13TH Okehi Re-awakening Forum (ORAF) Lecture Series: "Youth Participation In Governance And The Ripple Effect" Presented By Isah Bala
Moderated And Compiled By Oraf Admins
DATE: 28th July, 2019
It's an honour to discuss a broad topic, "Youth Participation in Governance and the Ripple Effect" on this platform.
First, there's need to understand the key words in the topic.
-Youth
-Participation
-Governance
-Ripple Effect
1. Youth: United Nations defines
YOUTH as a "period of
transition from the dependence of childhood to adulthood’s independence." The Nigerian national youth policy (2009), however, defines youth as Nigerians between 18-35 years of age.
2. Participation : Wikipedia defines participation as
the action of taking part in something. This means youth can participate in governance by actively involve in the processes and taking part in the running of the government.
3. Governance: The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in its 1997 policy paper, defined governance as “the exercise of economic, political and administrative authority to manage a country's affairs at all level"
4. Ripple Effect: Cambridge English Dictionary defines ripple effect as, "situation in which one event produces effects which spread and produce further effects".
With the foregoing, "Youth Participation in Governance and the Ripple Effect", can therefore be defined as the long term advantages of young people's involvement in the running of the government of their society, states, and countries.
Global innovation and advancement in knowledge has prompted the capacity of Nigerian Youths. However, their ability to utilize these potential and asset effectively to drive national change and development depend on the leadership opportunities available to them in leadership positions.
According to an independent research by the British Council, by 2030; “Youth not oil, will be Nigeria’s greatest asset”.
The belief that Youth are leaders of tomorrow has reduced Youths, a very important social category and a demographic majority to political minority. This needs to be corrected and changed to enable the Nigerian Youth scale the wall of exclusion in leadership and governance.
According to a paper presented by H.E Dr. Aisha L. Abdullahi, the AU Commissioner for Political Affairs in 2017 AU submit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, "Africa is regarded as the most youthful Continent In the world, with 65% of our one (1) billion people
below the age of 35 years."
Similarly, the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, projected the number of youth in Africa to increase by 42% by 2030 and the current levels are likely to double by 2055.
The African Union, recognized the relevance of young people as a critical cornerstone for the realisation of the Union’s vision of “an integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, driven by its own citizens and playing a dynamic role in the international arena” which gave birth to the AU young people’s rights, including their right to participate in governance, democratic processes and decision which eventually led to the agitation of youth participation in Nigeria and led to the not too young to run bill accented by president Muhammadu Buhari.
Currently, Nigeria has an estimated population of 68 million Youths. This is twice the population of Ghana; more than the population of South Africa and bigger than the population of the United Kingdom.
If the Nigerian Youth population were to be a nation, it would be the fourth largest country in Africa and 19th in the world would have been be a major country by numerical strength.
This has further proven that this important age group that constitute a major block of Nigeria's population cannot be ignored in the decision making, the running of the country neither can it be ignored as a major player in the development of the country.
Unarguably, Nigeria is in dire need of a vibrant, and visionary leader equipped with the current world innovations to fix the country and get along with the innovative and technological world which the youth need to champion.
The demographic group known as youth are vibrant, young, strong and can withstand any heat in the quest to get anything done.
History, has proven that the most outstanding rulers of Nigeria are people who were in their youthful age at the time they ruled the
country.
Former Head of State, Yakubu Gowon was 31 years as at the time he took over power as the youngest head of state ever on August 1, 1966, before his 32nd birthday on October 19th.
General Murtala Muhammed who was also adjudged to be one of the best Nigerian Heads of State was 37 years old as at the time he stepped into office on July 29, 1975.
Without prejudice, these people are still adjudged to be the best that ever ruled Nigeria.
IMPORTANCE OF YOUTH PARTICIPATION IN GOVERNANCE
1. The development of youth leadership is critical to building civic capacity and long-term community sustainability.
2. It will reawaken the consciousness of the youth on capacity building to know they are not only good at thuggery and praise singing and promotes positive outcomes amongst youth.
3. Developmental strategies will be adopted inline with the current innovative ways of doing things.
4. It teaches the skills of active citizenship such as understanding how decisions are made and how to organize, plan, and communicate.
5. Our civil society will be strengthened when youth become informed and thoughtful citizens. Young people with skills, knowledge, commitment, and experience can reflect upon the common good, become full members of their communities, and take political action.
6.Youth are known for championing developmental strategies and plans across the world which will lead Nigeria to be amongst the developed countries of the world with enabling environment to function.
All these cannot happen unless some variables are in place, Which will lead us to:
Factors That Will Promote Youth Participation In Governance
1. Reorientation of the youth about governance - For youth participation in governance to be felt in a positive way, there is need to embark on campaign, public lectures, symposium and the likes to change the mindset of Nigerian youths about governance.
Over the years, because of the high level of corruption at every stage of our lives, public office has been misconstrued to be an avenue of enriching oneself and one's family rather than a means to develop the country.
2. Economic Independence - Economic independence is the control of the wealth of a nation by a majority of its citizens.
Economic independence can be achieved by creating enabling environment for business to grow, job opportunities and the likes. This will enable youth to be financial independent and will be able to sponsor themselves for any elective position they want to contest.
As interesting as the Not Too Young to Run may seems, without economic independence, it's just a mirage whose impact will never be felt.
3. Independent Candidacy - For youth participation in governance to be achievable, independent candidacy needs to be introduced, where an intending youth can run as an independent candidate without going through the hurdles of god-gatherism, political parties primary and the millions of naira spent to get party's ticket.
4. E-voting: e-voting is another factor that can guarantee youth participation in governance.
Through e-voting, the youth who intends to run for an elective position wouldn't be worried about the money he will use to buy vote at the polling booth neither will he/she be worried about the money to give to INEC officials to ring election in his/her favour.
In Conclusion
With these and many others, if we can achieve it, any youth elected into elective positions will only be concerned about how to deliver his/her campaign promises and the aforementioned importance of youth participation in governance and its ripple effect will be achieved.
I strongly believe with enabling environment, Nigerian youth can champion the revolutionary change we so desired in development just like the likes of Nnamdi Azikiwe, Tafawa Balewa, Sir Ahmadu Bello, Obafemi Awolowo amongst others did during nationalism with Nigeria Youth Movement.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Mr Mark Ogogu asked:
How do youth participation in politics can be strengthened and pave way for them to hold a sensitive position at the federal level especially now that money hold major role in our politics?
Answer: Economic independence where youth will be financially independent is a key factor.
Others include, Independent Candidacy where the issue of god-fatherism will be overcome and e-voting which will end the era of vote buying and vote selling.
Mr Lawal Amba: How can we have more youth participation in real politics devoid of greed, violence and sentiment?
Answer: It will still bounce back to the fact that there's need for reorientation to change the people's mindset about governance, for them to know governance is not an avenue to enrich oneself rather a service to the country, and with e-voting, the era of political violence, intimidation and snatching of ballot boxes will be over.
Nigeria just need to live to her expectations as the giant of Africa and follow the innovative ways of doing things.
Mr Fortune: You've listed some great leaders who did so well in their youthful day. Comparing these few numbers to those that have done so bad or should I say greatly bad in this era, do you think there will be so much differences judging from the antecedents of these youths in Nigerian democracy?
Answer: I strongly believe the poor performance of youth in governance we've witnessed in the last few years is as a result of our current beliefs about public office. The truth is that, the leaders of the people are from the people not space and the people's belief will surely show in them.
The former youth leaders we had were able to perform so well because the people generally then believed in the development of the country as a primary objective, currently the people's concern is how to loot at the expense of the masses. That's why people that are even criticising the bad leaders may be the worst if our orientation is not changed.
Mr "Anti Party": On this platform there were series of arguments based on politics, as a layman can you please clear the air on the meaning of abused and constructive criticism?
Answer: From my study, one can criticise any work of art, government policies or individual actions constructively with the view to correcting such work, policy or actions.
First, through your analysis of the work, action or policy under review, you must point out the weaknesses, strength if there's any and the suggestions or the ways you think it would have been done better. No vulgar language, no name calling, no personality attack and the likes.
After the satisfaction of the answer to Mr "Anti Party" question, Anti Party added his voice by saying: In addition a good analyst hammer on both merits and demerits of certain concept based on the principles that governed it.
Presenter's Profile:
Isah Bala is from Ihima, Okehi LGA and a graduate of Mass Communication from Kogi State University.
He owns the popular blog "Confluence Reporter" and currently serving his father land in Abuja.
Thank you.
ORAF ADMIN
DATE: 28th July, 2019
It's an honour to discuss a broad topic, "Youth Participation in Governance and the Ripple Effect" on this platform.
Isah Bala
First, there's need to understand the key words in the topic.
-Youth
-Participation
-Governance
-Ripple Effect
1. Youth: United Nations defines
YOUTH as a "period of
transition from the dependence of childhood to adulthood’s independence." The Nigerian national youth policy (2009), however, defines youth as Nigerians between 18-35 years of age.
2. Participation : Wikipedia defines participation as
the action of taking part in something. This means youth can participate in governance by actively involve in the processes and taking part in the running of the government.
3. Governance: The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in its 1997 policy paper, defined governance as “the exercise of economic, political and administrative authority to manage a country's affairs at all level"
4. Ripple Effect: Cambridge English Dictionary defines ripple effect as, "situation in which one event produces effects which spread and produce further effects".
With the foregoing, "Youth Participation in Governance and the Ripple Effect", can therefore be defined as the long term advantages of young people's involvement in the running of the government of their society, states, and countries.
Global innovation and advancement in knowledge has prompted the capacity of Nigerian Youths. However, their ability to utilize these potential and asset effectively to drive national change and development depend on the leadership opportunities available to them in leadership positions.
According to an independent research by the British Council, by 2030; “Youth not oil, will be Nigeria’s greatest asset”.
The belief that Youth are leaders of tomorrow has reduced Youths, a very important social category and a demographic majority to political minority. This needs to be corrected and changed to enable the Nigerian Youth scale the wall of exclusion in leadership and governance.
According to a paper presented by H.E Dr. Aisha L. Abdullahi, the AU Commissioner for Political Affairs in 2017 AU submit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, "Africa is regarded as the most youthful Continent In the world, with 65% of our one (1) billion people
below the age of 35 years."
Similarly, the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, projected the number of youth in Africa to increase by 42% by 2030 and the current levels are likely to double by 2055.
The African Union, recognized the relevance of young people as a critical cornerstone for the realisation of the Union’s vision of “an integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, driven by its own citizens and playing a dynamic role in the international arena” which gave birth to the AU young people’s rights, including their right to participate in governance, democratic processes and decision which eventually led to the agitation of youth participation in Nigeria and led to the not too young to run bill accented by president Muhammadu Buhari.
Currently, Nigeria has an estimated population of 68 million Youths. This is twice the population of Ghana; more than the population of South Africa and bigger than the population of the United Kingdom.
If the Nigerian Youth population were to be a nation, it would be the fourth largest country in Africa and 19th in the world would have been be a major country by numerical strength.
This has further proven that this important age group that constitute a major block of Nigeria's population cannot be ignored in the decision making, the running of the country neither can it be ignored as a major player in the development of the country.
Unarguably, Nigeria is in dire need of a vibrant, and visionary leader equipped with the current world innovations to fix the country and get along with the innovative and technological world which the youth need to champion.
The demographic group known as youth are vibrant, young, strong and can withstand any heat in the quest to get anything done.
History, has proven that the most outstanding rulers of Nigeria are people who were in their youthful age at the time they ruled the
country.
Former Head of State, Yakubu Gowon was 31 years as at the time he took over power as the youngest head of state ever on August 1, 1966, before his 32nd birthday on October 19th.
General Murtala Muhammed who was also adjudged to be one of the best Nigerian Heads of State was 37 years old as at the time he stepped into office on July 29, 1975.
Without prejudice, these people are still adjudged to be the best that ever ruled Nigeria.
IMPORTANCE OF YOUTH PARTICIPATION IN GOVERNANCE
1. The development of youth leadership is critical to building civic capacity and long-term community sustainability.
2. It will reawaken the consciousness of the youth on capacity building to know they are not only good at thuggery and praise singing and promotes positive outcomes amongst youth.
3. Developmental strategies will be adopted inline with the current innovative ways of doing things.
4. It teaches the skills of active citizenship such as understanding how decisions are made and how to organize, plan, and communicate.
5. Our civil society will be strengthened when youth become informed and thoughtful citizens. Young people with skills, knowledge, commitment, and experience can reflect upon the common good, become full members of their communities, and take political action.
6.Youth are known for championing developmental strategies and plans across the world which will lead Nigeria to be amongst the developed countries of the world with enabling environment to function.
All these cannot happen unless some variables are in place, Which will lead us to:
Factors That Will Promote Youth Participation In Governance
1. Reorientation of the youth about governance - For youth participation in governance to be felt in a positive way, there is need to embark on campaign, public lectures, symposium and the likes to change the mindset of Nigerian youths about governance.
Over the years, because of the high level of corruption at every stage of our lives, public office has been misconstrued to be an avenue of enriching oneself and one's family rather than a means to develop the country.
2. Economic Independence - Economic independence is the control of the wealth of a nation by a majority of its citizens.
Economic independence can be achieved by creating enabling environment for business to grow, job opportunities and the likes. This will enable youth to be financial independent and will be able to sponsor themselves for any elective position they want to contest.
As interesting as the Not Too Young to Run may seems, without economic independence, it's just a mirage whose impact will never be felt.
3. Independent Candidacy - For youth participation in governance to be achievable, independent candidacy needs to be introduced, where an intending youth can run as an independent candidate without going through the hurdles of god-gatherism, political parties primary and the millions of naira spent to get party's ticket.
4. E-voting: e-voting is another factor that can guarantee youth participation in governance.
Through e-voting, the youth who intends to run for an elective position wouldn't be worried about the money he will use to buy vote at the polling booth neither will he/she be worried about the money to give to INEC officials to ring election in his/her favour.
In Conclusion
With these and many others, if we can achieve it, any youth elected into elective positions will only be concerned about how to deliver his/her campaign promises and the aforementioned importance of youth participation in governance and its ripple effect will be achieved.
I strongly believe with enabling environment, Nigerian youth can champion the revolutionary change we so desired in development just like the likes of Nnamdi Azikiwe, Tafawa Balewa, Sir Ahmadu Bello, Obafemi Awolowo amongst others did during nationalism with Nigeria Youth Movement.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Mr Mark Ogogu asked:
How do youth participation in politics can be strengthened and pave way for them to hold a sensitive position at the federal level especially now that money hold major role in our politics?
Answer: Economic independence where youth will be financially independent is a key factor.
Others include, Independent Candidacy where the issue of god-fatherism will be overcome and e-voting which will end the era of vote buying and vote selling.
Mr Lawal Amba: How can we have more youth participation in real politics devoid of greed, violence and sentiment?
Answer: It will still bounce back to the fact that there's need for reorientation to change the people's mindset about governance, for them to know governance is not an avenue to enrich oneself rather a service to the country, and with e-voting, the era of political violence, intimidation and snatching of ballot boxes will be over.
Nigeria just need to live to her expectations as the giant of Africa and follow the innovative ways of doing things.
Mr Fortune: You've listed some great leaders who did so well in their youthful day. Comparing these few numbers to those that have done so bad or should I say greatly bad in this era, do you think there will be so much differences judging from the antecedents of these youths in Nigerian democracy?
Answer: I strongly believe the poor performance of youth in governance we've witnessed in the last few years is as a result of our current beliefs about public office. The truth is that, the leaders of the people are from the people not space and the people's belief will surely show in them.
The former youth leaders we had were able to perform so well because the people generally then believed in the development of the country as a primary objective, currently the people's concern is how to loot at the expense of the masses. That's why people that are even criticising the bad leaders may be the worst if our orientation is not changed.
Mr "Anti Party": On this platform there were series of arguments based on politics, as a layman can you please clear the air on the meaning of abused and constructive criticism?
Answer: From my study, one can criticise any work of art, government policies or individual actions constructively with the view to correcting such work, policy or actions.
First, through your analysis of the work, action or policy under review, you must point out the weaknesses, strength if there's any and the suggestions or the ways you think it would have been done better. No vulgar language, no name calling, no personality attack and the likes.
After the satisfaction of the answer to Mr "Anti Party" question, Anti Party added his voice by saying: In addition a good analyst hammer on both merits and demerits of certain concept based on the principles that governed it.
Presenter's Profile:
Isah Bala is from Ihima, Okehi LGA and a graduate of Mass Communication from Kogi State University.
He owns the popular blog "Confluence Reporter" and currently serving his father land in Abuja.
Thank you.
ORAF ADMIN
Wow.... I've always known you to have something good to offer... Nice piece brother, only that missed the live chat presentation...
ReplyDelete