Youths constitute an important segment of the population of a country, state or community. Infact, available facts reveal that nearly a quarter of the nation’s population is made up of the youths. This is why they are vital to the survival, growth and development of the nation.
At the same time, a government that neglect the youths does so at its peril. It is only a responsible and responsive government that places premium on the welfare of the youths. And because they are indispensable components in nation building, they remain crucial to plans and efforts geared towards national economic development.
In Imo State, what we have are despondent youths who are dissatisfied and disenchanted over Government’s neglect and lack of attention.
Despite the avalanche of graduates who constitute the bulwark of the youths in the State, successive administrations have failed woefully to ensure their welfare. And the effect that has trailed this neglect is the rise in criminal activities whose long term effect has been devastating.
One, it has compelled the citizenry to sleep at night with one eye closed as some jobless youths frustrated at the inability to secure jobs have resorted to crime. Two, other social vices have been on the rise in the State and records indicate that they are perpetrated by unemployed youths. Unemployed youths are the architects of social malaise.
We have heard tales of graduates who resorted to criminal activities simply because they could not make ends meet. In otherwords, there are no jobs for them to keep body and soul together.
I tell those who care to listen that crime can never abate in any given society until there is a visible, solid economic and social roadmap to engage the youths. Available statistics shows that 80% of crime are perpetuated by the youths. And this is more pronounced in a society where there is no serious and concerted effort to engage the youths into meaningful ventures.
In Imo State, despite huge budgetary allocations to Ministries and other relevant government agencies charged with the responsibility of overseeing the welfare of the youths, such allocations have either vanished into thin air or ended up in the pockets of government officials who originated the programme. Such phantom programmes are embellished with bogus names such as youth empowerment programme, skills acquisition for the youths,. Youths For Change Initiative, bla, bla, bla.. In the long run, they end up without success.
Such initiatives are make- believe concept that serve no purpose to the youths. This is worsened with government stereotyped unworkable policies that fail to achieve meaningful gain for the youths. This has been the trend in Imo for a long time.
It is an acceptable truism that most youths in the State are only tools in the hands of politicians, especially those who are seeking for public offices. They are either recruited to rig elections, hired as thugs to snatch ballot boxes for a fee or recruited for a yeoman’s job. What they get in return is being dumped when such politician(s) eventually actualize his or her political ambition. This trend has been on the rise since the advent of democracy in Nigeria, nay Imo State.
It was the Ikedi Ohakim Adminstration that demonstrated a strong will to aid the welfare and development of Imo youths. And it went ahead to signal its resolve to aid the youths by introducing the 10,000 jobs scheme. 70 % of employable Imo youths benefited from the scheme.
That administration backed its resolve by absolving a good number of employable youths into the State workforce. Till this day, some of the beneficiaries of the 10,000 jobs attest that they were gainfully employed through that policy and even received salaries as at when due.
The political misfortune of the Ohakim administration paved way for the entrance of the Rochas Okorocha government which on assumption of office, thought otherwise and sacked the 10,000 jobs benefactors. It described the job scheme as a hoax conceived by Ohakim to score cheap political points and overbloat the State workforce.
I remember several government officials in the Okorocha administration who consistently insisted that there were no 10,000 jobs for the youths in Imo. The resultant ding- dong affair that has trailed that singular action has landed both the present Imo State government and the benefactors of the 10,000 jobs scheme in the Industrial Court, Enugu where legal fireworks are being exchanged to ascertain the originality or otherwise of the Scheme.
While the outcome of the legal dispute intensifies, we have seen lately more of political jabs from the present government and the previous administration on the 10,000 jobs issue. While the matter lingers on, Governor Okorocha, in exhibition of his usual political stunts invited youths of the State to Heros Square, Owerri where he announced far reaching measures to engage them into meaningful ventures.
According to media reports, he announced a N1.5 billion naria loan scheme and urged Imo youths to focus their minds not only on white collar jobs but on non white collar jobs.
While this measure can be described as a good intention, and a signal that strengthens the Rescue mission’s administration desire to engage the youths, such policy can only serve as a temporary stop gap plan that cannot in anyway assuage the trauma of vast majority of disillusioned Imo Youths. Such measure is not holistic. It is more or less a plan that cannot holistically engage the youths to be self reliant and become strategic partners in the quest to advance the cause of development of the State.
A situation where a graduate is compelled to go into subsistence farming is like a bitter pill for such graduate to swallow. This is the bitter truth and stark reality. A graduate of petrochemical engineering or law cannot make headway in farming or any other non collar white job.
If the present administration in the State is sincerely committed to create jobs for the youths, it has to accommodate all segments of the teeming youth population in the State both in the formal and non formal sectors of the economy.
It has to create job opportunities for graduate and non graduate youths. It is the responsibility of the government to ensure that both potential and non potential endowed youths are engaged in critical sectors of the economy that will enable them unleash their latent potentials for the overall good of the State.
This can be achieved through a grand plan or design to attract investors to build factories and industries across the State. Such investments have the capacity to absolve both graduates and non graduates youths. If the Imo palm plantation that has been resuscitated recently can absolve a good number of Imo youths, imagine the number of youths that will be gainfully employed if there are two or three factories or manufacturing industries in the State?
Also attention should be focused on encouraging the growth and development of the private sector in Imo. Imo is more or less a public sector driven economy and such an economy cannot gainfully give decent employment to thousands of youths in the State.
This administration should note that harnessing human potentials has to do with careful planning and assessment. It is a defeatist if the rescue Government insists that all graduate youths should forgo what they were thought in higher institutions and resort to subsistence farming all in the name of job creation.
Further, the absence of a micro economy in Imo State further undermines efforts to get the youths of the State into meaningful source of living. There are no concerted efforts to boost Small And Medium Enterprises (SMES). If I were our dear governor, a huge chunk of the N1.5 billion naria loan earmarked for jobless Imo youths should be invested in boosting SMEs which mainly non graduate youths can be encouraged to take advantage of. This will create massive job opportunities.
This is one of the factors I enumerated in my piece titled “Rescue Mission And Neglect For Human Development” published on this page last month. In that write- up, I said there is little or no effort to boost human capacity development in the State. And I pointed out that it is wrong economic theory if excessive attention is given to provision of physical infrastructure to the detriment of human development.
This has been the bane of this administration. Little or no attention has been given to human development. And the biggest casualty of this anomaly are the youths of the State who have continuously cried out that there are no jobs to ameliorate their suffering and ordeal.
This sad trend can be reversed within the next two years. It only calls for tact and careful economic planning. I rest my case.
