After I retired from public service and realizing money wasn’t going to come in as when I was receiving a monthly salary, I called a meeting with my wife and our 4 children, all in their twenties. I asked them to bring suggestions on how we could improve our precarious standard of living. I had to throw the ball back on their court because they were always asking for what they knew already I was in no position again to grant. I gave a week to hear from them. One week, two weeks, one month went by but nobody offered a single idea. When I asked why, one of them blurted, “Daddy, you’re our father. You’re supposed to know everything.” The truth was I didn’t “know everything” even as father. President Ahmed Tinubu’s plan to convene a 30-day conference of the Nigerian youth took me back to my own failed family mini summit.
The president mentioned the youth conference in his independence day anniversary broadcast October 1. The idea must have been plucked from the fires lit in the October 2020 violent anti SARS protest and stoked four years later in the August 1-10 nationwide hunger demonstrations. Also though not stated, it is to redirect this bountiful raw youth dynamism and energy away from violence to something definitely productive and socially beneficial. Nothing was said about when the summit would take off and the participation modality, suggesting the idea was an afterthought, brought up to stymy the rising wave of youth restlessness. But even that failed because the protests were resumed on October 1. Whether in fear or false bravado, Tinubu left the country soon after he made his TV broadcast.
Still on participation, what number will be the ideal representation of the youth that number over 60% of the nation’s estimated 250 million population? Hard to say. But let me say it should be small enough to manage and to control the drift of discussions so that they don’t end up as, according to Shakespeare, “sound and fury signifying nothing.” Again, 30 days is too long a time frame. Experience shows interest in intellectual exercises of this nature is hard to sustain after the first one week and harder still for 30 days. Reduce the duration to two weeks at most.
It must be said that the president did say how long the summit would last – a good 30 days. And he was quite detailed about its goals. He said in the broadcast that he was “pleased to announce the gathering of a National Youth Conference.” The goal, according to him, is to “address the diverse challenges and opportunities that confront the nation’s young people.” It is expected 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.” Tinubu said he expected the confab to “unite young people nationwide to collaboratively develop solutions to issues such as education, employment, innovation, security and social justice…” The president then gave a commitment to ensuring that “their (the youth’s) aspirations are at the heart of the conference’s deliberations. The government will thoroughly consider and implement the recommendations and outcomes from this forum as we remain resolute in our mission to build a more inclusive, prosperous and united Nigeria.”
Good talk that is expected to galvanize the youth to go into action. But don’t underestimate the power of experience. We have been through many such conferences before and thereafter nothing. Their decisions were studiously packaged and put away in locked file cabinets to gather dust. Already a cynical question is being asked: na today? We’ve been down that path several times before. Some young men and women say they will attend Tinubu’s conference, if invited and if only to collect the stipend that the government will pay. Even so, the government should go ahead with its plan but ensure this time it won’t be business as usual. To arouse the enthusiasm of the youth, the government mustn’t place a bar over what to bring to the table. The president mentioned “issues such as education, employment, innovation, security and social justice.” I hope he was not implying there would be no “no-go areas” that must not be touched. If there are, that surely will kill interest in the conference and render it a wet duck. Let everyone be allowed to raise matters closest to their hearts. If you want Nigerians to drink pap from porcelain or wooden cups or calabashes, put it on the table. It’s the strength of your argument, not the power of your voice, that should have me agree with you.
There is still the small matter of implementation. Small but pregnant with implications. The president promised to “thoroughly consider and implement” the conference’s decisions. I have my doubts if he is to hand over that function to a supra bureaucracy. A lot of money will go in but little, if anything, will come out. Does he mean to say he will personally oversee the implementation? If so, fine. But if he were to ask some government-appointed committee to do the job, I’m afraid, it would be as good as dead. In the whole, a good idea but, as they say, the devil is in the details.
