Prof. Nathan Uzorma
There is need to provide regular good quality offers of equal opportunities for youth’s training and empowerment, at least 6 months after leaving school or being unemployed. This keeps immediately reabsorbs and keeps them focused and stable on the route to subsistence, and should be made a rule for secondary school leavers who do not intend continuing their education afterwards or for graduates of colleges, polytechnics, universities or better, after the National Youths Service program.
Youths during crisis, should be positioned at the centre of the solution instead of marking them as a set of citizens to be consulted and abandoned after consultation.
Youths as I am convinced from my previous experiences in youth-crisis’ solutions, should be part of the assessment of the causes of the crisis, and be part of the team proffering the solution templates to (the remote and immediate) causes of the crisis.
They should also be part of the implementation process, monitoring how effectively and accurately the implementations go in line with the proffered solution templates, and thus join in the regular evaluation of the efficiencies and impacts of the solutions against the inauspicious effects and causes of the primordial crisis.
Government should call for a national conference that will bring together the youths and leaders for dialogue. There should be at least two or three (2-3) leaders respectively from the youths and elder statesmen of each of the six geopolitical zones in the country with other relevant leaders and organs of government in the conference.
This dialogue should have in view the solutions to previous and recent youth-crises in the country, and should be able to salvage further occurrence of such violent conflict. The government should not negate this because ignoring it will certainly generate a lot of future disaster.
In each youth crisis, the government should be prompt in the early hours to intervene and declare ‘cease-fire’ to the youths, and in form of nonviolent executive order that the rioting youths conscientiously will abide by, in accordance with the vested authority of the State or Federal leadership and thus stop further chaotic eruptions. Immediately this is done, proffering administrative solutions to the crisis and other related problems that bedevil the youths follows.
The federal government as a matter of urgency should implement the recommendations of the national conference for constitutional review. This conference touched in details most of the issues causing crisis, industrial actions and sundry agitations, violence cum restiveness in most parts of the country. For instance, the two outstanding demands of the youths in the ongoing crisis are police reforms and restructuring of the country, which are parts of the recommendations of the national conference.
At each of the three levels of government, or at the State and federal levels particularly, Government should regularly vote some money for youth’s empowerment, training or education in the geopolitical divides. On this note, I strongly commend in a special way, the Imo State Governor, His Excellency, Distinguished Senator Hope Odidika Uzodinma, for magnanimously voting out N2 Billion for Imo youths.
Yet, this voting of fund for regular equal empowerment and training is one thing and its judicious implementation, monitoring and the realization of the set goals, another hurdle that needs specialists in youth-crises. Such glorious fund requires transparency and proper monitoring.
As it is said in Christendom, not everyone that calls ‘Father, Father’ is godly. Not every leader, stakeholder or elder statesman can be trusted with the disposal and implementation of such project. Government needs sincere, accountable and transparency-inclined youth’s activists for such implementation.
The worthy trustees are to bring out templates for an equal distribution of the voted fund to its destination, issue an open and all-citizen’s accessible outlet for the whereabouts of the voted fund and the realization of the aims of government with the fund.
At any of the three levels or arms of government, embarking in this regular empowerment, training and employment schemes, needs the directions of these categories of experts, who in their set templates should dictate what goes to which empowerment and training, and which class of youths and category in-group benefits from it.
The experts must have already marked out principles of inter-gender equality and equitable distribution of such templates within the political divides in the State or geopolitical units in the country. This also necessitates regular evaluation, review and upgrade in the templates to ensure proper actualization of the government vision for the voted fund.
The youths as the most sensitive and conscientious class of citizenry know their real leaders and run to them for solutions and interventions during crisis. Most of these renowned youth commanders and patrons have acquired their trust such that a directive from them on the need and use of such funds voted for named projects, is obeyed to the last letter.
This comes as a result of being tested and trusted. Besides, these few trusted youth’s commanders and patrons have transparent structures and functional NGOs that habitually embark on such youth’s training and empowerment.
Above all, the youths should be appreciative and fast in welcoming the government’s felt concern for their wellbeing. One of the evidences of appreciation in this regard, is being just and faithful to the government’s resolution-policies and executive order.
To this effect, the youths during crisis should be able to nominate their own trusted representatives who stand for them at every process of the conflict resolution and implementations. To prove this gratefulness, there is need for an outright cease-fire at the very moment Government declares so, and should be able to embrace the extended hands of dialogue, reconciliation policies and solution templates proffered by Government designated agents for the crisis management and youth’s affairs.
The youths as we know are good but need direction. Those who direct seem to have lost their own direction. Bad leadership is responsible. It is bad leadership that is responsible for the injustices, falsehood and disorder in which we are caught up today. The teachers have strayed from the path of truth. The educational system is defective. The educated are without character, according to Ghandi, “An educated person without character is not only useless but positively dangerous to society”. This need not to be argued, rather, presents food for thought especially if we examine the trend of our society.