Stakeholders call for stable power supply to tackle youth unemployment

Stakeholders in youths’ mentoring have called for a stable power supply as the first step and foundation to holistically tackle youths’ restiveness and unemployment in the country.

The stakeholders made the call at a virtual Big Idea Podium Conference with the theme: “#EndSARS Protest: Rethinking Nigerian Youth and Government Policies’’, held in Enugu on Tuesday.

They said that stable electricity supply would create huge socio-economic empowerment, saying that most Nigerian youths were intelligent, resourceful and energetic to fend for themselves, given a conducive environment.

The Lead Speaker, Prof. Stella Okunna, a Professor of Mass Communication with Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, noted that the greatest undoing of the youths were lack of opportunities and conducive environment to explore and expand their frontiers.

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According to Okunna, any country without the youthful population has no future.

“Nigerian youths need equal and adequate opportunities and there should be deliberate and inclusive involvement of youths in all ramification of national life and this should start by having a 24-hour uninterrupted power supply,’’ she noted.

The professor, however, advised youths on matured dialogue and reasoning. Okunna urged the youth to shun all forms of violence to press home their legitimate demands.

In his contribution, Mr Ibenaku Onoh, Member representing Enugu North State Constituency in Enugu State, said that Nigerian youths had not asked for much; just a minimal meant to ensure that they could live and fend for themselves and families in the near future.

“The various youths’ intervention programmes are fine with good intentions, but they are not all-inclusive and encompassing.

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“We, as a country, after fixing our electricity; should fashion out sustainable youth policies that can work,’’ he said.

Chief Nonso Okafor, Member representing Nnewi North State Constituency in Anambra, said the foundation of the nation must be built on clear-cut youth empowerment programme.

“We must fix power, fix healthcare and security; then empower the youths and retain them with progressive policies and attitudes,’’ he noted.

The conference was organised by the African Heritage Institution (Afri-Heritage), which is a socio-economic and political research institution based in Enugu.

Vanguard News Nigeria

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