Securing our future

243Next

19 Feb 2011

Securing our future

NEXT Editorial

One of the “key findings” of the British Council’s August 2010 report on Nigerian youth (“Nigeria – The Next Generation”) is that this country “stands on the threshold of what could be the greatest transformation in its history. By 2030, it will be one of the few countries in the world that has young workers in plentiful supply.

Youth, not oil, will be the country’s most valuable resource in the twenty-first century.” Going by this prediction, surely it’d make sense to make use of the finite, diminishing resource – oil – to empower the emerging one, the youth. Shouldn’t our oil wealth be going towards ensuring that our millions of young persons have access to decent education, healthcare and job opportunities?

What do we have instead: mass failures in national examinations, universities that are closed far longer than they’re open, Africa’s highest infant mortality rate, millions of Almajiri, millions of unemployed – and in many cases, unemployable – persons.