774,000 youth jobs empowerment: The undesirability of non-implementation
Last year October, the Federal Government had disclosed a Presidential Youth Empowerment Scheme to get no less than 774,000 youths engaged – a programme expected to spread across the six geopolitical zones in the Country. The scheme which was noised from different angles is however hanging on air with details of its implementation shrouded in controversies. Following its launch on the 12th October 2020, by President Muhammadu Buhari amidst euphoria and ecstasy, reactions and expectations much relayed believe over addressing prevailing socio-economic strains. The announcement was believed to be, as applauded from some quarters, a strategic response to the huge deficits of troubling youth unemployment profile which itself had constituted the basis informing rising demonstrations.
As the masses are becoming nervous over the fate of the scheme, concerns have continued to surface to question the hiccups that may have left the implementation of the scheme in the dark. Last Wednesday, 24th November, 2021, the House of Representatives had mandated its relevant committees to investigate the non-implementation of the 774,000 youth empowerment jobs despite a presidential directive. The resolution was sequel to a motion before the House, moved by Muhammed Gudaji Kazaure at plenary titled “Call to Investigate the Presidential Youth Empowerment Scheme.” Recalling the aim of the scheme focused on direct Youth Empowerment Gudaji had reiterated that 1,000 youths per local governments across the six geopolitical zones were selected in the efforts of the Federal Government to eradicate unemployment among the teeming youth population in the Country.
“The primary role of the Scheme is to provide solutions to the Nigerian youth unemployment challenges through the execution of empowerment initiatives.The Scheme will be accessible to the literate, semi-literate and the non-literate population and the entry qualification is the ability and capacity to learn and be teachable. Since the Scheme was launched in 2020, it is yet to be implemented despite applications by the Nigerian youth,” he had lamented. Adopting the motion, the House had mandated its Committees on Youth, Labour, Poverty Alleviation and Finance to investigate the matter and report back in two weeks for further legislative actions.
The rounds of the echoes of unemployment in the Country have graduated into a disturbing height. Having such an elaborate scheme left un-implemented without update, reflects no good omen of administrative responsiveness, particularly at a time when youth unemployment rate is soaring to disturbing height with threats of socio-economic cum political deformities.
In a report in August premised on a study conducted by Commonwealth Secretariat on the 2020 Global Youth Development Index, which measured the status of young people in 181 countries around the world, Nigeria was ranked 161st.
In the words of Commonwealth Secretary-General, Patricia Scotland QC, before the release recently: “Young people are indispensable to delivering a future that is more just, inclusive, sustainable and resilient. By measuring their contributions and needs with hard data, our advocacy for their development becomes more powerful, and we are then able incrementally to increase the positive impact and benefits youth are able to add towards building a better future for us all.”
It is pertinent for the Government at all levels in the Nigerian Federation to turn attention to courses of youth development. It is incontestable that insensitivity to the necessity of developing structures within the societal fabrics to respond to proper development for youths, as complexities in the Nigerian societal formations evolve, has created strings of deformities which have constituted threats to the Country. The confluence of myriads of escapades have recently made peaceful societal cohabitation an unpurchased luxury in the Country.
It is known that escapades besetting the Nigerian society are majorly led by youths who have found no option than to opt for mischievous tendencies to make ends meet. It is paramount that the Government become alive in crafting strategic measures to remodify the workings of its systemic formations to complement all working sectors – education, economy and politics, inter alia, to address the prevailing gaps which have constituted strings of defects exposing youths to becoming preys easily succumbing to mischievous escapades. Hence, it is imperative that such strategic measures be coordinated in complementary dimensions which speak and respond to the need to fortify, by metamorphic framework, all institutions paramount to propelling formidable profile of human capacity development among Nigerian youths.
The requirements of good governance demand responsibility on the part of the Government and responsiveness on the part of the citizenry to hold their representatives accountable. It is therefore, pertinent for the Federal Government to play the part of responsibility, openness and credibility by not only updating Nigerians on the state of implementation of the empowerment scheme, but also move ahead to demystify the bottlenecks which may be responsible for the perceived stalemate. Leaving the masses in the dark without appropriate communication speaks ill of the principles of openness required in a democracy, just as leaving the scheme to the fate of poor implementation or abandonment as the culture of bad governance is in the Country, is counterproductive to the demands of addressing pressing constraints which are currently frowning at the Country.
