Protocol
Preamble:
Let us kick-start this discourse by thanking Chief Femi Akinmade for inviting me to be part of this important occasion. Without mincing words, I give kudos to him for his vision and his untiring mission for youth development. Empowerment is a key to self reliance- a major panacea for youth unemployment ravaging our society today. The
maxim, “youths are leaders of tomorrow” must have impacted positively on him to spur him to embark on this laudable project, knowing fully well that the future really begins today. He has therefore asked me to speak to the youth on this occasion to challenge and motivate them. Information it is said, is power.

Definition:
Who is a youth? Simply, a youth is defined as a young person. Youth is also a period of life from p u b e r t y { e m e rg e n c e o f d e fi n i t e s e x u a l characteristics} to the attainment of adolescence {full growth}. In terms of age it can be a period broadly speaking from between 12-14 years to 35- 40 years. This can also be defined as a period of one’s PRIME-period of greatest strength, beauty, vigor etc. so, we youths know ourselves! What is development? This is associated with growth. A process associated with the gradualgrowth of human beings, plants and animals.
Among human beings, development might be economic, having to do with production, distribution of goods and services and creation of wealth. It also can be social, relating to issues of health, education, housing and general welfare of the society or community. Of course, we all know that community or society relates to a group of people living together in a region, country or place having shared values, laws organization etc. From the foregoing, I have attempted these definitions with a view to focusing our attention on the topic of our seminar- Role of youth in the
development of the society

Youth and Development:
It is pretty clear that for development to take place, people must be involved in all spheres of endeavors. The youth in particular have a vital role to play in the development of the society. Theyhave special attributes which make them
particularly suitably for the task:
– they are the “foundation” for tomorrow,
– have vast resources in terms of numerical
strength,
– are active –virile in body and mind,
– have time at their disposal and are more exposed.
Flowing from the above it is safe to conclude that
youths are well positioned to be:
– drivers of the economy,
– human resources reservoir for the work force.
– leaders of tomorrow
– hope for the future and,
– catalysts for development
Biblically, youths are epitome of the kingdom of God , they are not to be despised, 1 Tim 4:12 not to be provoked to anger, Col 3:12. Along all these. Seemingly glowing attributes is the basic fact that to whom much is given, much is expected. With all the endowment comes the responsibilities too. The role of the youths is vital in development. From simple economics, there are three major factors of production viz: labor, capital and material. Of these three, the human resource component is very critical and this is where the youths come in. They are the agents of change or in the current parlance, agents of transformation.

Manpower Development:
In all these however, the youths must be well equipped to take up their rightful place in the society and effectively contribute to its development. Again the Bible admonishes “to get equipped while young” Lam 3:27 (NIV)
and also “work while it is day” Jn 9:4 (KSV) and so for the youths, the time is now to lay the foundation for tomorrow which is what I believe this seminar is all about. First, the youths have to be educated; Sound formal education is sine-qua-non for self development. Added to this is the need to acquire vocational and technical skills to be able to take up the challenges of leadership in the nearest future. There are many challenges in this regard, While access to primary and secondary education can be said to be liberal particularly in the south, the same cannot be said for enrolment in tertiary Institutions. The demand has far outstripped the supply in terms of available spaces in spite of what can be said described as the mushrooming of universities and other tertiary institutions. While government,
private bodies and individuals are making great efforts in this regard {provision of tertiary education}, the youth has to focus on getting himself to herself equipped. Added to the formal education in any particular field, there is needed for caution. There are so many courses that are not relevant to our immediate needs and in the desire to get enrolled in the Universities, anything {course} goes. This apart, whatever line of discipline is chosen, there is need more than ever before for entrepreneurial skills to complement ones formal education. This becomes very pertinent in our
current situation in which the opportunity for “white collar job” have dwindled greatly to the extent that the sector no longer has the capacity to absorb the teeming population of youths seeking employment. Focus should now be on being “job creators” rather than being “job seekers”. This, I believe is what entrepreneurship is all about. There
are various opportunities to key into but most importantly, one should know where to source for information; another goal of this seminar.

Intervention on Youth Development:
At the government level, I am aware that efforts are being made to incorporate entrepreneurship study into the education curriculum at all tiers and by now it should even be a policy. For the post school leavers, there are National Open Apprenticeship Scheme of the Federal Government through the National Directorate of Employment and the
Entrepreneurial development programme midwife by the ministry of commerce and industry now operated through the state ministry of employment labor and productivity. There are skill acquisitions centre in every local Government Area. Added to these are also private initiatives by religious bodies, private individuals and non governmental organizations (NGOs} on development of entrepreneurial skills. The Aid agencies are not left out: they partner with NGOs as well as government on youth development with emphasis on entrepreneurship. The focus is on small to medium scale enterprise development which is the pivot of economic development in most third world
countries. On a sad note however, it has been observed that youths have not sufficiently embraced or have refused to key-into some of these programmes. They have to some extent been overtly or covertly instrumental to the “killing” of some of the schemes. For instance here in Ondo, Chief Femi Akinmade has been making conscious efforts at skill acquisition to empower for realistic self actualization.
Instead of embracing the schemes, most youths have shunned them and worse still, some have gone ahead to loot some of the plants and machineries. But for this resilience and conviction, he would have abandoned the programme. There is the Skill Acquisition Centres in every Local Government to cater for the needs of primary and secondary schools leavers but enrolment at these centres has been abysmal low. The in-thing for the unemployed and even artisans is OKADA! How sad?

Information & Communication Technology ICT:
It is no longer news that the world we live in is a global village. The acquisition of ICT knowledge and utilization of its skills have revolutionized learning and business undertaking all over the world. For any youth to take on any leadership role in whichever sector of economy, sound ICT based knowledge is a MUST. The opportunities for ICT
entrepreneurship are enormous and the potentials to be explored and exploited are emerging daily. The focus here should not be on social networking alone {which I know our youth are vast in} but on the larger application in all spheres of endeavor. There are challenges: computer acquisition, power supply and even the know how etc. Things are definitely looking up and wagon is on the move, so join the moving train, you will be glad you did.
Funding:
Granted that formal education and the right skills have been acquired, access to credit can be a great challenge that can hinder contribution to societal development. Here again, the role of government in providing a conducive environment for access credit is important if development is to be encourage and sustained. There are specialized agencies and financial institutions established by government to facilitate access to credit with little or no hassle compared to what obtains in private financial institutions like commercial banks, mortgage houses, financial houses etc. for medium and large scale enterprises, there is the bank of industry in every state of the Federation. For Agribusiness, there is the Nigerian Agricultural cooperative and Rural Development. Bank that offers credit at lower rates for small and medium businesses. There are also specialized agencies of government-micro credit Agency, small and medium enterprise Development Agency of Nigeria SMEDAN, Technological Incubation center of the Federal Ministry of Science Technology among others. All these are areas where information can be accessed.
Fortunately almost every public is now on the web so, one has to take advantage.

Other issues:
As earlier deposed, youth have important role to play in all facets of the economy. I have mainly focused on education and entrepreneurship in line with the objectives of this seminar. What has been said about youth empowerment to enable them face the challenges in areas of commerce and industry in applicable in all other sectors: real sector:- manufacturing and production, social sector-education, health and welfare and public
sector-government at all levels, defense etc.
Development in these sector is the same as that of society which should largely be driven by youths participation. Again, there are challenges in all sectors. There is general dissatisfaction with the scheme of things, lowered societal values, insecurity particularly with the rise of Boko Haram insurgency in the North, assassinations, kidnaping,
cultism, drugs and vaulting ambition leading to various crimes. Youth are not to sit on the fence or fiddle as it were “when Rome is burning”. The mantra, of some youth is “if you cannot beat them, join them”. This is total abdication of youths’ role in the society as agents of changes. Youths should take their rightful place, come in and make a
difference. There are worthy examples to emulate within and outside the shores of the land. Check in on the exploits of the Facebook founder, the late Apple CEO, our own Otedola and Dangote who have made giant strides in Fela Anikulapo Kuti and Professor Wole Soyinka all made their marks as youths!

Conclusion:
I have to reiterate that youths have enormous role in the development of any society. They are well endowed to do this if they get themselves equipped early to take up the challenges. The Nigerian situation and even that of our immediate society have not offered much to cheer but Nigeria is an entity or vast potentials and tremendous
opportunities yearning to be trapped and harnessed for the greatest good of all. There is no other segment of the society that is well placed to cash-in on the situation other than the youths. So, arise, the moment is now to make a change. I thank you for your attention.

Olufemi Awani
July 2012.