Nigeria: Our Heritage

7 Billion Campaign Youth Actions Paper

On the 31^st of October 2011, about 50 young people across the Nation Nigeria were housed at Chida hotel in Abuja to celebrate the global population as it reached a mark of 7 billion and in Nigeria, about 167 million. This has huge implications on sustainability, urbanization, access to health care services and youth empowerment considering that a third of Nigeria’s population is made up of young people ages 10 -25 years old.

With a population of 167 million people and in a world of 7 billion, how do the government and young people access their roles and responsibilities in making sure collaborative efforts are geared towards tackling emerging social problems considering the unique demographic dynamics.

Recommendations to Government/Policy makers

·         Government should create more vocational opportunities for alternative education such as training centers

·         Government should review and update national  education policy framework so that the content of the policies can be relevant to present day social needs of young people

·         Government should ensure meaningful youth participation in reviewing National Education Policies

·         Government should also increase budgetary allocation by 30% in order to meet the educational needs of the Nigerian youth population

·         Government should prioritize female education by giving incentives for girl-child education

·         Government should increase the Inclusive capacities of schools at all levels and make education tuition free for persons with disabilities

Youth Actions

·         Young people should encourage volunteering in rural areas to implement community projects in rural areas, create after school programs, and embrace mentor-ship

·         Build an online directory as well as hard copy of existing opportunities of where and how to volunteer locally

·         Young people should embrace knowledge sharing and skill building on how to educate children and youths with disabilities

·         Young people should advocate that youth schooling abroad should come home and share their skills for at least two-years, especially those studying abroad on government scholarship

This is 2013, 2years from the proposed agenda to the Nigerian Youths and its Government in utilizing the resources available for development/ Job creation accordingly... Nigeria is blessed with several natural resources but I must say that we need to be known for something we are producing that the World needs.  Enough of selling our heritage for a peanut. 

We need to be more practical in our learning approaches. Students of Engineering should be empowered to start producing CARS, MICROPHONES, MOBILE PHONES that are better than the ones China and Japan are producing. We shun out graduates in all fields of study, yet we are left on the major cities in search of Jobs. Jobs are barely available to 5percent of the graduates in the Country.  We can reduce the level of unemployment when we engage the strength of young people in production processes.

 From left to right: Kikelomo, Oluwamayowa and Grace at Chida Hotel in Abuja.

 Nigeria Arise! before we extinct our natural resources.  

Oluwamayowa