A former aspirant for the post of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) national Youth leader and Initiator/National Coordinator of Youth-Rural Empowerment and Advocacy Project (YouthREAP), Hon. Solomon Bamola Gowin,? in this interview with John Oba, argues that issues concerning the wellbeing of Nigerian Youths were properly articulated by the founding fathers of the party from inception. He, however, expressed worry that government's response towards the implementation of the vision of the founding fathers have not been of commensurate commitment. Excerpt:
What exactly motivated you to establish the Youth-Rural Empowerment Advocacy Project (Youth-REAP)?
Well, you will agree with me that in recent times, most especially in the last one decade, youth issues have been at the front burner of global attention and actions. Developed nations realised the very important and critical role of youth in sustaining the aspirations of their nations and so have taken the bold steps to create appropriate super structures for the development and empowerment of their teeming youth population.
Many developing nations with large youth populations, including Nigeria, are yet to properly key into the global reality of institutionalising all efforts to address youth concerns at all levels of the society. It is unfortunate that deficit based approach of dealing with the youths is still being applied by our so called development experts and government advisers instead of dealing with our youth population as viable resource that must be effectively tapped, developed and invested in for national development.
As a member of the ruling party, I am very much aware of the fact that our party places serious emphasis on youth empowerment and this only requires concerted efforts to ensure that appropriate strategies, plans and approaches that will effectively boost our capacity to deliver empowerment programmes are put in proper perspective. I am also aware of the fact that, these approaches require serious minded, highly experienced and seasoned youth development professionals with enormous political will who also possess the capacity to mobilise the youth, public and private sector goodwill and effectively drive youth empowerment programmes into all the nooks and crannies of our society. This is in agreement with the fact that no matter the quality of strategies and approaches adopted, it must be driven with both political and administrative vigour and this is the key priority of my YouthREAP vision.
My intention, therefore, is to bring my wealth of experience and commitment in this regard to support the vision of the new party leadership under Alhaji Bamanga Tukur and Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola for the development and empowerment of our youths through appropriate supports to the efforts of the states and federal government. I must confess that as a politician and initiator and coordinator of Rural Empowerment and Advocacy Project, (YouthREAP), I have come in close contact with the challenges facing the youth, most especially when it comes to getting the right support and atmosphere to actualise their potentials. In most places I have visited, the story is the same and it is just unfortunate that the problems are also the same in the sense that the opportunities do not, in most times, get to the right youth audience. This is where most government intentions also get it wrong. And this is as a result of the fact that the peculiarities of most of our rural and urban settings are not, in most cases, similar and so applying same strategies and implementation channels to different youths settings and concerns may not yield the right results, just as we are presently experiencing in the slow pace of addressing youth needs and general concerns.
As a result of this situation, most young persons are left with option of attempting to forcefully create opportunities and goals for themselves. This, in many cases, results in the youth adopting approaches that are not in tune with acceptable standards of living and societal norms. This creates negative tendencies on the part of the youth with negative impact on the society in general. Therefore, supporting youths to gain access to empowerment has been my passion and this has motivated my zeal to contribute to the empowerment of young persons and this is my motivation for the establishment of the YouthREAP.
As one of the foremost youth leaders and former aspirant for the post of the National Youth leader of the ruling party, PDP, can you do a brief assessment of your party’s efforts towards addressing youth concerns in the last 13 years?
Everywhere in the world, the beauty of democracy is the opportunity to express oneself; opportunity to vote and to be voted for. The real essence of Democracy is service at any level of governance. And so, it is heartwarming for one to summon the courage to aspire to serve. As a loyal member of PDP and former aspirant for the post of PDP National youth leader, I have come to realise the fact that issues concerning the wellbeing of Nigerian Youths have been properly articulated by the founding leaders of our great party from inception but government response towards the implementation of the founding fathers vision has not been done with right commitment. Our party places emphasis on matters affecting the youth and this is the reason why the PDP led government since the inception of the Democratic Government instituted and consolidated various steps to address youth concerns, most especially as it affects their physical, emotional, cognitive, and psychological wellbeing.
The creation of the Federal Ministry of Youth development; the laudable designing and subsequent implementation of a workable National Youth policy with special focus on youth employment and engagement; deliberate efforts to involve youths in governance and in decision making process; efforts to resolve the leadership crisis in the National Youth Council of Nigeria are some of the deliberate steps taking by the PDP government to address Youth concerns in Nigeria and I think this is quite commendable. It, therefore, points to the fact that government is moving away from the deficits based approach of dealing with the youth and is creating the enabling environment to institutionalise youth matters with all the key stakeholders including the youths themselves taking their rightful place. The newly instituted Youth Enterprise With Innovation in Nigeria (YOUWIN) of the present administration has created more opportunities for highly creative youths to get start-up grants to establish businesses that will further create and generate more employment opportunities for other less privileged young persons. Do not also forget that agencies like SMEDAN, NERFUND, NDE, NAPEP also target economically viable youth population and have also been properly positioned to serve the youth more productively even though there are always room for improvement as we progress as a democratic nation.
I share the opinion that we need to place more emphasis on developing more result oriented strategies to deal with the issue of quality education at all levels with a view to embedding enterprise education as key component for boosting capacities of young school leavers view to addressing rising rate of unemployment and to impact positive civil and citizenship orientation on them. We must also note that government alone cannot do everything; other stakeholders like the private sector, NGOs, business community, religious organisations etc all have critical role to play in the development of the Nigerian youth to a desired standard of behavior and empowerment. I must commend the efforts of the PDP- led government under the leadership of President Goodluck Jonathan for the commitment exhibited in addressing challenges facing the youths of this great country as seen in some of the recently launched programmes. It is on this premise that I also wish to ensure that the YouthREAP project key effectively into government thinking with a view to ensuring that the overall objective of instituting efforts to address youth needs is fully realised within the framework of effectively collaboration among the key stakeholders.
How would your YouthREAP project complement both the PDP vision for youth and the government efforts towards addressing the challenges of youth empowerment in the rural and urban areas??
My vision for YouthREAP is to implement and effectively run enterprise development programmes in all the states and at the local levels with a view to complementing government efforts to make the right impact. The challenge facing most youths in the rural areas is lack of access to opportunities and information, YouthREAP will therefore strive to ensure that these groups of persons at the local levels is carried along to benefit from government plans and actions in this regard. A vital aspect of this project is to also promote states and local initiatives for the empowerment of youths and to ensure that no community is left out. In other words, YouthREAP will partner with governments at all levels to serve as a vehicle through which programmes can reach the desired target of youths, most especially the vulnerable ones in the rural areas. YouthREAP has, therefore, made the local level the target area, knowing fully well that government initiatives have favoured more of urban youths than the rural youths and this is the reason for rural – urban migration thereby leading to more pressure on the urban community and creating more severe security challenges associated with such drift. The overall negative impact is the abandonment of the rural potential from being tapped for rapid socio-economic development of the communities.?
It is my goal and commitment to ensure that through the YouthREAP project, empowerment programmes of the Youth, Education, ICT Ministry, Commerce and Investment, Housing, Environment, Health Ministries, and agencies like SMEDAN, NAPEP, MDG, NDE and International Donor agencies etc will be promoted and effectively propagated at the rural community level. An important aspect of the project is the partnership with some private sector organisations, micro finance banks, and NGOs in the areas of capacity building in terms of skills and competences, development in different areas of human endeavors depending on the community’s comparative advantage in terms of resource availability.?
The Boko Haram issue has been blamed on several factors, how do you think the Federal Government can properly address the problem????
From my personal understanding, the issue of the Boko Haram is political and it is purely a symptom of defective youth development programmes and strategies on the part of government and all its relevant agencies whose mandate tilt towards empowering the youth and making them independent and self reliant. It is political in the sense that some of our politicians who see youth as tools that can be used to forcefully attain their selfish motives empower and misguide the action of the youth most especially when pursuing a political interest. In this circumstance, many young persons’ vulnerability have been exploited and so they ended up been recruited to carry out acts that are inimical to the aspirations of the society. These persons only see the youth as tools to cause problems and to constitute societal nuisance for destructive purpose instead of investing their energies in productive means that will equally have value to the entire society.
It is in this that I do not share the views that traditional, religious and some prominent Nigerian leaders are deliberate sponsors or have detailed knowledge of the activities of the Boko Haram because of its complexities. This is not to undermine the fact that anybody can be culprit or suspect. Our leaders at all levels are responsible and would not be willing to do anything that will truncate the peace of the land or disintegrate the nation at this time. I salute the courage of all our security organizations. I also welcome the move by the traditional rulers/leaders, and other well-meaning Nigerians to encourage the Boko Haram sect members to embrace peace and dialogue as a way of wresting the nation from the claws of unwarranted destructions and loss of lives of innocent citizens.
At this point, one should note that young persons mostly occupy the political space and so its mismanagement is all about youths been recruited to play roles inimical to their future through wrong doctrines and unlawful activities aimed at impacting some political relevance on some persons or to pursue other selfish socio-political and economic gain. It is unfortunate that whenever it becomes difficult for youths to annex opportunities, it becomes very imperative for them to use any available means to create these goals for themselves and when this happens, it is obviously destructive just as we are currently experiencing with the Boko Haram. The sect and its activities, in the real sense are a reflection of youth problem because no old man is physically involved in throwing bombs. The fact that it requires lots of intelligence and innovative thinking calls for more concern in the sense that creativity of the youths is been deployed in the wrong direction. We should also note that it could never be in the character of the members of the Boko Haram sect themselves to throw their nation into confusion, if not that their rights have been infringed upon and some selfish persons who may have fallen out of political grace have mismanaged them somewhere along the line.
This is unfortunate and it is because appropriate investment has not been made in the direction of empowering the youth and guaranteeing their physical, psychological, emotional, mental development and general wellbeing and this is the reason why they are easily mobilised for destructive purpose.
It is not suppose to be a problem that the youth constitute the larger portion of our society. The fact that our youths constitute the bulk of the voters and actively participate in the administrative process of electioneering activities does not in any way make them available tools for fulfilling selfish motives. It is really unfortunate that some persons have seen violence as part of politics and so the engagement of youths in this regard by these unpatriotic politicians who can do anything to hold onto power at all cost is just unacceptable and unfair. Whereas, it is supposed to be the responsibility of these leaders to bequeath into the future a nation that is viable and productive, which can only be achieved if the resourcefulness of the youth is tapped, developed and invested for the benefit of the larger society.
To achieve this, governance must set its priority right to provide appropriate social, political and economic infrastructure, which will support the overall development of the youth into responsible future political and economic leaders, taxpayers, parents and responsible citizens of the country. This is where the deficits of governance in the design and implementation of effective youth empowerment programming comes in.? The summary of this is that every government at all levels must key into efforts of the federal government and create appropriate impact for the penetration of the programmes to the grass roots where much of the idle but energetic young persons are located.
The youths too must see themselves as the future of the nation and must avail themselves of all the opportunities provided by government at all levels to their advantage. The implications of this is that to tackle the Boko Haram problem, every facet of the society- government, local communities, individuals, private sector, civil society organisations etc must be alive to its responsibilities and ensure that investment in the youths is accorded high priority in their agenda. It is only when this is done that we can be confident that the orientation of the youth can change for the better within a short while and we can be at peace with ourselves once again.
It is the belief of the project that sustainable future of our nation must be secured and must be protected and guided jealously through appropriate behaviors and proper investment of their time, energy and resourcefulness of the youth for the overall development of the nation in line with the vision 202020.? To achieve this objective of impacting a new national orientation in the youths, YouthREAP has concluded plans to launch a national awareness programme tagged, “Youth-Campaign for Advancement of Nigeria” (YOUTH-CAN) to directly relate to the critical role expected of youth to achieve peace, stability and move the nation forward socially, politically and economically. The campaign has been slated to penetrate all the tertiary institutions, religious organisations, secondary schools etc and this is with a view to building a vanguard of loyal and abiding youth citizens who would be willing and able to stand for the nation at all times.
What is the focus of YouthREAP project?
Going by the comprehensive nature of project YouthREAP, efforts are in place to convince the leadership of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), government institutions, private sector and other critical stakeholders to support this lofty initiative. The project, as the name suggests, is Youth-Rural Empowerment Advocacy Project. Therefore, it is an important step towards propagating the need to look after the wellbeing of the youths just as it will tap into the Transformation Agenda of the present administration which places special emphasis on youth empowerment. The project also places attention on integrating the objectives and goals of the project to effectively partner with all states’ chapters of the National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN) the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) and other voluntary youth organisations (VYOs) at the rural settings. It will also collaborate with Federal ministries, most especially the federal Ministry of Youth Development and agencies that are very critical to the development and empowerment of the Nigerian Youth e.g. NYSC, SMEDAN, NAPEP, NERFUND, NDE, NIPC, NOA and the MEDIA in particular etc.