The United Nations Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth, Ms Jayathma Wickramanayake, has stated that young people are an asset rather than a problem.
She stated this while presenting the report on the findings of the independent progress study on “Youth, Peace and Security” to the Security Council.
Recall that President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria had while delivering a keynote address at the Commonwealth Business Forum in London, last week, disclosed that many Nigerian youth want everything free without doing anything.
Wickramanayake stated that report pointed to two key issues that needed immediate attention.
She said the first was the growing mistrust from young generations towards formal political institutions, while the other issue is the exclusion of young people from political, civic and economic life.
The study also showed that only a small minority of youth ever engaged in violence while many were actively engaging in their own local initiatives to bring peace to their communities.
According to the Envoy, “I believe we can all agree that my generation represents promise – not peril.
“We should be seen as an asset, not a problem,’’ she told council members.
The envoy said the report’s findings and recommendations were an opportunity for the council to redress the mistrust between young people, their government and the multilateral system.
This, she said, could be achieved by opening up new paths for meaningful participation and contribution.
Wickramanayake said tapping the potential and creativity of young people was indispensable to prevent conflict and build peace.
She urged governments to create conditions that allow their meaningful participation in civic and political lives.
The envoy underlined three critical areas – supporting youth’s peace efforts; prioritising their political participation; and partnering with them.
“I will not ask you to let young people lead as they are already leading.
Meanwhile, the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) Worldwide has joined gluts of youth in the country to condemn, in strong terms, statement credited to President Muhammadu Buhari, where he had unreservedly described Nigerian youth as Lazy.
In a statement made available to The Tide and signed by the National Spokesman of IYC, Barrister Henry Iyalla, it states: “The National Executive of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) Worldwide watched with rude shock as the Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari spoke with confidence and utter disregard for the diverse and many contributions of the Nigerian youth; as he told potential investors in the Commonwealth Business Forum in London that ‘more than 60% of the population is below the age of 30: a lot of them have not been to school, and they are claiming that Nigeria has been an oil producing country, therefore, they should sit and do nothing and get housing, healthcare and education free’”.
“Our question is, how has this information helped the cause of Nigeria gaining investors? It is amazing that given an opportunity like this to highlight our inherent economic potentials, rather the President choose to put his bad foot forward; this to us connotes that investors should stay away from investing in the Nigerian economy as the youth are only waiting for milk and honey, free health care, housing and education; an act of total misrepresentation.
“What happened to the over 5,000 youth of the thousands that competed and won in the YouWiN connect programme, who are waiting for the Federal Government to fund their brilliant business plans as promised; the many youth waiting for the commencement of the modular refineries; the thousands who walk the streets daily selling; the millions who engage in small scale businesses all over the world; the many upcoming and reigning young celebrities in the entertainment industry; the millions of youth who study and graduate with brilliant degree results and are still job-hunting?
“How has this unguided statement given a tap of encouragement to them?
“It must be stated unequivocally that Nigerian youth will pull their strength together in 2019 to show who the lazy ones are by voting competent, vibrant and intelligent individuals who will represent our interest, true efforts and giant strides around the world.
“We in council are putting modalities in place to ensure no Ijaw vote goes to any incompetent politician because Ijaw youth are not lazy”, the statement added.