Youth Development In Nigeria: A Failed Project

The youth population is the human capital hub of any society. A youth is someone in the prime time of life between 15-35 years. Youthfulness is characterised by the vibrancy, energy, and curiosity that is needed to create social development.

The level of youth development reveals the quality of preparation a society is making for the future. Any serious society makes the development of her youth a top priority because harnessing the youth resources is the tool for societal peace and progress.

No matter the number of natural resources a nation has, it will remain wretched, without harnessing its youth resources. Above that, it will continually import human resources for the processing of her natural resources.

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The world bank report of 2018, showed Nigeria ahead of just five countries. We were in the 152nd position out of the 157 countries rated. Nigeria’s human capital development index stood at 0.534. While the United Nations statistics show the nation standing at 158 positions out of the 189 nations and territories rated.

These figures show that our society is in grave danger of collapse if the stakeholders do nothing to avert this ugly trend. The analysis shows that the greatest threat to our societal growth is our laxity towards youth development. The implication of an underdeveloped youth population, is insecurity, social stagnation, and a dysfunctional social system.

Over the years people have thought that the duty of developing the youths resides in their biological parents alone, not until recently when we all discovered that we cannot avoid social interactions and the consequences of that interaction. Society is structured in a way that what affects a member influences others.

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None of us, as members of the same society, can avoid the negative consequences of under-developing the youths. The price is exorbitant and will be paid with our security, resources, and other products of social wellbeing. If we neglect this important social responsibility of contributing to youth development, then personal prosperity will mean vulnerability to social evil.

Over the years, our approach to youth development has been reactive and highly ineffective. Government ministries responsible for youth development have resorted to teaching crafts in the name of youth development. This does not solve the problem but only cares for its offsprings. Youth development is not about conditioning young people to possess a skill you feel they can convert into services to earn some money.

While this might be part of it, it does not take a central place in youth development. Effective youth development looks at the treasures within and makes an effort to develop them. Youth development is beyond creating employment. It is a process of guiding young people towards potential discovery, development, and deployment.

If before the youth development program, you already know exactly what they would become after the training, it means they are limited already. What you are doing is no longer youth development, but skills training. The essence of youth development is to reveal the hidden solutions that the young person has within.

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Discovery is fundamental if the training will be tailored to the potential development of the young person. Effective youth development listens more than it speaks, it brings out from inside more than it wants to give. It seeks to draw out all the creativity, identity, uniqueness, and potentials inside the young person.

Above that, it develops it into skills and converts it into solutions to real-life problems around society. We must rethink our approach and collectively commit to the development of our youth to avert the cost of underdeveloped youths on our collective future.

Source: Vanguard 

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