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Nigeria needs act fast to escape “the fury of anger of the untrained Nigerian Youths” – Chief Bisi Akande
From Taiwo Oluwadare, Ibadan
Former Chief of Defence Staff General Christopher Musa, on Tuesday in Ibadan, challenged the federal and state governments to treat the lack of economic opportunity for the Nigerian youths as an imminent national and global threat.
According to him, “Investing in entrepreneurship, vocational skills, and the digital economy is not simply development work but the most cost-effective peacekeeping mission we will ever deploy.”
General Musa stated this while presenting his keynote at the 19th International Annual Conference, General Assembly, and Investiture of Fellows organised by the Society for Peace Studies and Practice (SPSP) held at the Abiola Ajimobi Resource Centre, inside the University of Ibadan.
The former Chief of Defence Staff further stated that Nigeria must be relentless in the pursuit of good governance and the fight against corruption, noting that “corruption is not a victimless crime; it is an act of economic sabotage that systematically dismantles the foundations of peace. It erodes public trust in institutions, perverts justice, and creates a system where privilege trumps merit. Transparent institutions and the rule of law are not mere political ideals but the bedrock upon which economic stability and social trust are built.”
General Musa advocated for a “Grand Alliance for Peace”, which involves “seamlessly bringing together governments to create enabling policies, the private sector to drive inclusive growth, civil society to empower communities, academia to provide evidence-based solutions, and security institutions to evolve and protect this broader concept of human security. Our silos must fall, for we are all now architects of the same fragile peace.”
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Pro-chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council, University of Ibadan, Chief Bisi Akande, in his goodwill message, stressed the need for the leadership of the country to act fast to be able to escape “the fury of anger of the untrained Nigerian Youths.”
Chief Akande, who noted that “we are truly at war with ourselves”, added that “we have forest, mineral and natural resources with large populations of uneducated and untrained workers that have no knowledge and capacity to exploit these resources for our wealth. We are truly at war with ourselves. Until all these young populations of Nigerians are massively trained sufficiently enough in Science and Technology to exploit these resources for our wealth, the wars from ignorance, from poor health and from abject poverty would hold down all of us for the enslavement of the itinerant foreign scientists and their technologists, disguising as the native bandits, the local Boko Haram and various terrorists.”
In his speech, the Vice Chancellor, University of Ibadan, Professor Kayode Adebowale, noted that high rates of youth unemployment create a dangerous reservoir of disillusionment and idle potential, easily exploited by those peddling violence or extremism.
The Vice Chancellor further noted that meaningful participation in the economy, access to decent work, fair wages and pathways out of poverty are essential for individuals to feel valued and invested in societal stability.
The 19th Conference of the Society for Peace Studies and Practice (SPSP) featured the conferment of Fellowship award of the society for peace studies and practice on Chief Bisi Akande, former Chief of Defence Staff, General CG Musa, Comptroller General of Nigeria Immigration Service, Kemi Nanna Nandap, former Vice Chancellor, University of Ibadan Professor Olufemi Bamiro, Former Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic) University of Ibadan, Professor Adeyinka Aderinto, and among other eminent Nigerians.
