Nigeria can’t grow economy without active youth participation, say development experts

Nabila Aguele, a public policy advisor, says Nigeria is losing money from a lack of investment in critical sectors.

Aguele spoke on Thursday at the International Youth Day event hosted by NGYouthSDGs, a network of young people for sustainable initiative, and Oxfam Nigeria.

The event is celebrated annually on August 12 with the goal of raising awareness on different issues affecting young people across the world.

Speaking on the theme, ‘Working With and For Youth Towards Achieving the SDGs’, Aguele said opportunities need to be created for more young people to hold the government accountable and to ensure transparency.

She said Nigeria is not investing in sectors that are critical to its growth, noting that the country is losing a lot of money to poor administration.

“I think Nigeria’s challenge in achieving the SDGs is mirrored globally and one issue is that we don’t really put our money where our mouth is when it comes to areas that are critical to advancing us as a people,” the former special adviser to Zainab Ahmed, the ex-minister of finance, said.

“We’re losing a lot of money to issues like inefficiency, poor administration, corruption, and there’s also a question about if we actually aligning our funding to our policies and to what we say is important.

“Are we aligning our finances to what the data shows us? The data tells us that any country that is not investing in health, education, its young people, in job creation, is not going anywhere. So, if that is what the data is telling us, then that is where we need to put our money.”

‘YOUTH PARTICIPATION SHOULDN’T BE SYMBOLIC’

Tunde Aremu, policy, research, and influencing manager at Plan International, Nigeria, said the youth, who are the major drivers of policy reforms, are critical to the growth of the country.

He said the advancement of the country or the growth of the economy cannot be discussed without the involvement of the generation that forms the largest part of the populace.

“The young people of Nigeria form 70 percent of the population, that is from available statistics. So, how do you decide without having them where the decisions are being made?” the policy expert said.

“We can’t talk about youth involvement or empowerment and just make it merely symbolic.

“No country in the world has made progress without the active involvement of its youths. And you can’t talk about Nigeria’s history without talking about the youth movements, youths are the vanguard of the drive to reform our system. And in recent years, you cannot talk about resistance to bad government without talking about the youth. That is what we should be re-echoing.”

On his part, Princewill Ogbodo, project coordinator at Oxfam Nigeria, said the event was organised to equip young people with the necessary skills to thrive in the labour market.

He called on President Bola Tinubu-led administration to create an enabling environment for more youths to actively participate in governance.

“The youth unemployment rate is at an alarming level — above 50 percent right now in the country — so, we need to create the necessary infrastructure and provide the right enabling environment for young people to thrive because young people need relevant skills to get jobs,” Ogbodo said.

“They also need to get into entrepreneurship and be employers of labour but for all this to happen we also need the right policies in place and for the government to make it easy for youth-led businesses to access finances for their businesses.”