding and tricking unassuming individuals through the infamous “yahoo, yahoo “  syndrome.

    On a final note, governments, NGOs, youths based organizations and other relevant stakeholders need to regularly enlighten and properly guide the country’s youth to take imbibe the positive sides of life. Also, our education curriculum should be reviewed to reflect contemporary realities that would assist the youth to contribute meaningful to national development.

     

    • Erezi, is with the Ministry of Information and Strategy, Alausa, Lagos.
  • How to tackle youth unemployment, by experts

    How to tackle youth unemployment, by experts

    More than 25 per cent of Nigerian youths are unemployed, and a huge skill gap exists in the labour market. Therefore, there is the urgent need to re-jig tertiary institutions’ curricula to reflect current needs of the private sector.

    Also, there is the need to shift emphasis on theoretical teachings to practical transfer of skills to prepare youths for the workplace environment. Youths, on their part, should embrace self-employment through entrepreneurship opportunities available in agriculture and services sectors.

    These are part of the recommendations in a communiqué issued at the end of one-day Chief Executive Officers’ Summit on Youth Employment in Nigeria with the theme: “The Challenge of Skills-Mismatch & the Roles of CEOS in Tackling Youth Unemployment”.

    The Summit, which held last week in Lagos, was organised by Centre for Values in Leadership (CVL). Its aim was to address the problem of skills mismatch on youth employment by bringing together high-profile CEOs and youth representatives to discuss the challenge and proffer practical solutions.

    It was also aimed at assisting participants from diverse sectors in the private sector to deliberate, understand and appreciate the dynamics, implications and future impact of youth unemployment on their businesses and growth, and development of the economy.

    Recommending a re-jig of the curricula of tertiary institutions, the Summit observed that tertiary education curricula are antiquated in most cases, behind technological developments and therefore, not properly aligned to the needs of the modern labour market, particularly the private sectors.

    It also observed that the absence of entrepreneurship studies at secondary and tertiary levels of education system has blinded youths to potential opportunities available in self-employment in the economy. It, therefore, recommended that all secondary and tertiary institutions be compelled to establish Career Development Units to provide guidance and counseling to youths.

    The Summit also recommended that government should institute a ‘Ranking System’ to rate tertiary institutions in terms of quality of teaching staff and associated resources in order to engender competition and self-improvement similar to the practice in the United States (US).

    While describing the industrial training scheme of the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) as novel and should be sustained and improved, the communiqué, however, advised the government to improve its financial administration in order to ensure release of funds as at when due to ITF. This, according to them, will enable it meet its obligations to students on industrial attachment.

    The CEOs were also advised to form closer alliance and establish advocacy group to contribute to policy articulation, with the Nigerian Employers Consultative Association (NECA) providing immediate platform to implement the recommendation.

    They were also urged to design human capital development programmes for current and future employees as part of strategic growth plan and drop the mindset that trained staff have the tendency to quit employment after training.

    The Summit mandated CVL to organise a fresh summit to provide a platform for interface between businesses and the academia, adding that a partnership with the National University Commission (NUC) should be explored in this regard.

    Attendance at the Summit included chief executives representing multinational firms and Small and Medium Enterprises; personnel and recruitment consultants; civil society organisations in the employment space, donor and development partners.

  • Human trafficking strips youth of dignity, says Elumelu

    Human trafficking strips youth of dignity, says Elumelu

    Founder, Tony Elumelu Foundation Mr. Tony Elumelu has hailed Director-General of Nigeria’s National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) Julie Okah-Donli for her accomplishments at the agency. Elumelu, who spoke when the foundation hosted the NAPTIP Director-General, pledged his group’s commitment to the war against human trafficking.

    Saying human trafficking strips youth of dignity, he: “We support what you are doing and we stand behind you. The Tony Elumelu Foundation believes in the empowerment of our youths and as we all know, they cannot be empowered if they are not free.”

    “We stand with you in eradicating human trafficking in Nigeria and will engage extensively with you as you work to restore dignity to mankind, protect the dignity of our youth and ensure no one can take undue advantage of them.”

    He made an appeal to the government to increase budgetary funding to the cash-strapped agency.

    “I call on the Federal Government to make more resources available to support you. As private companies, we pay taxes to the Federal Government and we want to see a more judicious use of the taxes paid.”

    Elumelu urged other private sector players to join the agency to fight human trafficking, assuring them of the credibility and competency of NAPTIP and its DG whom he could vouch for. Elumelu hailed Okah-Donli for her accomplishments at the agency, including the conviction of over 325 persons, and successful rehabilitation of more than 12,000 victims. He added that she was a former staff of leading pan-African bank, United Bank for Africa (UBA).

    “She is an alumna of the United Bank for America (UBA), Africa’s global bank, thus we are not surprised at what she has become. We predicted that she will attain such great heights because of the passion she has always had for human trafficking.”

    Mrs. Okah-Donli said UNESCO ranks human trafficking as the third most lucrative criminal enterprise in Nigeria.

    Thus, she said agencies like NAPTIP needed good laws, sustained funding and equally important, critical support from local and global stakeholders to execute the urgent war against human trafficking.

    Mrs. Okah-Donli said: “We can no longer wait for government alone to fight this war. Many victims are on standby, anxious to be fully reintegrated into society. At the agency, we are desperate for assistance to empower and rehabilitate these millions of victims in need. Thus, we are identifying and approaching organisations like the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) for support.”

  • Lafarge’s CPTP: a boost to youth empowerment

    Lafarge’s CPTP: a boost to youth empowerment

    Youth unemployment is a major issue in the country. But experts say the solution to the problem, which hampers productivity and social harmony, ranges from entrepreneurship to technical apprenticeship. MUYIWA LUCAS writes on the Cement Professionals Training Programme (CPTP) by Lafarge Africa, which trains youths to acquire employable skills.

    The need to increase local content, especially in  multinationals, is one way to develop backward integration which the country  craves for.  Besides, such initiative has provided a safety net for operations of firms domiciled in hot areas in the country.

    It was for this that Lafarge Africa Plc, established the Cement Professionals Training Programme (CPTP), which began on June 8, to assist youths in its catchment areas.

    Under the scheme, over the next three years, 15 youths from Ogun, Gombe and Cross River states will be trained in mechanical, electrical, instrumentation, automation technology, cement manufacturing process and entrepreneurship at Lafarge’s facilities in Ashaka, Ewekoro, Mfamosing (in Calabar) and Sagamu.

    With this, stakeholders are convinced that the firm has repositioned its flagship technical training programme for young Nigerians as part of its corporate social responsibility, as well as adding value to the development of the country, especially its host communities in Southwest, Southsouth and Northeast.

    The CPTP Manager, Mr. Michael Shokunbi, said while its objective remains the same as previous programmes’,  the coverage  has expanded to include science-based young school leavers from the Northeast and Southsouth.

    He said to make the CPTP effective, Lafarge was partnering the Industrial Training Fund (ITF), the Nigeria Employers Consultative Assembly (NECA) and the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE). The certificate awarded after the programme is accredited by NBTE and valid for admission into  universities.

    The Country Chief Executive Officer of Lafarge Africa, Michel Puchercos, said the CPTP was a national programme aimed at bringing about change in the society.

    He said: “Skills acquired through this programme will not only make these young men employable, but impact positively on our host communities,” adding that with more companies towing his firm’s example, host communities of companies will see a steep decline in youth restiveness.’’

    Communications, Public Affairs and Sustainable Development Director  Mrs. Folashade Ambrose-Medebem said the 15 youths in the CPTP would be trained to imbibe the culture of “safety first”.

    “We want to conduct business at zero harm to people and at zero cost to life. If we’re good in safety, then we’re good in business,” she said.

    In his message to the trainees, the Ogun State Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Modupe Mujota, challenged them to ensure they put the training to good use for the benefit of their community.

    “To whom much is given, much is expected. You are not here by chance; you have a specific and important role to play in ensuring that the three-year intensive multi-skilling vocational training will bring about improved standard of living in our communities,” she said.

    The earlier version of CPTP—developed in partnership with the ITF and the Nigerian Employers Consultative Association (NECA)—was launched in 2012 with 12 youths and increased to 21 in 2014. Its graduates were trained in automation, electrical and mechanical skills and awarded a diploma after the 18-month programme.

    The skills addressed the dearth of professional artisans and technicians, allowed the youth to be self-sufficient and support their local economy, and thus, reinforced bonds between Lafarge and the community.

    Three-quarters of the first set got jobs with Lafarge while others were engaged by Lafarge contractors.

  • Our plan against youth migration, by govt

    The Federal Government has said its investment in education and infrastructure will stem the tide of youth restiveness and emigration. The government said its efforts towards improvement of infrastructure in schools and capacity building for teachers were aimed at improving the quality of education and equipping students with lucrative entrepreneurial skills.

    The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Geoffrey Onyeama, made this known during the handing over of  a four kilometre road constructed in the Federal College of Education, Eha-Amufu in Enugu State. The road was delivered through The Flood Control Project of the Presidency.

    Onyeama said Nigeria would not develop unless efforts were made to education the youth and equip them with vocational skills. He said education and skill acquisition remained the key priorities of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration.

    He said: “For Nigeria to eradicate poverty and develop, we have to train and educate our people. We have a huge population of young below 35; this is why it is important that we provide education and create access for skill acquisition. If we fail to act, we would face serious challenges that can lead to social problems.

    “Majority of young people are living in rural areas, where poverty takes its root. Many youths are crossing the Sahara desert to Europe in search of the proverbial greener pastures. Some of them end up at the base of the Mediterranean Sea. We are prepared to reverse this ugly trend by increasing access to education and skill acquisition.”

    The minister hailed the college’s Provost, Prof Benjamin Mbah, for tackling flooding and erosion in the school, saying the government would play its part in solving the environmental challenges.

    Mr Felix Okeke, who represented the Acting Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Dr Habiba Lawal, said the project was initiated at  the instance of the school which sought President Buhari’s intervention to curtail erosion and flooding on the campus.

    Prof Mbah thanked Presidency for the gesture. He appealed to the government to build two underground water storage facilities to harvest the flood water that passes through the college.

  • NACCIMA to create jobs with youth forum

    The Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA) said it will inaugurate its Youth Forum to create jobs for youths.

    Its President, Iyalode Alaba Lawson, who made this known at the inaugural meeting of the Youth Forum in Lagos, said through the introduction of the Forum, NACCIMA will advocate for necessary reforms that will revolutionise the socio-economic environment and encourage job creation.

    A statement signed by NACCIMA Director-General, Emmanuel Cobham, said the critical role of youths in supporting entrepreneurship and development cannot be ignored. She said the initiative was in line with the Chamber’s mission to ensure an enabling business environment through policy advocacy.

    She also said NACCIMA aimed at promoting the growth and competitiveness of businesses through proper and prompt information dissemination, using modern technology comparable to the best universal standard of chambers of commerce and industry anywhere in the world.

    The Youth Forum, she said, will focus on training and developing young entrepreneurs to meet the demand in identified gaps in the existing value chains, while equipping and supporting them to overcome the challenges faced by entrepreneurs such as access to finance, lack of business knowledge, and lack of market access, among others.

  • Protecting the youth

    •Erosion of cherished values must be halted if Nigeria is to survive  foreign ‘assaults’

    These are indeed changing times. At the material, spiritual and social levels, the society has decayed. This must have prompted the Federal Government’s outcry about the rise in homosexual cases in the land, especially among the youths. The government called for increased vigilance by parents and all stakeholders to arrest the trend.

    We are also alarmed at the rate of erosion of social values in the country.

    It is obvious that the African socio-cultural milieu does not tolerate such sexual perversion. Under the Goodluck Jonathan administration, the National Assembly passed a bill criminalising such a tendency. At the committee stage, public hearings were held and it was clear that Nigerians were near unanimous in supporting the legislation. Despite threats from the West, especially the United States of America where the trend has been formalised and officially supported on a warped ground of liberalism, President Jonathan signed the bill into law, with a view to showing the youth that the society frowned at such practices.

    It is unfortunate that at a point when we should be building a nation virile on all fronts, the little we have in terms of good social values is fast being eroded  by imported tendencies.

    The West has lost it on this plane. However, because it is developed economically, politically and militarily, it has been able to bear the consequences. The traditional African society is one where sexual perversion in terms of homosexuality, lesbianism, bestiality, paedophilia, among others, are regarded as strange and unacceptable. Nigeria is already polluted by the deluge of unwholesome western music, inexplicable, unprovoked violence, the media and unacceptable religious doctrines. This pernicious sexual abasement is the icing on this bitter cake.

    The Nigerian society is already torn by these grave developments. Yet, the country was built on a strong religious pedestal. Over the centuries, Christianity, Islam and the African traditional religion have peacefully coexisted. None tolerates sexual abasement which the wind of strange doctrine is now blowing in this direction. As the 7th National Assembly observed, the society has to resist the arm-twisting by the western countries apparently bent on foisting this evil corrosion of values on others.

    If Nigeria must recover from its current position within the international socio-economic order, it must put its house in order, drawing together all the agencies of socialisation such as the schools, religious organisations, the traditional institutions and the media. Unfortunately, like other institutions of state, the National Orientation Agency (NOA) established to fight such battles on behalf of the state has remained comatose for years now. We call on the government, through the Federal Ministry of Information, to charge the NOA with performing this all-important task of re-orientating the youth.

    The state of the nation has not helped matters. The economy has inflicted so much hardship on the youth that many of them would stop at nothing to leave the country. Many of such desperate youths end up as slaves in other lands. Those who stay throw anything into the “make it fast and big” syndrome. Any society that fails to impart its values on the young ones has lost the battle for genuine development. Nigerian children can no longer speak their languages, wear the dresses nor cherish things regarded as sacred in our history. The minds are being re-colonised in this age and time. We all have a duty to halt the trend.

    The media has a duty to filter what is beamed to the impressionable minds of the young ones. The regulatory agencies should perform their functions in screening content for broadcast on the electronic media and punish those who decide to unleash strange values on the society. A developed society with no morals is the least desirable at this point in time.

  • To avert youth anger

    •We need a radical redistribution of resources 

    It is perhaps the policy-makers’ worst nightmare:  What to do about the hundreds of thousands of young men and women graduating year after year from our universities, polytechnics and other institutions of further learning into a sluggish job market in a time of recession.

    As with other aspects of our national life, the actual numbers are hard to pin down, but if the 50 percent unemployment rate most frequently cited for university graduates is overstated, it cannot be by much. And the numbers are rising.

    It has long been an article of faith that higher education is the passport to the good life.

    In keeping with this belief, families consider no sacrifice too great to ensure that their children get a level of education that would best equip them to secure a foothold and thrive in the public service and the professions and in the larger economy.

    The belief endures, and so does the will to back it, but both are everyday challenged by the lived experience of most of our young men and women.

    Every Nigerian family today numbers in its ranks or knows or has heard of a university graduate or product of an institution of further learning who has never held down a job since graduating several years ago, or has had to settle for eking out a meagre existence from some form of work unrelated to his or her qualification and potential.

    The opportunities that graduates of an earlier era took for granted are no more there. Looking for meaningful work has become so unavailing that many graduates have given up altogether or headed to graduate school as a temporary refuge. The rising expectation yesteryears have been supplanted by deepening frustrations.

    That is a recipe for alienation and all that goes with it.

    Former President Olusegun Obasanjo called attention to this danger last week while speaking at a Youth Governance Dialogue, at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library in Abeokuta, Ogun State.

    “If we have youth anger or explosion because of lack of opportunity, it will consume us all,” he warned. The longer the “lack of opportunity” persists, the greater the prospect for such an explosion.

    We wish Obasanjo had come to this epiphany while he was president. For eight years, he presided over an economy that was in reasonably good shape, with a huge foreign reserve, and revenues so assured that his administration paid off in one fell swoop a foreign debt of $12.4 billion many years ahead of its maturity, with dubious benefit to the economy.s

    True, Obasanjo launched programmes to create jobs, alleviate poverty and provide start-off capital for young persons going into business. But their impact has been slight. It is even doubtful whether he really understood the nature of the problem.

    Graduate unemployment, already quite high during his first term, arose because, according to him, students chose to study sociology or mass communication when they should have focused on courses with greater practical application and utilitarian value. But at that time, there were hundreds of unemployed engineering graduates and teachers, to cite just two instances.

    In whatever case, Obasanjo did not live by his precept. When his own time came, he chose to study Theology, at the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN).

    For the most part, his successors have sought to apply the same failed palliatives, — on a larger canvass in the case of President Muhammadu Buhari. This approach falls short of the bold, imaginative action required at the centre and in the states, to tackle what is nothing less than a national emergency.

    An attenuated job market is not the only potential source of youth anger, however. For even where the youth are employed in large numbers, their salaries and allowances go unpaid for as long as eight months. Federal allocations earmarked for salaries are spent for other purposes and oftentimes diverted into the pockets of political officials who live in scandalous opulence, untroubled by the general misery around them.

    As they pine for opportunity, the youth see these political officials appropriate unto themselves increasingly larger slices of the national patrimony with impunity. It is almost as if they have come to plunder, not to serve.

    What all this indicates is a radical distribution of resources that will pay greater attention to the needs of the youth. It calls in particular for massive investment in job-training and retraining and work-study programmes to keep pace with technological change.

    It calls for urgent reform of the school curriculum to provide for technical and vocational training   in masonry, carpentry, electrical installation, plumbing, air-conditioning and refrigeration, motor vehicle repairs and maintenance, and other skill sets in which demand far outstrips supply.

    Above all, it calls for an enabling environment. Epileptic power supply, fitful water supply and unreliable transportation system make it exceedingly hard to engage in any serious form of entrepreneurship.

    Immediate results are not guaranteed. But unless the nation embarks urgently and earnestly on the programmes outlined above, it will be inching inexorably toward Obasanjo’s grim prognosis.

  • Efe named Youth Ambassador of Nigeria

    Efe named Youth Ambassador of Nigeria

    Minister of Youths and Sports, Solomon Dalung, has made Efe Ejeba, winner of Big Brother Naija, Nigeria’s Youth Ambassador.

    Efe’s appointment was announced when Efe, 23, paid a courtesy visit to the Minister in his office in Abuja on Tuesday.

    ‘Efe Ejeba is today a voice that reminds every young person that no matter your humble beginning, your dreams are valid,’ Dalug wrote in a Facebook post.

    ‘On this note, Efe Ejeba the winner of Big Brother Naija is today pronounced & decorated; ‘NIGERIA YOUTH AMBASSADOR’. Congratulations and we wish him well. God bless #NigerianYouths.’

    The Minister also announced via Facebook that Efe has been selected with other Nigerian youths to represent the country at Berlin Entrepreneurship Summit in Germany.

    “Based on Logistics”, the Minister quipped after Efe’s popular slang, “I have directed the Permanent Secretary Ministry of Youth and Sports to include the newly decorated ‘Youth Ambassador of Nigeria’ Efe Ejeba, the winner of Big Brother Nigeria on the list of youths that will participate in the Berlin Youth Entrepreneurship summit taking place in Germany next month,” he wrote.

    Immediately after he won the reality television show, the Plateau State government had also announced Efe as its ambassador. Efe, an Economics graduate, grew up in Jos, Plateau State. The indigene of Delta State was also honoured by the Delta State government, including being bestowed a chieftaincy title

  • Obasanjo warns of looming youth anger

    Obasanjo warns of looming youth anger

    •Ex-president: don’t wish us dead because you still need us

    Former President Olusegun Obasanjo is worried about the anger and frustration of youths.

    He said if the youth’s anger is not well-managed, it could lead to an “explosion”.

    Obasanjo spoke yesterday at the Youth Governance Dialogue organised by the Youth Development Centre, an arm of the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL), Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.

    He lamented that youths were not getting the required help.

    The former president noted that while his generation had “limitless opportunities but no facilities” in their time, the youth of today “have facilities but little or no opportunities”.

    He cited the insurgency in the Northeast, the separatist agitators in the Southeast and militancy in the Niger Delta region as manifestations of anger and frustrations from disillusioned youths.Obasanjo warned that should anger of youths erupt, there might be no limit to the extent it could spread.

    He appealed to the youth to work hard to help themselves and be ready to pay the price for the right cause they believe.

    But he said despite all odds, the youth still remained his greatest hope for Nigeria.

    Obasanjo noted that when he left secondary school, he received letters of appointments from five establishments and wondered whether any Nigerian university graduate could have such opportunities today.

    He pleaded with the nation’s youth  not to wish  the  elders dead, saying they need the elders as mentors and advisers in their journey of life.

    “Don’t wish us dead; don’t wish us to disappear because you will need us. You need us as mentors and advisers to mentor and prepare you for the future. You need the experience and assistance of some of us to guide you through life.

    “You should not lose hope, you should not feel frustrated. Whenever I go, they always ask me what is my fear about Nigeria and Africa. And I said my greatest fear is youth anger, frustrations and youth explosion, which have no bound.

    “We have the Boko Haram in the North, the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) and Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) in the Southeast, the militants in the Niger Delta and the Oodua Peoples Congress in the Southwest. All of these are expression of anger and frustrations.

    “We have what it takes to be great as a nation and we can’t transform this country without the youth. My greatest hope in this country is also the youth. You the youth should work to help yourselves. You must be ready to pay the price for what you stand for,” Obasanjo said.

    The lead speaker and former Minister of Aviation, Mr. Osita Chidoka who  spoke on the theme: “Towards a Guiding Political Philosophy for a Democratic Nigeria,” advised that the nation’s leaders should  build a society that harness human and material resources effectively, provide equal opportunities and develop capacity for innovation.

    Chidoka proposed a new charter for the country, saying the charter should contain reasons for the country’s unity, and which guarantees the basic rights, privileges and obligations of citizens.

    “Our national aspirations should inspire the next generation and provide them with the existential meaning of Nigeria; a meaning that transcends geography, natural resources and ethnicity. To grow Nigeria, we must build a society that harness human resources, provides equal opportunities and develop capacity for innovation.

    Sokoto State Governor Aminu Tambuwal, who spoke on the topic:”Preparing Successor Generation for Effective Participation in Governance”, urged leaders to put structure in place for the youth to advance to position of leadership.

    “We cannot keep calling them the leaders of tomorrow without ensuring that we put in place deliberate measures that will aid their quest for public service.

    “Sometimes candour and youthful excitement can cause as much harm as the most venal form of corruption.

    “We have to find the means to reduce unemployment. There is no doubt that the current diversification policy of President Buhari government will eventually provide broader opportunities for self-employment,” Tambuwal said.