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From Adanna Nnamani, Abuja
A coalition of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) have warned that Nigerian youths may not be patient for much longer as the country’s resources continue to be looted.
They stated this at the commemoration of International Youth Day and World Humanitarian Day by Africado Foundation.
Country Director, ActionAid Nigeria’s, Ene Obi, queried the rationale for government officials spending billions of naira on luxury goods like cars while expecting the youths to be patient while living in abject poverty.
She urged the Federal Government to improve on fostering youth development and enhancing their welfare.
She said: “The government must invest in the young population. There must be scholarships for people to study. There must be attention to recovery of Nigerian universities and Nigerian education. Investment in human capital is one of the things that we must focus on. When you are educating the people, you are not doing them a favour. You are planning for your economy and it is the duty of the leaders to plan for the economy. You cannot be asking the young people to be patient while you are spending billions to buy cars or whatever. Are you telling young people who are on the roads and do not have jobs to be patient?”
Founder, Africado Foundation, Richardson Ojeka, lamented that Nigerian youths lacked the opportunities and support to grow effectively.
Ojeka, however, charged the youths to wake up and begin to take their place in the society and to be alive to the technological revolution taking place in the world.
“One of the challenges we face as young people is that there are no opportunities for us. A lot of young people today do not have access to capital to start their businesses, they do not have access to mentorship, and they do not even have access to government support. This is a huge problem, its despair.”
Ojeka said Africado was commemorating the international youth day which is celebrated every August 12.
“We wanted to celebrate it in an African way, to localise it, to let people know that we are young people and that it is time for us to take the stage, it is time for us to take leadership. We are not going to take the leadership tomorrow, leadership is now. Nigerian youths need to understand that it is our time. No body is going to hand over these things to us. We need take it. We need to take is my being intentional, by being hardworking, being creative, by being bold and courageous.
“It is important that the government deliberately invests in young people, and create programs of empowerment, not just on small scales, but on a very large scale. Nigerians are very creative, they are industrious, they are intelligent, they are hardworking. So they need to see a road map and that road map is not going to be created by young people, that road map is going to be created by the government.”
