Mediaage NG News – ABUJA, Nigeria (Friday 31st May, 2024)
The Madiba Foundation on Thursday unveiled its New Nigeria Campaign in Abuja, the country’s capital. The campaign is one of the initiatives under the flagship project, Organising for a New Nigeria (ONN). One of its missions is to ensure that citizens, especially young minds are connected and willing to ensure that the country works.
But, how about the bottlenecks that limit the chances of young Nigerians building sustainable careers for themselves? These were some of the debates or contributions made by panelists detailing varying degrees of struggles faced by many intelligent minds the country has at its disposal.
The system has abused the minds of the youth
Chinenye Uwanaka, the Managing Partner of The Firma Advisory and Co-Founder, Africa Policy Conversations said many young Nigerians are the most traumatised, with the problem of no social welfare at all and high level of poverty a mainstay in the society. These problems she said produce radical behaviours witnessed in communities today and lots of desperation and bad behaviours because “the system has abused the minds of the youth”.
“The causes are bad governance and unfriendly policies that are not favorable to the youth. Another cause is lack of economic power to counter the decisions of the political class. To change the country, we need the economic power to force a listening ear from the politicians, she said.
We have sectors that can propel growth but, they are not inclusive. That’s the reason for lots of joblessness in the society.
“Nations need builders, talent is mobile. If you cannot innovate, you can’t create ideas and where there are no ideas, there will be no growth.
“Nigeria should learn to retain its brains. We must always think of what we can produce for global consumption, we can be the best in the world. There are practical things we need to do and we need to get serious with them”, she stated
Prioritise collective interest over personal goals
Rinsola Abiola, Senior Special Assistant to the President Bola Tinubu on Citizenship and Leadership revealed that for the youth to be politically active, they must be backed by love for the country and a reason to want to serve politically.
“You must have a “why” as to the reason you are going into politics, understand the principles that guide you”, she said.
However, Ms. Rinsola still concurred with Ms. Uwanaka by adding that to achieve this, one must acquire lots of economic power, adding value and using skills to harness the objectives of belonging to a party. “This entails prioritising collective interest over personal goals”, she stated.
We have to advocate for a country that makes commerce work.
Dr. Tobi Oluwatola stated that the most important thing is for Nigeria to become more productive, citing Labour Party’s Peter Obi’s campaign mantra, prior to the 2023 general elections. “It’s a big problem when much is not produced for more than 250 million persons to feed”, he said.
He disclosed further that technology is evolving, changing the world in ways that have not happened in a lifetime and will change the way lots of things are happening globally. He entailed that it means there is a huge opportunity for people to utilise technology and harness their future, regardless of where they are and where they come from.
“Build skills like you are deliberate to go work for tech companies, find solutions to problems. Focus on building skills that are relevant to the global space, not just the Nigerian space.
“The vision of the Madiba Foundation is to ensure Blacks see Africa as a home they can justly be proud of. It’s important to note that we have a duty to fix our continent. The reason it seems businesses are struggling is because the government has refused to get out of the way with high taxes and tariffs. We have to advocate for a country that makes commerce work.