In a recent interview I had on Radio Nigeria where I what I would have done differently in the area of Youth Empowerment if I were to find myself in the shoes of the House of Reps Member that I signed his recall petition, I had this to say;
“I really do not believe in Youth Empowerment programs where motorcycles, buses, Keke, grinding Machines and sewing machines are dashed out, nor so-called Capacity Buildings and Skill Acquisition Programs which have become more common amongst Federal and State lawmakers.
At best, I see the giving out of those items as poverty enhancement programs where the poverty of a few youths are postponed by 2 years or less. Akin to Osibanjo’s Tradermoni.
The Capacity Building Conferences are more often than not, an avenue for a few young people to acquire new beautiful polo and face caps and take some pretty pictures, while the skill acquisition programs often end up stressing innocent young people as they hardly get start-up capitals, support or growth friendly environments for the new skills they learnt to thrive.
And I am speaking with the assumption that such materials were actually distributed to the poor, instead of political cronies and party officials/stakeholders which is usually the case 80% of the time.
The problem is that we are approaching Youth Empowerment with the Charity Mindset not with development mindset.
Charity seeks to give to the poor and those facing challenges, to help them to cope in the interim before they finally bounce back to their feets.
What we call Youth Empowerment here is simply giving Charity to those who do not need it.
Even on Charity, Chinua Achebe has this to say, “While we do our good works, let us not forget that the real solution lies in a world in which charity will have become unnecessary”.
This is because real empowerment should be geared towards ensuring that Charity becomes completely unnecessary. It’s in ensuring that no one is hoping on you to give them one thing or the other before they could survive.
And when it comes to Skill Acquisition Programs and Capacity Building Conferences, we can all agree that parents who could send their children to Universities can still afford to train them on any skill if there were jobs or gigs waiting for them after acquiring the skills.
Moreover, it is the duty of parents to train their children in Academics and Skills and till this day, they haven’t failed in that duty.
It is the duty of the government to provide where the trained youths will work, something which they have obviously failed woefully at.
The people in government failed to do their own duty which is providing jobs and crafting economic policies that will allow businesses to scale, so they’re now going through the back channels to struggle for the role of parents and term it Skill Acquisition Programs.
Having established that the things we see, accept and applaud as Youth Empowerment Programs are mere Poverty Enhancement Programs, let me now go down to what I would have done differently.
To effectively empower young people as a Federal Lawmaker, taking Igbo-Etiti/Ụzọ-Ụwani Federal Constituency as a case study, you must first of all, take into account the human a material resources available in the two local government areas.
A quick study would show that these two LGAs are filled with over 20,000 thousand graduates who are living below 2 dollars daily.
The Constituency also has in it’s possession the most hardworking farmers in Zone, if not the entire state, in addition to fertile lands and many water bodies.
The Constituency also shares a direct border with Anambra State and has the Ogurugu river that connects straight to River Niger.
To empower the young people in this Constituency, a House of Representative Member can facilitate the building of an Agro-Allied industries in strategic locations of the Constituency.
This can be done if the hundreds of millions (if not billions) being used to secure to organize and share those motorcycles, Keke, grinding Machines etc and in organizing those capacity building conferences were channeled into lobbying to bring in investors to invest in the project.
How difficult can that be?
It’s not difficult at all and here’s why.
As a 23 year old in 2020, in along with Onyeke Chineme, Ogbuja Ogbu, Okenwa Stephen, Ameh Kelechi and Asogwa Benjamin, operating under Igbo Nsukka United Front, together with our Brother, Emeka Ushi, we were able to bring GEA West Africa to Nsukka, to build a Brewery in Ụzọ-Ụwani.
We had secured 10 hectares of land given to us by prominent men in Ụzọ-Ụwani who promised to give more once the project started.
A loan had 20 Billion Naira was pre-approved for us by a German bank for the project, but we needed about 35 million naira then to pay international consultants that would stand as guarantee for us in case the brewery didn’t meet up with loan repayment. The international consultants were to plant their agents in charge of the Brewery for a period of 10 to 15 years, once they collect the loan back in full, we could then take over the management of the Brewery.
Of course we couldn’t proceed as we didn’t have such money. The remaining we had was spent on Economic Summit in which we appealed fervently to Nsukka sons and daughters, in and out of political positions to help us out. None lifted a helping hand.
Rather, they politicized it and claimed that we worked for the opposition. They politically ostracized anyone who came close to us.
In one of the instances that is still fresh on my memory, the security men sent by the then Local Government Chairman of Nsukka Local Government, Barr. Cosmas Ibezimako, actually point a gun at me and threatened to shoot, for simply trying to access the Nsukka Township Stadium.
Back to the main issue.
A Federal Lawmaker Can effectively facilitate the building of several Agro-Allied Factories in Igbo-Etiti/Ụzọ-Ụwani Federal Constituency.
He has access to bring investors from within and outside the state and also facilitate loans like the one we almost got through GEA WEST AFRICA.
Such factories will effectively employ both graduates and farmers directly and indirectly, just as the brewery aimed to do.
That way, you are not just doing charity for young people and enhancing their poverty in the name of Empowerment. You are giving them a worthy career, a meaningful life and worthy future.
Like Nnamdi Azikiwe expressed in the Motto of his Newspaper, The West African Pilot, SHOW THE LIGHT AND THE PEOPLE WILL FIND THEIR WAY.
What I would have done differently, will be to show the light by channelling resources into ventures that are capable of GAINFULLY Employing thousands of young graduates DIRECTLY, while indirectly employing thousands of farmers and other industry-allied service providers and spiking economic activities within the Zone.
Leadership is NOT Rocket Science.
It’s that simple.
Ugwuagbo Emmanuel Chizoba is a Journalist based in Enugu.