YOUTH AND SOCIETY: AN ABANDONED RESPONSIBILITY

YOUTH AND SOCIETY: AN ABANDONED RESPONSIBILITY

Egat Hillary Nwauzoije

The definition of youth has been a very difficult task with much philosophy, as such when carrying out its Youth strategy, UNESCO uses different definitions of youth depending on the context.For activities at international or at regional level, such as the African Youth Forum, UNESCO uses the United Nations’universal definition.The UN, for statistical consistency across regions, defines‘youth’, as those persons between the ages of 15 and 24 years, without prejudice to other definitions by Member States. All UN statistics on youth are based on this definition, as illustrated by the annual yearbooks of statistics published by the United Nations system on demography, education, employment and health (UN, 2011).For activities at the national level, for example when implementing a local community youth programme, “youth”may be understood in a more flexible manner. UNESCO will then adopt the definition of “youth” as used by a particular Member State. It can be based for instance on the definition given in the African Youth Charter where“youth” means “every person between the ages of 15 and 35 years”(due to delayed transitional phase from youth to adulthood) (UNESCO, 2011).

Youth is best understood as a period of transition from the dependence of childhood to adulthood’s independence and awareness of our interdependence as members of a community. Youth is a more fluid category than a fixed age-group. However, age is the easiest way to define this group, particularly in relation to education and employment. Therefore “youth” is often indicated as a person between the age where he/she may leave compulsory education, and the age at which he/she finds his/her first employment. This latter age limit has been increasing, as higher levels of unemployment and the cost of setting up an independent household puts many young people into a prolonged period of dependency.

Children and youth are particularly vulnerable as they undergo critical developmental transitions, for example, graduating from secondary school. Youths at this stage may be forced to postpone their plans for higher education and instead seek increasingly scarce jobs in order to contribute to the household economy. All of these changes can have profound and lasting effects on the mental health of our nation’s children and youth, often causing problems in terms of anxiety, lowered self-esteem and other emotional/behavioral difficulties. Noting the epidemic of youth unemployment around the world, nations are close to losing a generation of young people. One essential ingredient to help grapple with these new problems is education. During the industrial revolution, people left the farms and the leaders of society understood that they needed public education. Today, there are needs to be a similar revolution in education as we transit to the digital economy. We also need to realign the capabilities of youth with the needs of labour markets. The media plays a very key role in the development of the youth through the creation of proper awareness to the entire youth and enabling them to plan on their development.

In Nigeria, economic backwardness has played a wide role in increasing the level of unemployment and poverty and/with secondary impact traceable to disillusionments and rising rate of anti-social behavior among youth. Youths are continually displaced and isolated from socio-economic plans and resources that ought to increase their self-identity and self-worth. Across several disciplines, there is growth in the tendency to view youth as out of control and a threat to both society and themselves. Viewed from the context of moral panic, youth have often been read as dangerous from media representation and become an object of spectacle and desire for mass audience (Oswell, 1998; Giroux, 1997). Irrespective of the diverse dimensions youths have been conceptualized, it is still obvious that youths are victims of social change and at best an endangered species in most Third World nations. Youths are always at the receiving end of the economic environment dynamics. The situation functions to increase youth disillusionment, intensifies hopelessness, poverty and increases youth violence and crime across Nigeria’s landscape.

Nigeria government often engages in programmes which hardly consider youth inputs and burdens. With increment in the denial of young people becoming stakeholders in the contributions to decisions and material condition of their existence, they look for alternative sources of satisfaction, some of which may be akin to criminal activities. In Nigeria, the volume of youth in crime is explained by socio-economic closure and attendant response in their quest to belong in the face of annihilating or excruciating socio-economic conditions. With prevalence of haphazard transitional process from adolescent to adulthood, there is high tendency for crimogenic response to non-existence of socio-economic opportunities. This is more so according to Rutherford (1992) that youth without gainful employment, and lucrative responsibilities are more likely to be involved in crime. The sub-culture of robbery, burglary, forgery, cyber fraud and scam remain an important area of youth response to socio-economic deprivation. Apart from the problem of unemployment and poverty that generated current state of development, it must be agreed that Nigeria youth lost their true identities because of several other factors prevalent in Nigeria’s society. The endemic nature of corruption in Nigeria, displaced morality and other contradictions inherent in post-independence constitution of Nigeria function considerably in the destabilization of hope needed to usher Nigeria youth to the dreamland.

In the words of Comrade President O.R. Tambo: “A country, a movement, a people, that does not value its youth, does not deserve its future”. Indeed, the movement needs to deepen its value for the youth and harness its potential.Youth participation in development:

1.) Strengthens young people's abilities to meet their own subsistence needs;

2.) Prevents and reduces vulnerabilities to economic, political and socially unstable environments;

 3.) Promotes ownership and sustainability of interventions;

4.) Helps gain entry into target communities and builds up trust and social capital.

Solutions to Youth Related Problems in Nigeria

The need to engage a comprehensive strategy for poverty alleviation and youth economic empowerment remain the major solution germane to youth problems in Nigeria. History has shown that major government alleviation and development programmes often neglect the youths. Apart from the fact that significant economic programmes embarked upon by Nigeria’s government portends anti-youth posture, this group access to facilities of empowerment are inhibited by sectionalism, corruption, bureaucratic bottle necks and several other obstacles instituted at either micro or macro levels of implementation. It is however suggested that impact evaluation strategy should complement government initiative in ameliorating youth’s plight. The role of civil society and general public in the planning and execution of youth related programmes will invariably reduce youth vulnerability to amoral activities. National rebirth is also crucial to solving youth problems. Within the government environment, transparency, accountability, responsiveness, and commitment to social welfare should become the norm and thus translated into values underpinning youth aspirations.

The engagement of youth in community driven development also constitute one important area youth problems can be addressed in Nigeria. Strengthening and financing local initiatives such as entrepreneurial development efforts, micro-finance loans, and other advances will go a long way in reducing the current level of unemployment and poverty prevalent among the youth. Youth energy should be re-directed towards positive productive efforts and must be made result driven. The need to revisit the deteriorating energy base of Nigeria hitherto disenabling the exhibition of youth potentials and the provision of quality basic services constitute another important area that will generate sporadic response and ginger economic spirit among the affected group. Finally, the state should function to reduce youth physical and economic shocks and help youth overcome their victimization caused by economic battering, neglect and institutional deprivation which often occasion diverse recourse into anti-social behaviors. To this end, there is need for the government, the civil society and the general public to rise to the sustainable development of the abandoned youth.

On the other hand, the roles of stakeholders in the educational system cannot be exempted in this context. The school, the home and the community, including religious institutions, should be used as centres to impact value/character traits. Also, education sectoral groups, which include;parents’/ teachers association, professional associations, old students and alumni, unions and other social movement organizations both non-governmental have an important role to play. Sustainable development is impossible without investing in the moral development of our youth.  This must be part of the effort to make them self-reliant, and able to cultivate positive and responsible family and social relationship, thereby reducing their vulnerability to abusive, violent and criminal activities like, terrorism, militancy, robbery, burglary, forgery, cyber fraud and scam or other anti-social behaviors.