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From: Samuel Bello, Abuja
Chairman, Senate Committee on Foreign and Domestic Debts, Sen. Shehu Sani, has warned that the army of unemployed, angry and aggressive youths across the country portend huge danger to the nation.
Sen. Sani said youths had suffered depreciation over the years on issues of leadership or those that concern the elite.
He, therefore, advocated for far-reaching moral reorientation among youths, to develop in them a patriotic culture, of not being subservient to interests that are harmful to theirs.
The federal lawmaker stated this, in an address, at the December edition of the monthly youths dialogue, on the theme: “Youth Development and Challenges of Tomorrow’s leadership,” organised by the Embassy of Ecuador in Nigeria, in collaboration with Young Journalists Forum, in Abuja, at the weekend.
In the words of Sen. Sani, “In all policies and programmes of government, year-in-year-out, you don’t see any serious link between what was written on paper and also the need to practicalize it on ground. Every year we have a budget for the Ministry of Youths, the issues about youths are attached to sports and the importance of sports has so overwhelmed the issue of youths and youths are simply concerned. 80 per cent of the budget goes to sports and in giving that; the 80 per cent of the 80 per cent goes to football.
“Youths of nowadays are angry and aggressive…Some youths today are more creative, they have vast access to information and so many things of this present world, but the very fact is that the information has not been useful to many of them. There are things young people need to discover about themselves. Define their goals and lead by set of principles and refuse to emulate those negative sides of the society that seem enticing.”
Also, Coordinator of Young Journalists Forum, Chukwuma Nzeh, implored the Federal Government and all stakeholders to ensure that sporting facilities are constructed across all the wards in the 774 Local Government Areas of the federation, to engage young people, and curb vulnerability to societal misfits.
He also called for skill development for the teeming unemployed youth.
