Nigeria has one of the largest and most energetic youth populations in Africa, yet too many young Nigerians are still struggling to find meaningful employment and build sustainable livelihoods or even economically viable private businesses.
This raises an important question:
Are we truly empowering our young people, or are we simply creating campaign supporters?
Too often, political empowerment is reduced to distributing small cash gifts, sharing food items, giving temporary appointments or mobilising young people during elections. Whilst these may provide short-term relief, they do not necessarily create lasting economic independence.
Our young people deserve more. We need an approach to empowerment that creates opportunities and not dependencies.
We should be investing in skills development, entrepreneurship, technology, vocational training, access to finance, apprenticeships, internships and genuine job creation.
A young person should not have to belong to a political party, attend every political gathering or chant a politician’s name before having access to opportunity.
Political leadership should be about creating an environment where young people can succeed because of their ability, creativity and hard work, not because of their political connections.
Our young people also have a huge responsibility and role to play.
We must move beyond waiting for government appointments. We must acquire skills, build businesses, embrace technology, collaborate, innovate and prepare ourselves for opportunities. Someone once told me to employ him and said he could do anything. I asked for his CV and clearly, he could do anything because his CV has no clear skill or education or path.
Government cannot employ everyone, but government can create the policies and environment that allow businesses to grow and millions of jobs to emerge.
The goal should not be to create a generation of campaign supporters.
The goal should be to create a generation of entrepreneurs, professionals, innovators, employers and responsible citizens.
If we truly want to empower Nigerian youth, let’s give them something more valuable than a campaign t-shirt, face caps or names to chant.
Give them skills. Give them opportunity. Give them access. Give them a platform to build.
Because the future of Nigeria should not be a waiting room for young people looking for political patronage.
It should be a country where young Nigerians can build their future through talent, hard work and opportunity.
Ayo Fatokun writes
