The Federal Government of Nigeria on Saturday, fixed February 2025 for the national youth conference.
Recall that President Bola Tinubu, during his Independence Day broadcast, had announced the gathering of a 30-day national youth conference to address critical issues facing the country’s youths, including unemployment, education, and political participation.
His words: “As we work to overcome the challenges of the day, we remain mindful of the next generation as we seek to galvanize their creative energy towards a better future. We lead today with the future we wish to bequeath to our children in focus, recognizing that we cannot design a future that belongs to them without making them its architects.
“Considering this, I am pleased to announce the gathering of a National Youth Conference. This conference will be a platform to address the diverse challenges and opportunities confronting our young people, who constitute more than 60 per cent of our population. It will provoke meaningful dialogue and empower our young people to participate actively in nation-building. By ensuring that their voices are heard in shaping the policies that impact their lives, we are creating a pathway for a brighter tomorrow.”
This is as various youth groups across the country expressed disappointment over the presidency’s silence on the proposed confab.
The planned conference was part of the administration’s response to the youth-led protests, including #EndBadGovernance in August 2024 and the #FearlessOctober in October 2024.
“The conference aims to provoke meaningful dialogue and empower our young people to participate actively in nation-building. By ensuring that their voices are heard in shaping the policies that impact their lives, we are creating a pathway for a brighter tomorrow,” the President said.
The conference was greeted with mixed reactions as some youths welcomed the idea.
But almost three months after Tinubu’s pronouncement, no further announcement has been made as some youth groups expressed frustration.
The groups, including Arewa Youth Consultative Forum, Yoruba Youths Council, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide and the Ijaw National Congress, accused the Tinubu-led government of neglecting its commitment to addressing the challenges confronting Nigerian youths.
The National President of AYCF, Zaid Ayuba, said the delay in organizing the confab was disappointing and showed Tinubu’s lack of interest in youth development.
“We express our profound disappointment with the government’s inability to organise the much-anticipated national youth conference.
“Our disappointment stems from two key points. First, in an ideal society, a statement or directive from the president should automatically translate into executive action, reflecting the government’s commitment to follow through.
“The President’s announcement of such a conference was an opportunity for all Nigerians to witness a decisive mandate to bring it to fruition. However, this failed to materialize at a critical time, which deeply disheartened us.
“Second, as representatives of Nigeria’s largest demographic—the youth—we viewed this conference as a platform to present innovative ideas and solutions for the nation’s progress. It was supposed to be an avenue where the voices of young Nigerians could be amplified. Unfortunately, the conference did not happen, leaving us disappointed and marginalized.
“While we are disheartened by this missed opportunity, we remain hopeful. We call on the president to prioritize organizing this critical National League Conference as the first major event of 2025,” Ayuba said.
On his part, the President of the Yoruba Youths Council, Eric Oluwole, lamented what he called the continued neglect of youths by the Tinubu administration.
“I can say categorically that Nigerian youths are not happy with Tinubu on the delay in organizing the national youth conference as proposed by him. It was our belief that the confab would hold as early as possible but when you look at the whole thing now, it is like they have forgotten about it and the conference might no longer hold.
“We are already planning a meeting of Nigerian youths to remind the Federal Government that we are not going to relent until we achieve our goal, because we believe that the youths are the leaders of tomorrow. We also have the power to decide the country’s political future.
“One of our major demands is youth inclusion in governance because we make up 70 per cent of the country’s population and there is no way the government can sideline youths while making important policy decisions,” Oluwole said.
The spokesperson for Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, Dr. Alex Ogbonnia, said Tinubu’s lack of action on the proposed confab undermined his administration’s credibility and integrity.
Ogbonnia said, “The youth confab is to the advantage of the President and shouldn’t be delayed any further because it will enable the President to know the yearnings of the youth. It is very important for the confab to hold.”
Also speaking, the National Publicity Secretary of Ijaw National Congress, Ezonebi Oyekemeagbegha, warned that Tinubu’s inaction on the confab could lead to disengagement and apathy among the country’s youths.
He urged the presidency to provide updates and a concrete timeline for the conference, insisting that the confab was necessary for addressing the escalating unemployment rate, brain drain, and rising social unrest among young people.
Oyekemeagbegha said, “It is good that whenever our leaders, particularly the President, make a promise; he must make conscious efforts to fulfill it. It is unfortunate that the confab is yet to be held. We expect that the President should have met with the youth, particularly this time when there is a lot of hardship and there is a need for the President to meet with the youth and other stakeholders in resolving some of the challenges confronting the country.”
The Secretary of the Democratic Socialist Movement, Peluola Adewale, described the conference as a “diversionary tactic” by Tinubu to placate youths during the #EndBadGovernance protest.
“It (confab) was a charade ab initio. The Tinubu government was never sincere about it. It was meant to bribe a section of young people at the period of an upswing in the #EndBadGovernance movement. At present, there is a seeming lull in the struggle, though the mass anger is still highly intense.
“So, the government apparently doesn’t see an immediate need for the youth conference at the moment. I think it is instructive to say that given the intensification of anti-poor policies, the growing impoverishment of ordinary people and the associated mass anger, another mass struggle may break out again.
“This is in spite of the vicious attack on democratic rights and repression of dissent by the Tinubu government. No youth conference will prevent it. In any case, the youth conference is a sheer waste of public resources and another avenue for looting of public funds,” Adewale said.
The Federal Government said it plans to begin the month-long conference in February 2025.
Minister of Youth Development, Mr. Ayodele Olawande, said delegates would only converge on the FCT, Abuja, for one week after spending three weeks engaging youths at the grassroots.
“We will do the confab by the first week of February. It is not going to be the usual confab. That is why about three weeks of this confab will be spent with the grassroots,” said Olawande, who added that President Bola Tinubu would inaugurate selected delegates by mid-January.
While providing updates on preparations for the confab on Saturday, the youth minister said the event would not be a time to “talk and spend money.”
“We have changed the idea. The President has given us the go-ahead to come up with something more action-oriented, and after clarifying it with the Chief of Staff and getting his input, we will announce the modalities before the year (2024) ends.
“We will announce the committees. We’ll hit the ground running by mid-January or the last week of January. We will nominate representatives from each ministry and agency to collaborate with the delegates.
“We will announce those people; the President will approve and inaugurate them, and we will do the confab properly by the first week of February. I can assure you that we are going to the grassroots.”
He noted that the 30-day event would allocate two weeks to engagement in federal constituencies, followed by one week in states and local government areas.
The final week will involve a convergence on Abuja, where all findings and progress will be reviewed and discussed to formulate actionable steps.
Reflecting on previous conferences, such as the 2014 confab, he emphasized the need for a fresh and result-oriented approach to avoid repeating mistakes that yielded minimal results.
“This period, we have been looking at what has been done and how we can do things differently and better. That is why we are taking our time because we want results.
“As of now, we are setting up committees and giving them templates. We need to go back to where the challenges are the grassroots. We will not have the same people in various youth organizations who have always been there for a long time and just recruit them for the confab. We don’t think that is the right step this time around.”
In October, Olawande, then Minister of State for Youth Development, had said the Federal Government would set up a task force to implement the recommendations of the youth confab.
He argued that the task force was necessary to help concretize the recommendations into executive orders or bills to be transmitted to the National Assembly.
“We will still ask the President to give us an implementation task force so that when we need to do an executive order, we can put it up immediately. Those (recommendations) that need to go to the National Assembly, we can take it off, and we will start having this as quickly as possible. So, it’s a done deal,” Olawande noted.
He revealed that although the initial brief submitted to the President proposed four days for the dialogue, Tinubu recommended one month instead after listening to their plan to bring youths together for a dialogue.
“We are preparing to roll out things very soon with all stakeholders involved, which the President has consented to,” Olawande stated.
Reacting, the National President of the National Association of Nigerian Students, Lucky Emonefe, urged the Federal Government to expedite action on the planned conference.
He noted that part of the demands NANS would be presenting at the confab was increased youth participation in government, insisting that at least half of all public leadership and decision-making positions must be held by young people.
“We never expected that the conference would take this long. This youth confab and engagement with the youth is very important. We urge the minister of youth to please expedite action. Mr. President should put action to his words to ensure that the conference takes place because it is an opportunity for Nigerian youths to express their mind, their challenges and demands.
“We want a situation whereby like 50 per cent of government position would be occupied by youths so that we can attend to the needs of the youth,” Emonefe said.
The PUNCH
