Senate Roundtable on Youth Unemployment and Development in Nigeria

Let's be honest. This Senate President Position will fit me by 2035! Watch this space.

Picture S/O : Motion Photography

Let's get straight into the matter at hand.

On the 9th October, The Senate President Abubakar Bukola Saraki called for a Roundtable Discussion on the critical issue of "YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT AND DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA".

I want his type of stress. Doing deliveries is hard work! I cannot come and kill myself.

I was invited by Darlington Uzor, a fellow Young African Leader (YALI Abuja Chapter) to come and share our thoughts and ideas with the Senate President.

Future Governor in the making! He fights for equality!

The Senate President iterated the very many issues that are plaguing the nation particularly the Youth Unemployment statistics and called the discussion open for deliberations on how the different pressure groups and representatives of the different government MDA's involved can chart a new plan for Youth Development in Nigeria.

The discussion touched on very many issues faced by Nigerian Youth, but it was difficult to find the faces of the Youth at the centre of the discussion.

Please help me confirm, what age do you have to be to qualify to be a Youth. Me that was present, I was only covered by my own camera.

There were very many issues raised but particularly I would like to focus on the success of the BOI programmes towards funding young Entrepreneurs in a bid to create jobs for the teeming youth population.

I lent my voice to the struggle.

Source: The minutes of the meeting on the NGRSenate Facebook Page.

I am a 2017 Tony Elumelu Entrepreneur not a staff of the Tony Elumelu Foundation nor a Representative of the Foundation. I am a Representative of HubbonNG Services Limited.

When I was speaking about the bureaucracy and mystery that funding from the BOI was shrouded in. They did not seem very bothered.

The remaining of the fufu and egusi soup he took in the morning was still lodged in his teeth.


There was indeed a lot of talk, but my problem and I am sure it was shared across board was the effectiveness of such a discussion to chart a path forward to curtail the rate at which the Youth are disconnected from the polity. If left to fester could culminate in a huge breakdown of Law and Order in Nigeria.

How Youth keep their face when old people are representing them. We can speak o!

Bad Education, Bad Economy, Bad governance need not be mentioned, If the current set of Youth without any reorientation take the reins of governance in Nigeria.

This is not to say that there aren't any Youth that can take the reins of Leadership of this country effectively. For good leadership to work, we also need good followers to implement to policies set by good leaders. It is a symbiotic relationship. Good Leadership breeds good followership and vice versa.

PERSONAL ASSESSMENT

1. I applaud the Senate President as he has shown proactiveness in Leadership to call for this debate and discussion in order to forget a solution to solving the menace of Youth Unemployment in Nigeria.

2. Although the panelists at the meeting were very distinguished individuals, they are individuals whom are "advanced in age" and there's an obvious disconnect between how they think youth feel and how we obviously feel.

3. Getting representatives from the corp members as well as representative of youth organisations like YALI, YIAGA and other "youth led" and "youth-centric" organisations would have made for a more passionate and positive deliberation.

4. Such discussions should be open to certain "controlled" sections of the youth. Entrepreneurship, Youth Groups and Youth in Public Service especially those that would be able to articulate the views of the general youth population in Nigeria thereby allowing 'us' the Youth to share our thoughts and ideas with you, "The Senate" and "The Government".

5. Dissemination of information of such discussions through blogs like this that are targeted towards "forward thinking" youth that are enterprising would be better to reach Youth that would be able to lend their voice and work with "The Senate" and "The Government" to produce policies and laws that can galvanize Youth Development in Nigeria.

6. "The Government" should approach funding young Entrepreneurs through a Public-private partnership model with startup funds like THE TONY ELUMELU FOUNDATION as well as incubators and accelerators like  Ventures Platform, Denk Spaces and  Enspire Incubator.

7. I also want to use this opportunity to show the interest of HubbonNG to work with "The Senate", "The Executive", "The Judiciary" and indeed all "Government MDA's" that are developing programs towards empowering young Entrepreneurs to create jobs for the teeming youth population in Nigeria.

I have more thoughts, but 7 is a perfect number!

  

Did I tell you that Tonto Dikeh was there?

My tongue was itching me to say "Hi" to her multiple times, like she did to us in her music video.


I still went on my Tourist rounds and went to pay a visit to my House of Representatives member on issues concerning Youth Development in our community.

This National Assembly looks good on me. When do we call for a vote? LOL

Picture S/O : Motion Photography

As I said earlier, a lot was discussed during the meeting, if you would like to take a look at the minutes of the meeting. Click the link below

Senate Roundtable Discussion on Youth Unemployment and Development in Nigeria

Thanks for Reading!

Best regards,

Ejieji Muna
(HubbonNG)