Youth Empowerment: The Backbone of Ika Nation’s Development

By: chrisworld Mood: bored Date: 07/21/2011 12:06:55 Music: None

         &nbs p;           Youth Empowerment:

The Backbone of Ika Nation’s Development

We have complained about almost everything around us, and I think it’s high time we started an attempt at contributing to the development of Ika nation, beginning from the individual. This presentation seeks to consider the subject of Youth Empowerment as the backbone of national development and point in the direction of self-induced empowerment as a viable option for today’s Ika Youth. It will explore the importance of building the individual in an attempt to build the nation – and eventually the world at large.

I believe a New Nigeria is emerging of which Ika is part of, one that is built on the foundations of the labours of our past heroes, hewn out of the debris of the present waste and engineered by the strength of tomorrow’s leaders: the Youth. These young people will work towards Personal Development and Nation Building, while recognizing their place as Global Citizens.

Youth empowerment is an attitudinal, structural, and cultural process whereby young people gain the ability, authority, and agency to make decisions and implement change in their own lives and the lives of other people, including youth and adults.

Youth empowerment is often addressed as a gateway to intergenerational equity, civic engagement and democracy building. Many local, state, provincial, regional, national, and international government agencies and nonprofit community-based organizations provide programs centered on youth empowerment. Activities involved therein may focus on youth-led media, youth rights, youth councils, youth activism, youth involvement in community decision-making, and other methods.

Youth empowerment occurs in homes, at schools, through youth organizations, government policy-making and community organizing campaigns. Major structural activities where youth empowerment happens throughout society include community decision-making, organizational planning, and education reform.

Educational activities that cite youth empowerment as an aim include student-centered learning, popular education, and service learning. Free schools and youth-led media organizations often state their intention to empower youth, as well as youth voice, community youth development, and youth leadership programs.

In 1998, Portugal (in cooperation with the United Nations) hosted some of the world’s youths in Braga, Portugal. It was the third session of the World Youth Forum of the United Nations System. Between August 6 and 10 2001, in Dakar, Senegal, the fourth session held. In the two meetings, they discussed Youth Empowerment under such topics as Education & ICT; Employment; Health & Population; Capacity building; Hunger, Poverty & Debt; Youth Policy, Participation & Rights; etc.

Some few weeks after the Dakar meeting, young people from 49 countries in Africa gathered in Johannesburg, South Africa (through a Fellowship program sponsored by the International Telecommunications Union – a United Nations agency) to discuss the development of Africa’s Information and Communications Technologies industry (You may wish to see their declaration at http://africatomorrow.tripod.com). 25 young people met in Lagos earlier this year, and the topic of their discussion (The Nigerian Youth’s Dream – available at the Paradigm Initiative Nigeria website, www.pin.itgo.com) also focused Nation Building through Information and Communications Technologies, after which a memorandum was submitted to the nation’s Senate Committee on Science and Technology.

On March 11 2002, the youth in Zambia marked the Youth Day celebrations and their “untapped potential and subsequent empowerment” was on the agenda for Government and other concerned authorities. The celebration’s theme, Youth Empowerment Through Participation, was declared as another trumpet sound, a wake-up call for the youth to be a part of the solutions to their woes. Allafrica.com had this to say about the meeting: “Like a hot knife searing through butter, the Zambian youth are expected to cut through the various stumbling blocks affecting them in one way or another and steer past the setbacks. Among these challenges are unemployment, poverty, sexually transmitted diseases and the HIV/AIDS pandemic which has taken a grim toll on their lives.” Similar meetings will hold in Hong Kong in December 2002, Argentina in February 2003 and Geneva in October 2003.

All these meetings point to three important points that we must not miss:

Ø  The whole world is beginning to (better) appreciate the place of Youth Empowerment in the development of nations, regions and people-groups

Ø  Young people are beginning to understand that we must begin to take action now if we want to experience a stable and enjoyable tomorrow

Ø  If you’re still one of those who want mind their own businesses without much concern about what happens to their nation, you need to pay more attention to this discussion

From the proceedings of these meetings and obvious trends in the society, each young person is beginning to appreciate the age-long saying, “The young shall grow … young people are the leaders of tomorrow.” A sense of responsibility, for the individual, his/her immediate environment, his/her family and his/her nation begins to rest on his/her shoulder. Yesterday, it was easy to leave the job of empowerment to the Government but as you turn the pages of the calendar, you suddenly begin to see a need for self-induced empowerment.

In a nation where the young people are not empowered with positive and virtuous skills and attitudes, the rich will not be able to sleep, the Police will likely go on strike - not for salary reasons, but to campaign against crime rate - and the Justice Department will spend more on overtime. The place of Youth Empowerment in a nation’s development is not subject to any debate and so the more necessary question is, who empowers the youth? If you ask me to read the handwriting on the wall, particularly in Nigeria, I will say you are the best person to empower you.

Commonwealth

The 53 member countries of the Commonwealth of Nations have all signed up to the Commonwealth Plan of Action for Youth Empowerment (2007–2015). The Plan of Action underpins the work of the Commonwealth Youth Programme (CYP). On the Commonwealth definition, "Young people are empowered when they acknowledge that they have or can create choices in life, are aware of the implications of those choices, make an informed decision freely, take action based on that decision and accept responsibility for the consequences of those actions. Empowering young people means creating and supporting the enabling conditions under which young people can act on their own behalf, and on their own terms, rather than at the direction of others."

The Plan of Action for Youth Empowerment was developed by the Commonwealth Secretariat, working closely with Ministers of Youth and young people themselves. It encourages youth mainstreaming and contains thirteen action points for governments. The first of these is: “Develop and implement measures to promote the economic enfranchisement of young people” through a range of measures ranging from micro-credit and entrepreneurship education through to reviewing macro-economic planning and trade regimes and how they affect young people. Other action points address gender equality, HIV/AIDS, education, the environment, youth participation in decision-making, and democracy and human rights.

THE BALL IS IN YOUR COURT

Have you noticed that those who eventually help in nation building are those who have built a successful life, or at least have discovered what exactly they want to carve out of their lives and existence? Really, everything comes back to you. To build the nation, you must be empowered … and you will do the job of empowering you.

There’s so much truth in the statement, “the whole world stands aside for a man who knows where he’s going”. And that brings me to the question I’ve asked myself so often: What exactly do you want to do in life? Yes, I know some of us will eventually graduate from University/Polytechnic, or College, other will complete their apprenticeship course, etc. But what institution, specific career path or phenomenon will carry your name as a label? In other words, what is your Career Objective?

I ask because in my few years on earth, I’ve discovered that there’s so much luck attached to those who know what they really want to do with their lives. And the harder they work at that discovery, the luckier they get! Maybe that explains why Thomas Jefferson said that, “I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have”. Wondering if it’s luck? Ask the likes of Philip Emeagwali, Wole Soyinka, Ben Carson … and there’s also someone out there who seems to always say, “This one thing … I know it is my goal”. Ika Nation must employ all its resources towards youth employment to secure the future of the young generation.

William Shakespeare helped capture the essence of what we are talking about in one of his writings, “This life is like a stage, we all come to play our part and we depart...” Some come on stage and are forgotten even before they bow out but some seem to be present on the stage long after their lines have been delivered. Why? The former came just like that but the latter came on to the stage only after deciding what exactly he will do when he gets to the stage. And then, after much rehearsal, he enters and captures the whole audience – because he came prepared. How prepared are you?

So, the ball is in your court. We need to build the Ika nation but in what area do you need empowerment? A man who will empower himself will identify the information that is potent enough to empower him. And there is so much information flying around – on websites, in old journals, in newspapers, on the notice boards, in books, in current journals, on the street, in the farm, market etc. Such will give you an edge and help you with Personal Development, Career Growth, and of course, help you take a stand as a Global Citizen and not one coloured guy from a Third World country!

Christopher Okonta writes from Lagos.