Youths And The Future Of The Nigerian Society And Discourse -By Tinuoye Adekunle Theophilius

The epicenter of youths in national development worldwide is predicated on the fact that youths account for half of the world’s population. In this context, and as people with enormous leadership and innovative potentials, accessibility to the appropriate education and livelihood opportunities enables countries to harness the assets of young people to foster social and economic development. Inclusion and the availability of a continuum of services and opportunities fast track the transition of youths into successful adults. The endless marketization of democracy, commoditization of society, deregulation of key sectors of the economy, privatization of public services, inviolability of market forces, de-unionization, liberalization of trade in goods and capital investment, withering of the welfare state and removal of government subsidies, unstructured nature of social welfare programs and concessioning and commercialization of state-owned enterprises and routine violations of basic labor rights have significantly altered the structure of the Nigerian society and affected sectors, people and institutions. Badly vanquished, is the family as a social institution and a building block for socialization- the concomitant evisceration of social solidarity, gradual extinction of piety, evident decline of modesty as an index of virtue, pre-eminence of narcissism, criminalization of morals, ethics and virtual evaporation of the sense of justice has exacerbated Nigeria’s array of social problems

In societies that have virtually lost its history, soul, memory, and responsibility, the first causalities are usually the youths. Nowhere has the deleterious implications of these developments been felt than on the youths and also indirectly on the future, sustainability and progress of Nigeria as a nation and prosperous and peaceful entity. In a way, the state of Nigerian youths cannot be divorced from the state of society itself and youths are quick to inculcate personal lessons and examples, view society from the prism of their childhood experiences and espouse the instincts of self-preservation at any cost. Sadly, the inversion of youths’ responsiveness to advance the cause of common good is evinced by the fact that wantonness, improprieties, lasciviousness seem to have replaced compassion, hardwork, diligence, and social responsibility as important modalities mediating youth interfacing with the larger social order. We see youths without basic knowledge of the fundamental moral and political obligations of citizenship, social responsibility, and democracy, depth about relevant socio-political and economic issues. Nigerian youths have been virtually excluded from the Nigerian decision and policy-making echelon in addition to losing out from the various contraptions and configurations to chart the future of Nigeria. All these have left Nigerian youths psychologically, economically and educationally incapacitated with few options of escaping a lecherous and debilitating kind of system

What is happening to youths in Nigeria has dire implications for its future. Inexplicably, policymakers seem unperturbed that Nigeria has the largest amount of out of school children and a humongous level of youth unemployment which combined with poverty, hopelessness and despair fuels the astronomical increase in youth crimes nationally. Any discourse about the future of Nigeria must commence with the youths, because the youths are not only the leaders of tomorrow, but also because any nation can only be as strong, active and versatile as its youths. Youths denote a proclivity for progress, development and innovation. Appreciable human development indices are ultimately linked with the wellbeing of youths and the gradual cultivation of responsive and responsible citizenship. In other words, youths require a level of support support, nurturing and education in order to optimally hit the required heights. Youths require a surfeit of decent education, health, nutritional, housing and employment opportunities and other socio-economic and political conditions that can enable them have respectable standard and quality of life. The deteriorating state of Nigerian youths poses a very daunting challenge for stakeholders and patriotic people who truly have the progress and growth of Nigeria at heart. This is a challenge that is urgent and necessary and should be at the forefront of our national lives and all aspects of policy and decision making at all arms, tiers and levels of government

A vital means of rescuing the rapidly deteriorating intellectual and moral visions regarding young people is to imagine vital policies, values, opportunities and social relations that can invoke adult responsibility and reinforce the ethical imperative to provide youths with the much needed economic, social and educational conditions that will make their lives livable and their future sustainable. We can also explore means of re-imagining social transformation and engagement by defending and sustaining critical social, economic, and cultural conditions that can assist today’s youths to nurture thoughtfulness, critical awareness, ideology, consciousness, critical agency, altruism, compassion, and passion

Tinuoye Adekunle Theophilius is a Manpower personnel at Micjheal Imoudu National Institute for Labour Studies, Ilorin, Nigeria, and also an external faculty associate at the Global Labour Research Centre, York University, Ontario, Canada.