The Nation Newspaper

Tag: youths

  • Why youths and children don’t dream

    SIR: The leaders of the bygone era didn’t wait for opportunities to be thrown at them. They took them. The difference between theirs and this generation is that while the old generation read widely, interacted widely and consulted widely, the new-fangled generation do not. They love being mummied after which they go on blaming everyone but themselves for failures.

    Books on ‘character building’ are missing in school bookshops in Nigeria. What we have are laced with religious stories. Unfortunately, these books have had little or no impact. Some parents want their children whose mental ages are fit for primary one to be placed in primary three. In the good old days, children completed primary 6, proceeded to secondary school, submitted efforts for WASC/GCE ‘0’ level, gained admission to the Higher School Certificate (HSC) class and studied for two years before going to university.

    The culture of sending children for internship/work for a year or two so that goodly character can be formed before they gain admission to study in ivory towers, is no more.

    How can youths dream in a country where not many people have heard of or even read the powerful speech by Dr. James Emman Kwegyir Aggrey of Achimota college Ghana, titled ‘The lost Black and White Keys’? Where are the leaders to share such knowledge with them? Such much-needed leadership would address intemperate behaviour, intolerance and brinkmanship until they vanished out of our national life.

    A nation is built when children are taught by forebears to not only build themselves up but to also help build up others.

    Pat Utomi, at 27, couldn’t have been an adviser to President Shehu Shagari if he was a man of straw. President Shagari chose him because of his policy of surrounding himself with the best people. Utomi never bothered working for a Fulani. The youngsters of today work within borders. Pat Utomi was ready when the opportunity came. He didn’t pray himself into the job.

    I see massive disrespect from youngsters for elders and can’t help but wonder, are these the crop of people to lead Nigeria? These people who show no respect and can’t communicate?

    Young men have been taught to denigrate “those people” and are never willing to travel to the lands of “those people” to win friendships and promote goodwill.

    Take a walk to the university community and see for yourself how students dress and talk. Look at congress, called upon by union leaders, and hear curses against school management and you wonder if they know what it takes to work with the community as a whole.,

    Education in Nigeria is a stand-alone type of education which does not teach graduates the importance of having a sense of duty to the country. This is made worse by the fact that we believe too much in material and not non-material objectives. Further, we rely on the acquisition of certificates and not emphasis on self-education.

    Children of the rich and youths don’t dream because they are future-blind. How can they convince the dotage, their peers, to be given the chance to move Nigeria in a new direction for greatness?

     

    • Simon Abah,

    Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

  • Kalu and Arewa youths

    A joint press conference was last week addressed by former Abia State governor, Orji Kalu and a delegation of Arewa youths led by Shettima Yerima. It was the outcome of a meeting between Kalu and the group on how to douse the tension generated by the notice issued to the Igbo to quit the north by October 1.

    The meeting which was at the instance of Kalu, was part of his personal contributions to the peace-building process in the country following the tension generated by hate speeches especially since the Arewa youths came out with their threat. Kalu is within his rights to show concern to the potent danger which that unfortunate order poses to the peace and unity of the country. It is also in keeping with peace initiatives by acting President, Yemi Osinbajo and other well meaning people of this country.

    As a key figure in Igboland, Kalu should be very concerned about what the order portends for his people should the Arewa youths make good their threat to quit them from the north and confiscate their properties. They had while issuing the threat, ordered commencement of inventory of all properties owned by the Igbo in the north possibly to appropriate them albeit, illegally. Should they make good their threat, the Igbo and possibly other southerners in the north are bound to suffer immeasurably. It could also come with deleterious consequences for the continued existence of this country.

    So Kalu is in a good stead to engage the youths especially if they will listen to him as their meeting appeared to have shown. Who knows where the saviour will come from?  But his intervention should be rightly seen as his personal contribution to the raging discussions on how to get the nation out of its current impasse. He is entitled to it more so in a democracy. That is the much credit that can be ascribed to that parley for now.

    From the utterances of Yerima, it would seem the parley achieved a direct opposite result. It struck at once, as a counterproductive engagement. The erroneous impression conveyed was that the meeting centred round a plea to the so-called coalition of Arewa youths to rescind their threat to quit the Igbo by the threatened deadline. And if one may ask, is it in the place of those threatened to go cap in hand begging a faceless group not to resort to lawlessness in appropriating challenges to the Nigerian state that are clearly outside their competences? Are we not according undue recognition to that group and their resort to lawlessness in addressing perceived grievances even when they are yet to demonstrate how the subject matter solely affects them?

    At a time people are still at a loss as to why Yerima is still walking the streets free despite the order to arrest him by Kaduna State governor for his incendiary statements, it is an irony of sorts that we are now playing host to such a character. No doubt, Yerima and his co-travellers committed a grave offence against the peace and unity of the country. If Kalu had met with them in private and confined their discussions as a personal affair, nobody would have bothered.

    But to have organized a joint press conference whose outcome ended up massaging the ego of Yerima, amounts to an insult to the sensibility of the Igbo he unfairly disparaged in that ill-fated outing. He neither sounded conciliatory but rather displayed such arrogance that suggests the fate of the Igbo in the north is in his hands. He was neither remorseful nor did he sound sufficiently reconciliatory. And one begins to wonder if his posturing at that press conference was a true reflection of the outcome of their discussions with Kalu.

    Hear him, “I do not remember specifically saying we are going to finally withdraw the quit notice. No certainly not. But you can be rest assured that those who believe in Nigeria should remain where they are and be assured of their safety. But to those who don’t believe in Nigeria, we cannot guarantee their safety”. If this was the outcome of the meeting, it is better it never held.

    If Kalu acquiesced to the joint press conference with the hope that his intervention has yielded positive result, he must have been shocked by the pigheadedness and arrogance of Yerima as clearly shown above. Kalu must have felt sufficiently embarrassed by the rant of Yerima that he had to advise southerners living in the north not to entertain any fear about their safety. The advice is a clear indication that nothing was achieved and southerners needed to be reassured about their safety in the north. But that changes nothing as Yerima has said unequivocally that those dubbed non believers in Nigeria are at grave risk in the north.

    One then begins to wonder what that press conference was intended to achieve. It struck as another window for Yerima to reinforce his earlier threat. If he needed to reinforce that threat, it was patently inappropriate to use a forum provided by an Igbo leader to do that. He has told everybody that his group will not guarantee the safety of those who do not believe in Nigeria. That should not be treated with levity. It is a reinforcement of the earlier threat and he may have been emboldened by the inability of the security agencies to bring him to book just as they did to Nnamdi Kanu whose activities Yerima and his group are seemingly protesting.

    We have had all manner of rationalization as to why Yerima and his co-travellers have not been arrested. We have been treated to all manner of theories on how to de-escalate the tension in the land and how further arrests would not serve the best interest of this nation at the moment. That can as well be. But we are yet to be told the effect of such a standpoint in reining in purveyors of hate speeches and division. And as we have seen, such a posturing has had the net effect of emboldening the likes of Yerima to carry on as if they are above the law.

    Yerima said his group will not guarantee the safety of those who do not believe in Nigeria. By interpolation, at the expiry of his deadline, Arewa youths will set the machinery in motion to sieve those who believe in Nigeria from those who do not. Perhaps, after that exercise, they will now sack the non believers from the north and confiscate their property. There could be other consequences since he talked of their inability to guarantee the safety of the latter.

    The first problem with this posturing lies in the propriety of the powers they intend to exercise. On whose behalf and under whose authority does the group intend to appropriate the powers to begin the questionable voyage into sieving believers and non believers in Nigeria? What right if any do they have to dabble into such normative questions? And what are the parameters for such a nebulous engagement?

    It can therefore be discerned from the inherent contradictions in these posers that the Yerima-led group is a bunch of confused people who do not need to be dignified they way Kalu did. This is Yerima who boasted soon after the ill-fated Kaduna outing that his image in the north soured after his threat order. Will he not see this as another evidence of his revved up image?

    Yerima is looking for cheap popularity and if he must get it, it is not for those he threatened and abused to provide him that platform. It is not for the Igbo to dissuade the Arewa group from sacking them and taking advantage of their property. If they intend carrying out their order, it is for them to determine. You cannot threaten to take what rightly belongs to me as a citizen and I go on my knees to beg you not to do so. No! It cannot go that way.

    Kalu may not have foreseen these contradictions. But, that is where the situation has now left us especially given the arrogance and non conciliatory posturing of the character that he had in audience. If he must continue in this direction, then he should open new windows of discussion with his contemporaries and other leaders in the north whom Yerima and his group are drawing strength from. But the issues are so weighty and fundamental to be handled single-handedly.

  • Youths and hate speech: the fallacy

    IN his keynote address at a two-day national seminar on Unity in Diversity: Security and National Development, Acting President Yemi Osinbajo reiterated what has become a major conversational currency in these parts, to wit, that the loudest proponents of war and purveyors of inflammatory and hateful speech are youths under the age of 50. It is not quite obvious how this idea came about; but it is now popular. Said Prof Osinbajo: “My wife just turned 50 and I told her that everyone of your age, including those under forty, are largely responsible for many of the inflammatory statements that we are hearing these days.” The impression he conveys is that because these youths did not witness “the mental and physical scars of war”, they find it entrancing to promote divisiveness and war.

    The acting president underscored his belief by listing what he described as “seven false narratives” advanced by the proponents of hate speech. All the “seven false narratives” are of course debatable. They can be controverted, even though he is quite right to argue that hate speech is unprofitable, destructive and needless. But what is really paramount is to interrogate the constant refrain that those who promote war and hate speech are those who have never witnessed the consequences of war. History does not bear out this quaint conclusion. There are thousands of historical examples of generations who witnessed and promoted militarism and war twice and more in their lifetime. And there are also countries and empires who promoted and fought wars one, two or more generations consecutively.

    Rather than advance arguments that neither history nor common experience substantiates, it is more vital to examine the factors that engender both hate speech and war in order to find a way of avoiding the inevitable. Prof Osinbajo himself, in different fora, had referred to some of those predisposing factors, warning that they needed to be addressed in order to stave off the prospect of violence. The problem with Nigeria is that rather than grapple frontally with those noxious factors, leaders and elders have often sermonised.

  • North’s youths to withdraw Igbo quit notice

    North’s youths to withdraw Igbo quit notice

    •Shettima persuades groups

    The Arewa Youths Coalition is set to withdraw the October 1 quit notice handed Igbo in the North to leave.

    The youths were waving the olive branch after a meeting  with Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima in Abuja yesterday.

    Arewa Youth Coalition spokesman Abdulaziz Suleiman told reporters that consultations were ongoing among members with a view to withdrawing the quit notice.

    Suleiman ascribed the decision to withdraw the quit notice to what he described as “positive developments” that came out of the meeting with Shettima and persuasions from the Northern Governors Forum.

    On the actual date for the withdrawal of the notice, Suleiman said: “You will hear from us this week.”

    He added: “What we can say is that there has been a major development. Now the chairman of the Governors’ Forum has taken the initiative and invited us to start negotiations. This is the first time we are meeting publicly with any leader and we believe that it is a major step forward in our ongoing consultations.

    “We hold the governor in high esteem and we have the unity of the country at heart”.

    Suleiman said: “You see, I wonder why you talk about quit notice. We only issued a Kaduna declaration, quit notice is just a part of it. Let us do the recounting of the successes of our declarations first. We are sill going on with our consultations”.

    Shettima said his discussion with the group was fruitful and that members of the executive of the coalition demonstrated a lot of courtesy and respect during the meeting.

    The governor said he was able to impress it on the youths to appreciate the enormity of the challenges facing the country and how the quit notice they issued had compounded the situation.

    Shettima, who is the chairman of the Northern Governors Forum, added that the governors have also been in discrete consultations with the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa ‘ad Abubakar on this and other issues.

    Confirming the decision of the Arewa Youths to withdraw the quit notice, Shettima said they had agreed to review their position and that he was expecting the good news from them in the next few days.

    The governor said: “We met with the leadership of the coalition of Northern Groups in my capacity as the chairman of the Northern Governors Froum.

    “We had very fruitful discussion with them and they have shown a lot of courtesy and respect for the establishment. This is the first time that they are sitting down with the leadership of the forum.

    “They were having interactions with His Eminence, the Sultan of Sokoto. I started conversations with them right from Kaduna yesterday and we continued the discussion today and by the grace of God, it is going to yield fruits.

    “We are trying to have understanding of the challenges confronting us as a people and solutions to those challenges. I have to commend them for honouring our invitation because a political problem needs a political solution”.

    Shettima cautioned against criminalising the group, adding that harassing and intimidating them would not bring solution to the nation’s challenges.

    “They have agreed to revisit their decision and we will follow it up to its logical conclusion and I believe that in the next couple of days, we are going to get the good news from them.

    “I don’t want to preempt them by saying that this is what will happen or not. But definitely, they have shown responsibility and commitment to the national cause and they have wider plans to promote the cause of national unity and cohesion.

    “It was a very open, free and frank discussion, we heard their reservations and I gave them my reasons and believe me, by the time they hold their meeting this week, I think Nigerians will heave a sigh of relief.

    “I wish to call on the leadership of our brethren in the South Eastern part of the country to equally pick the gauntlet, because it takes two to tango, to take the gauntlet and rein in the excesses of Nnamdi Kanu and his group”.

  • Elumelu Foundation has taken youths off streets, says Sultan

    Elumelu Foundation has taken youths off streets, says Sultan

    Sultan of Sokoto Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar III has commended the Tony Elumelu Foundation for its contribution to entrepreneurship and job creation for young people in the North.

    The Sultan spoke during a visit by Mr. Tony Elumelu, Chairman of UBA Group and Founder of Tony Elumelu Foundation.

    Elumelu was in Sokoto to give a speech to students and leaders during the National Dialogue Series at the Usman Danfodiyo University.

    The Sultan said through his Foundation, and entrepreneurship advocacy had created jobs and helped in creating security in the North by keeping youths off the streets.

    “We need more Tony Elumelus. We need more Aliko Dangotes,” he said, adding: “We continue to appreciate what you are doing for our youth because when you take these children off the streets, you provide the means for them to live a simple life. In that regard, we have a bit of security”.

    Tagged “Entrepreneurship: An Antidote to Nigerian Youth Unemployment”, the ensuing event, which was held at the university campus was hosted by Vice Chancellor Prof. Abdullahi Abdu Zuru, who commended Elumelu on his dedication to encouraging entrepreneurship among the youth.

    “We have been following your activities. Of recent, the activity that caught our eyes is the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme where you set aside $100million for the next 10 years to ensure that African youth, not only Nigerians but African youth develop Africa,” he said

    Elumelu appreciated the university for the opportunity to share his message of Africapitalism with the students. He charged the students to adopt the philosophy, noting that it would help them understand their place in transforming Africa.

    “To attain long term success, I want you to adopt Africapitalism as a guiding philosophy. I want you to develop a keen sense of awareness that Africa is in dire need of leaders both in the private and public sectors and your ideas can indeed transform the continent,” he said to the students.

    He challenged the students to take on entrepreneurship as a means of eradicating poverty and creating more jobs in the society.  “Only entrepreneurs can create the millions of jobs we need to power our economy out of poverty,” Elumelu said.

    He charged them to assume responsibility for developing the African continent, saying: “Nobody but us will develop Africa. Africa’s destiny lies in the hands of all of us, Africans,” he concluded.

  • Youths urged to be morally upright

    The Vice-Chancellor, Anchor University, Lagos, Prof. Joseph Afolayan, has urged youths to be morally upright, as future leaders, to make Nigeria great.

    He said they should desist from vices, such as cultism, drug abuse and prostitution.

    Afolayan, who spoke at the weekend, at the 19th Valedictory Service and Graduation Ceremony of Jextoban Secondary School, Ketu, Lagos, said as tomorrow’s leaders, youths should strive to do well academically and shun vices and crimes.

    He said: “The biggest challenge facing youths is that of purpose: A question of direction. This challenge is caused by the failure of three important institutions, namely home, society and church, meant to help them through this sensitive moment of their lives.

    “Life’s most powerful deed is decision. From the other end, life’s most regressive action is indecision. Every life is made or marred between those two powerful words. But you cannot make informed decisions without clear perspective- purpose. If our youths struggle with their purpose in life, how would they ever be able to make an informed decision that will help them reach their destiny?”

    The Chairman Board of Governors, Pastor Emmanuel Ojo, advised the outgoing pupils to be good ambassadors of the school.

    Said he: “You are the future leaders and you need not follow the ungodly steps of those villains celebrated today. You can make a difference as you imbibe Christian virtues and values you have been exposed to here. As you build on the solid foundation of moral rectitude and academic excellence acquired, you are bound to make it to the top.”

  • Let the youths run

    SIR: There has been a lot of misconception regarding us, the youths. A notable Nigerian political party not long ago, appointed a 60-year old person as its national youth leader. A 70-plus year-old President, not long ago, defined himself as a youth, because he said: youthfulness is in the heart. This, to say the least, is excessively patronizing!

    The United Nations defines youth as young people in transition from childhood to adult hood who fall in the age category of 15-24years. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Culture Organization (UNESCO) a specialized Agency of the UN, has expanded its definition to cover all those who fall within the age category of 15-34years.

    The African Youth Charter, define youth as young persons between the ages 15-35years.

    So, even if we stretch the definition, youth are primarily those in the age category of 15-35years. Studies have shown that young people categorized as youth as defined above, constitute the most vibrant, active, energetic, innovative, courageous, risk-taking, problem solving and intellectually alert grouping of people in the world. Notably also is the fact that when they define goals and pursue them, they are relatively more ambitious, enthusiastic and promising.

    If care is not taken and their energies are not channelled in a positive direction, they can also be the most rambunctious, murderous, anarchic if not criminally-minded group. Hence, in view of the perceptive neglect of this vibrant category, which is simply reckless and crude, it can be argued that the basic needs of the youths have not been adequately catered for.

    I therefore call on the government to address these challenges by harnessing the youthful vibe and virtues adequately provide for the basic needs of the youth and channel their boundless energies into societal progress and development rather than conflicts and criminality.

    Invariably, change agents with tremendous impact spring up from this category of the population. This may be as a consequence of the inherent attributes of this age group. Take Alexander the Great for example, one of the most influential people in history (who succeeded his father as a king of Macedon at age 20, created one of the largest empires of the ancient world, from Greece to India, at age 30). Genglis Khan (who was elected Khan of the Mongolis at 24, became the sole ruler of the Mongol at age 35 in the 12th and 13th Century.

    Fast-forward to the 19th century. Great political rulers such as Napoleon Bonaparte (who became a General at 24 and built and ruled over a large empire in Continental Europe at 35); 20th century revolutionary types, such as Fidel Castro (27-30), Guevara (28-31). Others are the African giants such as Mandela (who joined ANC at 25, became its Transvaal branch chairman and organized the famous 1952 Defiance campaign against Apartheid at 34,was subsequently jailed for 27years and later became the elected President of South Africa in 1994; Thomas Sankara (33); Yakubu Gowon (32); Murtala Muhammed (37); to early colonial nationalists such as Sekou Toure (36), Mahathir Muhammed (21), Indira Ghandi (30) and other acknowledged global change agents such as John F. Kennedy (36) and Margaret Thatcher (34).

    We as youths need to be carried along politically, socially, developmentally and economically because we are #Nottooyoungtorun.

     

    • Badmus Ammar Olaide,

    Lagos.

  • Why youths should put skills over jobs

    SIR: World Youth Skills Day brings youths a time to check efforts they have made towards personal capacity development. As it’s seen in the world today, youths are one of the most under-represented subsets of the global population when it comes to decision making. This is not due to under-population of youths but a jaundiced, stigmatized perception of youths by the ruling class all around the world.

    Although the terms “youth” and “young people” are conceived differently by people in different parts of the world, they most commonly refer to adolescents and young adults between the ages of 10 and 24. Other sources extend this age bracket to include people of ages 29 or 35 but one factor is common to all; youth is the period (transition stage) between childhood and adulthood. Demographically, youths have a global population of 1.1 billion claims a whopping 18 percent of the entire world’s population; 60 percent of which live in Asia; 15 percent, in Africa; 10 percent, in Latin America and the Caribbean; and the remaining 15 percent, in developed countries and regions.

    These facts echo the unparalleled significance of youth in our world today and reiterate their importance in planning for future generation.

    Unfortunately, rather than being major stakeholders in devising global developmental programmes, youths themselves are the subject of global challenges with many facing possibilities of early marriage, early childbearing, incomplete education and the threat of HIV and AIDS.

    To understand the severity, these statistics from United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs would paint a better picture. Approximately 238 million youth live in extreme poverty—that is, they live on less than $1 a day; 462 million youth survive on less than $2 a day. About 255 million young people live in the 19 countries with the largest poverty gaps; 15 of these 19 countries are in sub-Saharan Africa. Experts estimate that, in the 49 countries classified as having a high proportion of undernourished people, 110 million youth live in hunger. About 133 million youth in the world are illiterate. Youth comprise 41 percent of the world’s unemployed people.

    These figures shouldn’t be what describe the supposed most vibrant age bracket of the world!

    What can be done to address this?  The exact reason why #WorldYouthSkillsDay is necessary to chart a way forward.

    Poverty is a state of penury and lack. The only antidote to it is earning through just means. The perception of “go-to-school, get-a-job-after” has led many youths to believe skill acquisition is not for them which leaves the world with a teeming population of “clueless youths”. It is high time youths acquired skills and take up vocations they are passionate about and lifts them well beyond the poverty and marginalization indices.

     

    • Alli Sheriffdeen Abiola,

    Ibadan.

  • Remo youths seek accelerated action on new Akarigbo

    Youths of Sagamu in Ogun State have urged the Ibikunle Amosun administration to issue a directive to accelerate the selection and installation of a new Akarigbo of Remo.

    Some youths, during a peaceful protest at the weekend at Isale-Oko in Sagamu, few metres from the palace of the Akarigbo, noted that since Oba Michael Adeniyi Sonariwo joined his ancestors last year, the town has been without a traditional ruler.

    A youth leader, Niyi Nojeem, who led the placard-carrying protesters, said the residents needed an Akarigbo to lead the town from where Oba Sonariwo stopped and galvanise the people for further “socio-cultural and economic development of Sagamu and Remo land.”

    The Nation gathered that princes from Torungbuwa Ruling House, including two professors, have shown interest in the traditional stool.

    Those in the race are: Prof. Adewale Solarin, Prof. Gabriel Ogunmola, Tunde Ajayi, Mutiu Adebayo and Akeeb Kazeem.

    It was learnt that based on the state government’s gazette on chieftaincy declaration, Torungbuwa Ruling House is to produce the next Akarigbo.

    The town’s kingmakers are consulting to ensure a hitch-free installation.

    But the youth “earnestly begged” Amosun to expedite action on the process to forestall further delay.

    President of the Sagamu Youth Congress, Mr Segun Okeowo, told The Nation on phone that their eagerness was in order.

    He hoped the governor would answer them.

    Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs Jide Ojuko said he was in a meeting when The Nation sought the government’s position on the matter.

    He did not respond to a text message sent to his mobile phone.

  • Group trains youths on peace-building skills

    Building the capacity of young people to become peace-builders within their immediate community was the focus of a one-day capacity building training for young people on Peacebuilding and Conflict Prevention organised by Galaxy4Peace in Surulere, Lagos.  The training brought together 15 young advocates from the University of Lagos and other civil society groups. It featured lectures on the importance of peace-building, peace-building activities, conflict prevention, preventive diplomacy, post-conflict prevention and early warning system and signs while highlights of the training included task breakout session and planning of new advocacy campaigns for execution.

    Speaking at the event, the Project Lead, Galaxy4Peace Precious Ajunwa said the training was aimed at introducing new sets of young people into peace-building business, targets to raise young people’s awareness of the dangers of violence; the role young people need to play in contributing their quota in promoting peace, thereby preparing them as peace leaders in their respective communities.

    Educating the participants on why the organisation was established, Ajunwa noted that the vision keyed into young people as tool in countering violent extremism-focusing on projects the organisation run to promote the sustainable development goal No 16 which is “Peace, Justice and Strong Institution”.

    She stressed that there is no alternative to non-violence in solving conflicts.

    “We welcome new youth recruitment into #Youth4Peace Movement to counter violent extremism. We aim to raise young people’s awareness of the dangers of violent extremism, develop their leadership abilities and prepare them as peace leaders in their respective schools and communities,” she said.

    In his lecture entitled “Volunteering as a Tool for Sustainable Development” convener of Climate Wednesday, Olumide Idowu  noted that volunteer speak for our future; hence “volunteering gives you your next opportunity; get focused and know that you are priceless”.

    Sharing his insight on youth engagement in sustainable development, David Ogundero of Galaxy4Peace emphasised that the overall success of the Sustainable Development Goals depends on youth engagement because young people, if equipped, have the right capacity to drive positive change in their communities and countries.