NIGERIA, Africa’s most populous country, has one of the highest youth populations in the world. Although the United Nations defines youth as people between ages 15 and 24, the Nigeria Youth Population Policy defines youth as people between 15 and 35. Using this admittedly broader definition, then, based on its estimated current population of 237 million people, a whopping 164 million individuals, or approximately 70 per cent of its population, count as young people.
Like other demographics, Nigerian youth typically face existential challenges, including widespread poverty and unemployment, which was described by no less a person than the then Governor of Ondo State, Dr Olusegun Mimiko, as a threat to Nigeria’s sovereignty.
However, while Nigeria’s young people still face challenges, including those thrown up by government policy, there seems to be a broad consensus among analysts that the dynamics is changing, particularly given the youth-focused and youth-led policies of the Bola Tinubu administration that aim to harvest the latent talents of Nigerian youth and turn them to the drivers of Nigeria’s glorious dawn. In this regard, the visionary programmes and policies of Nigeria’s dynamic and visionary Minister of Youth Development, Ayodele Olawande, in the last 12 months call for a reappraisal.
The hallmarks of a visionary leader, that is, a leader who typically inspires, motivates, and guides others towards a shared vision, including strategic thinking, innovative problem-solving that encourages creativity, innovation, and experimentation to overcome obstacles and achieve the vision, effective communication, collaborative and inclusive outlook that fosters diversity, adaptability and resilience, strong emotional intelligence, courage and decisiveness, passionate and authenticity and, most importantly, integrity and accountability, are inherent in the personality and programmes of the Youth Minister who has sought to demonstrate unwavering integrity, accountability, and transparency in the discharge of his duties as one of the shining lights of the Tinubu administration.
Right from the get-go, Olawande has taken steady steps to make a difference in the lives of Nigerian youth. He has empowered youth by invest in education and skills development, promoting youth participation in decision-making, addressing social and economic challenges, tackling unemployment and poverty through the development of initiatives that create job opportunities, providing financial support, and promote economic empowerment among young people, and implementing programmess that promote physical and mental health.
He has also fostered partnerships with civil society organizations, collaborating with NGOs, community groups, and other stakeholders to leverage resources and expertise while developing partnerships with businesses to create job opportunities; provide training, and supporting entrepreneurship among young people. While supporting youth-led projects and initiatives, he has sought to recognise and celebrate the achievements and contributions of young people to promote a positive narrative about youth in the country. As the Bard of Avon, William Shakespeare, would put it, the minister has “borne himself beyond the promise of his age, doing in the figure of a lamb the feats of a lion. He hath indeed better bettered expectations.”
At the official launch of the Fidelity SME Hub in Lagos, the minister recently charged private sector stakeholders to collaborate with government entities to deliver enduring impacts. He highlighted the numerous initiatives of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, including the Nigerian Youth Investment Fund, Nigerian Youth Academy, and the Youth Bank project, noting that SMEs are the backbone of any nation’s economy, contributing significantly to job creation and economic growth. As he argued, quite rightly, projects like the Fidelity SME Hub are a testament to the critical role private sector partnerships play in driving youth empowerment, SME growth, and national development. First appointed as Minister of State, the minister undertook engagement visits to states across the country in order to facilitate youth engagement sessions that provided input into the plans and programmes of the ministry, an engagement tour that helped him to connect with the youth and facilitate targeted responses to their demands.
In Delta and Cross Rivers states, Olawande saw to the training meant to deliver 1,000 digital jobs to the youth in response to specific requests. He visited the Maimalari Barracks in Borno in a solidarity visit to young soldiers injured at the war front and was also at the IDP camps to facilitate the distribution of learning materials to young people.
Celebrated for the Corpreneur Support Scheme that offered funding support to corps members trained in the SAED programme of the NYSC, he also launched the Young & Secure Scheme aimed at addressing profiling and harassment of youth by security agencies, in partnership with the office of Minister of State for Police Affairs, and created the Nigerian Youth Academy (NiYA), an e-learning platform for Nigerian Youth to learn vocational and digital skills for free, bridging the skill gap and providing employers with a pool of trained youths to draw from, with over 80,000 youths immediately already signed up on the platform ahead of the formal launch by President Bola Tinubu; as well as the Grassroot Youth Entrepreneurship Support Scheme (G-Yess), which offers moderate support to young people in local communities who engage in small but impactful businesses that serve as sources of income and means of sustenance for them and their families.
The Youth Help Desk, an independent platform that receives reports on issues of youth harassment, and the Greenhouse Initiative, a grassroots job and support centre where any young person at that level can go to receive support and information across Nigeria’s 774 LGAs, complemented his efforts to turn the affairs of the youth around. As substantive youth minister, Olawande has received accolades for spearheading partnerships with the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) to launch DL4ALL program to train 30 million in digital literacy. He has partnered with the Presidential Initiative on CNG to deliver CNG-Powered Tricycle to 2,000 informal youth in the transportation sector, and with the National Data Protection Commission (NDPC) to train and deliver 5,000 jobs to youth in the data protection and privacy sector. He has also spearheaded a National Youth Conference to foster dialogue and engagement with the government, and to create a platform for youth nationwide to deliberate and proffer solutions to specific youth issues and challenges, which led to a scheduled youth confab, and initiated a Youth Internship Programme to enhance experience gathering and improve job readiness for graduates undergoing the national service scheme. In addition, he has launched the Youth Economic Intervention and De-Radicalization Programme (YEIDEP) to empower young people through agriculture. The programme targets 6 million beneficiaries.
The Ondo-born, Federal Polytechnic, Ado-Ekiti graduate who studied civil engineering at the Federal University of Technology Akure and then proceeded to the University of Maiduguri, Borno State, to study International Journalism has been passionate about elevating the fortunes of Nigerian youth. He is a member of the Commonwealth Society of Nigeria and was recently awarded a PhD (honoris causa) in leadership and development by Eminence University, Denver Colorado, (EUDC), USA. He previously served in the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari where he served as the Personal Assistant to the Special Adviser Innovation to the Vice President from 2019 to 2023.
As noted by Sunusi Musa, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, writes from Abuja, “while some of the interventions and programmes of the Ministry are still work in progress, the efforts made in the last one year reflect a deep commitment to positioning the Youth Development Ministry to deliver on its mandate in a sustainable manner. Having just been demerged from the previous Ministry of Youth and Sports Development, the Ministry of Youth Development, now standing alone, has used the last one year to clearly get its priorities, deliver quick wins and, above all, redefine the face of the Ministry itself to be in tandem with the aspiration of majority of Nigerian youth who desire closer engagement with government, and a more deliberate involvement in the process of making decisions that have significant impact on their lives as young Nigerians.”
