Challenges facing Youth Empowerment in Nigeria
Being young is a stage of life where anything is possible and much can be achieved. As a result of this, youth is a period of instability, change, uncertainty, and a constant search for purpose. The interests of young people is vastly different from those of older people. Young people want to change the world and establish their own innovative values. They can only change society for better if they have the support of their government. That's why Youth Empowerment in Nigeria is so important.
The main problems of youths
The problems faced by young people can be found in the social structure, characterized primarily as transitional and unstable. The challenges in the society these days only serve to aggravate these problems.
Economic factors affects majority of young people. Most youths are not adequately provided with material resources for instance, they do not have own housing, and some are forced to rely on the financial assistance of parents. The desire to get an education often keep them from entering the work force earlier and a lack of experience and knowledge at the right age prevents them from getting high-paying jobs. The wages of young people are much lower than average and scholarships are very rare.
As the country experiences an economic decline, recruitment of Nigerian youths decrease and it becomes more difficult for young people to achieve a state of economic independence.
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Spiritual factors also affect Nigerian youths and their improvement. These days, most young people are unable to hold on to their moralities and are often caught in the wrong crowd. They also lose traditional values that could have served as a way to keep them in check. Youths are the most vulnerable to all the vices that can be noticed in our present society. So, values of labor, freedom, democracy, tolerance are gradually weakened. Now, more youths uphold values of intolerance and 'quick wealth,' which leads to the death of what most consider 'outdated' values. All these crises and instability in the society only serve to worsen the situation. There is a higher crime rate and such vices as alcoholism, drug addiction, prostitution continues to spread even more widely among youths.
The youth, on the one hand have become a destabilizing force in society, but on the other hand, this is a generation on which the future of the country depends. This delicate situation creates the need for an adequate Youth Empowerment programme that can solve or alleviate existing problems, as well as the channel creative potential of youth into useful and productive activities.
What is Youth Empowerment?
Youth development is a system of state priorities and measures aimed at creating conditions and opportunities for successful socialization and effective self-realization of young people.
The immediate goal of the state youth policy is the all-round development of the potential of youths, which in turn should contribute to the achievement of long-term goals - social, economic, cultural development of the country, ensuring its international competitiveness and strengthening national security.
The system of youth policy consists of three components:
- legal conditions for the implementation of youth policy (ie, the relevant legislative framework);
- forms of youth policy regulation;
- information, material and financial support for youth policy.
The main directions of the youth policy are:
- involving young people in the political and public life while also informing them about potential development opportunities;
- development of creativity in youths and supporting talented ones;
- integration of young people who find themselves in a difficult life situation into a better living condition.
These directions are implemented through a number of specific programmes: legal counseling, raising awareness of universal values, promoting healthy lifestyles, organizing international youth interaction, supporting volunteer initiatives, employment in Nigeria, strengthening the young family, increasing civic engagement and helping young people in difficult situations.
If desired, every young person is able to find in the media all the necessary information about current projects and choose the ones that can help in solving his/her specific problems.
Challenges facing Youth Empowerment in Nigeria
Culture
The most relevant socio-cultural problems of young people are related to ideological, spiritual and moral areas of their life:
- lack of ideological and socio-cultural identification of youths;
- the destruction of the mechanism for spiritual continuity of generations due to the general disintegration of culture, the death of traditional values and traditional forms of social morality;
- a decrease in the interest of young people in the local culture, history, traditions;
- a decline in the prestige of education as a form of personal self-realization;
- low activity of youths in solving national, regional and local problems.
Low level of education and unemployment
The level of education directly affects the likelihood of employment for young Nigerians. Due to the quality of education and as a result of the fact that such issues as strikes and other interruptions, youths are not able to enter the work force early enough. This is why you find most Nigerian youths under the age of 29 with only a secondary school diploma and still struggling to graduate from a university. If they intend to take professional courses, this affects them even more.
Cultism
Activities of student fraternities can be both positive and negative. If it is the latter, the result may be violence, an attempt to elevate members of the brotherhood over other students or clashes between different cults. In addition to the explicit prohibition of student communities, it is worth considering other measures that can reduce the level of violence and the number of sad incidents on campuses. Division of society into different groups will only continue to yield negative result. Young people should feel stronger in their equality, and not feel the need to suppress each other.
Political violence
When peaceful means do not work, the radicalism among youths will continue to grow. This then results in a lack of flexibility of the political system when it comes to meeting the requirements of people. Peaceful grout protests will end up resorting to violence. The purpose of such actions is to undermine the authority of political forces and even to delegitimize the political system. The methods of violence are diverse: terrorism, unrest, guerrilla warfare, strikes with calls for violence, armed uprisings, sabotage, kidnapping, hostage taking, murder.
Corruption
Corruption of power through bribery is rampant because there are always officials who demand to be paid for certain services. The number of such officials continues to grow. Accurate data on the extent of corruption in various areas of the government can not be pinpointed, but it is clear that this phenomenon is only getting worse.
Political economy
Its goal is to answer the question: "What, how and for whom to produce?" Its functions are studying the economic phenomena and developing scientific, technical and socio-economic means for the foreseeable future.
N-Power programmes
The issue of unemployment and recruitment are being tackled by NPower programmes. You can find out more about them by visiting their website npower.gov.ng. This organization is aimed at the social and economic development of Nigeria. Thanks to the Youth Empowerment, young people are now able to learn skills that will serve them and develop their lives. Anyone who meets a number of requirements can improve his qualifications through these means.
N-Power is part of the state structure that develops the economy and improves the issues of employment of the able-bodied population.
Thanks to such programmes, unemployment in Nigeria and challenges facing youth empowerment are no longer as terrible. Within the framework of a large-scale structure, you can pass whichever courses you need. This is advantageous for the country because the organisation provide services that aids in creating professional personnel ready for the work force.
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Source: Legit.ng
