“If money is your hope for independence, you will never have it. The only real security that a man can have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience and ability”
–Henry Ford
A nation’s demography properly harnessed can unleash national prosperity and wealth. On the contrary, Nigeria’s surging population has proved a drag on its development strides, given its resource constraints in rightfully empowering its active population segment.
Looking at the staggering excess of its 170 million people, out of which 35 per cent are youths, it’s counterintuitive to hope that managers of Nigeria’s economy can provide white-collar or even blue-collar jobs for every youth.
The sub-continents of India and China, with populations swirling around 1.2 billion and 1.3 billion people were pragmatic at launching full-scale vocational approach to youth empowerment. The whole idea was to make technical education and skill acquisition a national priority. There was sustained national initiative in co-opting vocational skill-acquisition into their learning architecture.
Nigeria, for instance, has always placed so much emphasis in acquiring academic certificates, a syndrome that resulted in long-queues for jobs. Then, the proliferation of makeshift institutions and schools whose contents are completely off the curve on core elements of Nigeria’s development aspirations.
To halt the rural-urban drift, now straining to capacity the infrastructure of most city-states in Nigeria, local government authorities in collaboration with their respective state governments should restore defunct technical schools and colleges in their domains, retool their workshops, and renew the charge in empowering the young, inquisitive boys and girls, almost driven to hopeless desperation.
It’s also the remit of Nigeria’s planners and managers to activate a thriving public private partnership contract that will deliver sustainable value chain in skilling the youths, through creating enabling economic factors like energy and business-friendly pieces of legislation that seek to promote entrepreneurship and economic inclusiveness.
Should the Nigerian government fail in its legitimate obligations in providing these vital assists, what should I do as a Nigerian youth?
A few months back, the founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, visited Nigeria and left a star dust in his trail. He was not a Harvard professor! He was a techie geek who had a brainwave, and was able to come up with an invention that took the world by storm.
The first level of self-empowerment is self-belief. And the second, ability to follow your dreams.
This is an excerpt of Zuckerberg’s story:
“Zuckerberg developed an interest in computers at an early age; when he was about 12, he used Atari BASIC to create a messaging programme he named “Zucknet.” His father used the programme in his dental office, so that the receptionist could inform him of a new patient without yelling across the room. The family also used Zucknet to communicate within the house. Together with his friends, he also created computer games just for fun. ‘I had a bunch of friends who were artists,’ he said. ‘They’d come over, draw stuff, and I’d build a game out of it.’”
No government or any school can teach anybody the art of self-belief, it’s a personal asset gained through the mental exercise of vision-what you dream to be.
There is no legalisation anywhere in the world that has the power to stifle the power of dreams.
It’s an illusion to hope for such a time when Nigeria can become that Eldorado nation, able to provide everything we had ever dreamt of. Given the explosive trajectory of Nigeria’s population, there is every possibility that competition for resources will become keener, and it will be the survival of the fittest, in the days ahead.
There is always the tempting alternative to sit down and do nothing hoping on the system and the government.
The world is gradually shifting on its axis, from what was predominantly an Industrial Age in the 17th and 18th centuries through the last half of the 20th Century, into the present which essentially is a Knowledge-driven Age, powered by innovation.
Ability to think up solutions does not necessarily require outstanding education.
Nigerian youths may not be required to create another Facebook infrastructure or an Apple phone. There are many business-savvy ideas that are native to Nigeria’s business ecosystem.
Nigeria, fortunately, is far from being an advanced society and within its dense social and economic systems are low-hanging opportunities that some bright ideas can harvest.
This is where the youths of today should take their bearing; to turn loose their imagination and think up solutions.
It’s not always easy to think up or dream up something in a stifling climate such as ours. But every youth owes it to themselves to pay the price of greatness through the virtue of exercising the natural gift of the mind. That is the foundation and building blocks of the ultimate self-empowerment.
Orji, a policy specialist based in London, wrote in via brainpac@yahoo.com
Punch
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