By: Adeola Oladele
The President General of the World Youth Organisation (WYO), Ambassador Adeniyi Adeyemi, has called for more efforts on part of the Federal Government of Nigeria to redouble efforts on youth empowerment, saying, “Nigerian youth must be empowered for greater self-reliance.”
In a press statement issued by his spokesperson, Mr. Adeola Badru, Amb. Adeyemi noted that Nigeria’s leaders have the responsibility to tap into the large population of the youths and turn them into young entrepreneurs who could also be employers of labour, instead of looking for non-existing jobs.
He stressed that one of the challenges the country had to grapple with was the need to gainfully engage the country’s bulging youth population.
According to the statement, Amb. Adeyemi urged the Federal Government to take heed to the latest estimate from the population census which puts Nigeria’s population at approximately 182 million people, adding that more than half of the population was under 30, while another 40 percent of that were under age 14.
He said there was the need for the Federal Government to develop future oriented technology, training and employment schemes to integrate the younger population who are unemployed.
“We must make these young men and women entrepreneurs who can also be employers of labour instead of looking for non-existing jobs,” the WYO President emphasised.
He added that the future of Nigeria’s economic security rests with how the government prepares today’s youth for the challenges ahead.
