Celebrating and advising Nigerian youths on International Youth Day

On 17 December 1999, the United Nations General Assembly – in its Resolution 54/120 – endorsed the recommendation made by the World Conference of Ministers Responsible for Youth that 12 August should be declared “International Youth Day”.

International Youth Day 2017 is dedicated to celebrating young people’s contributions to conflict prevention and transformation as well as inclusion, social justice, and sustainable peace. We want to quickly seize the opportunity here to celebrate the youths for their participation and their invaluable efforts in the civilian Joint Task Force (JTF) in the North East.  

Based on dictionary definition, youth refers to the period between childhood and adult age. It also refers to a young person who falls within that time period. According to the United Nations, “youth is best understood as a period of transition from the dependence of childhood to adulthood’s independence.” The United Nations, for statistical purposes, defines as youth those persons between the ages of 15 and 24 without prejudice to other definitions by Member States.

It should be noted that there is no one-size-fits-all definition of youth especially in terms of age classification. While The Commonwealth sees youth as young people aged 15-29, African Union, through the African Youth Charter (2006) defines youth as any individual between 15-35 years of age.

Recognizing that youth, as a concept varies from culture to culture and from society to society, the ECOWAS Youth Policy (2009) considers youth as comprising all young males and females aged from 15 to 35 years. In defining youth, Nigeria's National Youth Policy 2009 states that, “in line with the conditions and realities on ground especially historical and contemporary socio-economic and political conditions, and for the purpose of execution of the current National Youth Policy, the youth shall comprise of all males and females aged 18 – 35 years, who are citizens of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.” According to the Report of the 2012 National Baseline Youth Survey conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Youth Development, Nigeria has 52,183,686 population of youths aged 18 – 35 years.

Faced with a number of challenges including unemployment / under-employment, ethnic / religious fanaticism, political manipulation of youths and youth organizations, poor education, cultism, as well as sex and substance abuse, Nigerian youths remain a vulnerable group.

We need to do more to address the un-met needs and aspirations of youths, mainstream youth-related issues into our development agenda, expand the democratic space to bring more youths into governance, and tap into their youthful vibrancy, drive for innovation, and their other comparative advantages. It is pleasing to note the recent success recorded by youths who are the main proponents of the #NotTooYoungToRun campaign. It actually makes sense that if someone is not too young to vote, he/she should equally not be too young to run for elective posts.

We need to sound a note of caution that, even though all of us as stakeholders can – and must – contribute towards ensuring good leadership and good governance, only a few will be in positions of power and authority at a given point in time. The teeming youths should therefore have it at the back of their minds that, while consolidating their #nottooyoungtorun campaign, they should also be “Not too young to run a business”, “Not too young to be an entrepreneur”, “Not too young to get skills”, “Not too young to excel”, “Not too young to shun corruption and immoral behaviour”, and “Not too young to resist ethnic, religious, gender, national, racial and other discriminations”. For those who have decided to pursue the “Not too young to run” initiative, we advise that they should also be “Not too young to read public documents to acquire knowledge of public affairs”  Knowledge is power, and my people – including the youths – must not perish for lack of knowledge. Go for some knowledge here: Nigerian Documents | Document Categories

Happy International Youth Day! Enjoy!