INTRODUCTION
I feel so highly exhilarated and most delightfully honored to stand before this august people to discuss and be a part of the people making history today. As we gather as a people today, to make critical appraisal of where we are coming from, to debate on how we got here and set a new narrative for the development and progress of our people. I have the confidence to say that history would give a positive account of every single individual that have made this epoch making occasion a brilliant success. This is more interesting and very timely because of the innumerable challenges and crisis bedeviling our people in recent times. I remember with nostalgia, the 1st International Conference on Okun Studies held in 2002 under the leadership of Prof. Olu Obafemi now of NIPSS Jos and Prof. Olorunfemi Ojo of the Tenesse Technology University, Cockville, USA. The conference that gave birth to Okun Studies Forum which was designed to hold yearly attempted to promote discussion on the origin, history, economic and infrastructural development of Okun people. I dare say that the challenges that confronted the organizers of that very brilliant idea have finally been surmounted and defeated by this very timely and auspicious occasion. It is therefore true that no regiment of army can stop an idea whose time has come
Okun Development and National Equation
Talking about Okun Youth development and National equation, I must say I feel so very happy that the organizers of this summit have considered the pivotal role and place of the youth in the building of Okun land of our dream. The youth development is one agenda and course I have sworn to give my all to, it is a project that I believe I was created from heaven to come to fulfill, it is an assignment I believe nature has placed on me to promote, that is why I will like to beg and implore us to do our best to join hands together to create a definition and set agenda for Okun youth in the interest of our people.
Discussions on national equation at any fora are always loaded with very many questions as it affects such environment where such issues are raised, hence I will like to appraise the place of Okun youth in national equation from the point of view of a national question. A national question is therefore a term used for a variety of issues related to nationalism. It is seen essentially and especially often in a socialist thought and doctrine. The German question for instance, was a debate especially during the revolution of 1848, over the best way to achieve the unification of Germany when about thirty seven (37) independent German-speaking states existed within the German confederation and there was an agenda of a one state Germany promoted by the Australian empire and its supporters.
The Jewish question is the name given to a wide-range debate in European society pertaining to the appropriate status and treatment of Jews in the global community. The debate was similar to other so-called “national questions” and dealt with the civil, legal, national and political status of Jews as a minority within society, particularly in Europe in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
The polish question is the issue, in international politics of the existence of Poland as an independent state. Raised after the partitions of Poland in the 18th century, it became a question in current and popular in Europe and American diplomacy throughout the 19th and earliest part of the 20th centuries.
I can go on and on to furnish us with history of how developed nations adopted a national question that formed their narratives for national development and emancipation, but for the purpose of the lecture we are discussing today, the place of Okun people and their national equation as a nation in search of rediscovery, development and emancipation.
Who are we and what is our developmental agenda?
Although different account have been given about our origin but for the purpose of this discussion, I will simply say, Okun people are the Yoruba people in the present day Kogi State. To date, addressing the national question in Nigeria has been based on the assumption that the logic behind the demand for its resolution will be based on “reason” hence the expectation that such “reason” will prevail in spite of all conferences that have been held in Nigeria, we have not been able as a nation to answer the national questions, it is rather obvious that every ethic nationality in Nigeria has its own disagreement with the post –colonial nation State, this sharp differences have formed ethno-nationality questions, where every ethnic group have been advancing development on finding fertile ground for their ethnic survival, development and emancipation. Hence, it has become more important as a nation that we embrace this summit at a crucial time like this to define a national development agenda for Okun people. This will assist us to define, fashion out and adopt a national developmental policy as we continue to search for a better lease of life for our people and carve a lasting and mutually agreeable identity for Okun nation.
Okun Youth Development and National equation
Dealing directly to my topic of today, , It is important to know that the Okun nation of today, is populated by almost sixty-five (65%) percent of young people, this means that in defining the feature of Okun people, the place of the youth is one that is most vital and very unavoidable. The economy of Okun people since the post national independence era has gone through fundamental structural changes resulting in shifts which have however not resulted in any significant sustainable economic growth and development to ensure adequate employment opportunity for our youths.
Who Is a Youth?
Over the time, the roles of the youth in national development have been as they continue to play pervasive roles in nation building, although the African culture over the years has placed a serious burden of exactness on the true definition of a youth, but as a young man who has gone to several courts on litigations that surrounds who a youth is, I have had deep research to be able to give a legally agreeable and admissible definition of who a youth is. After a careful study of the United Nations declaration on youth, Africa Union chatter on youth, Nigerian national Youth policy framework and the opinion of major political parties in our country, I can boldly therefore say, the youth by all agreeable definition is the segment of the population from 18 – 40 years who are characteristically active, vibrant, daring and with useful energies.
Okun youth like in every other clime have grossly and erroneously not applied these useful energies into productive activities particularly because of the eroding morals known most especially with Okun people. These recent but obvious characteristics have also made the elders to be very circumspect when dealing with young people which have broken down the chain of generational development. It is upon this background that I wish to make unreserved, needful and very timely apology on behalf of Okun youths particularly to the elders here that have felt disappointed, humiliated, embarrassed, disrespected and insulted by the behavioral tendencies of the young people in Okunland.
Now as a way of going forward, the development of Okun nation must be attributed to vital contribution of the youth. Despite their positive roles in developmental process, they constitute the most critical and volatile segment of the society. The worsening economic situation and eroding morals in Okun land nay Nigeria has threatened the collective psyche of the youth. General unemployment, lack of consistent policy frame work for youth development, general economic hardship among others have thrown the youth into joblessness, agents of social vices and general idleness. As the conditions worsen, the youth at the return to democracy have been used as agents of political thuggery and general misadventure. As a result of this, the youths have become the major agents of social conflicts with diverse and devastating consequences in Okun land today. As the negative and pervasive roles continue to impact on the economy of our people, no serious, decisive and sustainable youth empowerment strategy has worked. The activities of these youth today have consistently imposed serious threats to social security, truncated economic activities and introduced alien criminal tendencies not known to our people such as kidnapping, abduction, killing and rituals.
Problems of unemployment and Okun development
Youth unemployment or lack of empowerment is becoming an increasingly troublesome issue in many parts of Okunland. It is as a matter of fact the most serious social-economic problem confronting Okunland today.
The magnitude of this can be appreciated if accurate survey is carried out to ascertain the level of joblessness, lack of capacity and unemployment of the youth across the various communities in Okunland. Unemployment has emerged as the major problem bedeviling the lives of Okun youth causing frustration, dejection, dependency on family members and politician, this rate of unemployment among Okun youth has created obvious poverty, insecurity and drastically reduced life expectancy rate.
The Okun youth problem is further compounded by recent global financial crisis that has crippled business and prospects of job security. This has caused unprecedented increase in armed robbery, destitution, prostitution, political thuggery and many more. This precarious situation has left the youth in a vicious circle of poverty that daily erodes their self confidence and bright future.
Youth employability and Okun development
Talking about needed skills or capacity building like literacy, oral communication, information technology, entrepreneurship, analytical problem solving and decision making, I can say that our youth are rated very poorly, by all standards, my analysis above reflects poor assessment of Nigerian higher institutions graduates and further buttresses the point that most of our graduates today are increasingly becoming unemployable and or lacking the requisite capacity to be self employed, resultantly, lack of employment or self employment potentials makes crime and political thuggery a more attractive option for most of our youth. This is further explained by the fact that it is common to find some graduates or educated persons still roaming the street, five years after school in search for jobs that are not, thereby lending force to crimes, prostitution and thuggery. This critical skill gaps inhibits the developments of Okunland.
As we search for development, progress, prosperity and security, the analysis above has clearly made it very necessary that youth employment and development should be critically considered and urgently addressed.
Practicable action plan towards youth development
As this summit progresses, it is important that we employ deliberate effort to encourage our youths in various form of engagement that can promote their personal development thereby promoting the socio-economic advancement of Okun land. One of such sectors that can promote this is Agriculture, young people must engage in mechanized agriculture through concerted efforts of the local government leaders, elected representatives and other well meaning people of goodwill. In Nigeria today, there is a general clamor for return to agriculture as a way of creating credible and sustainable alternative to our economic mainstay.
Agriculture survived our forefathers so very well that they were able to make living worthwhile, our lands are still very arable and rich, this summit must come out with a communiqué that will promote action plans for agricultural revolution in Okun land. The Okun Development Association and Okun Development Initiative must take the patriotism that gave birth to this summit to another level of economic development and youth empowerment after this summit. This will help us engage the army of unemployment youth around Okunland in more productive adventure that will ultimately benefit them and also promote the production and economic capacity of Okunland.
Okun people must also encourage our young people to embrace entrepreneurial development and capacity building. Entrepreneurial development has the potential to promote astronomic economic development and youth engagement. We must therefore create opportunities for the young people in this direction. We must mobilize and seek the support of men and women of goodwill to promote and sponsor this project in the interest of Okun nation.
A quick mention of a patriotic Okun son in the name of Chief Benjamin Olowodola must be made; this kindhearted man singlehandedly built a modern youth entrepreneurial development centre along Federal road Safety office in Kabba that now serves as a training centre for young people.
Our well to do patriots must emulate this wonderfully kind gesture across Okun communities for an accelerated youth development agenda.
Another direction the entire world moves towards is the information and communication technology. It has proven to be a sector that has potentials to engage the young people, all over the world. It is rather appalling that an Okun youth engages the tool of ICT to promote the inventors and service providers instead of engaging it to promote themselves and our economy. It is therefore another assignment for the organizers of this summit to mobilize the young people to join other global communities in discovering economic empowerment in ICT. I must also at this juncture appreciate the ingenuity and capacity of one of us Mr. John Tanimola Obaro, the Managing Director of Systemspecs Ltd who is today a global shining light in software and IT development, his REMITA e-transaction platform used by the Federal government of Nigeria for the implementation of the Single Treasury Account, is today an award winning innovation.
Conclusion
Now that God has blessed us with patriotic leaders that put this all important summit together, we must all encourage them to keep the tempo up as we begin to carve a developmental agenda and united narratives for our people towards transformation, development and prosperity. It is import for us to understand that youth development is very important to social, economic, cultural and infrastructural development of Okun land and this can only be achieved through the sacrifice, commitment and support of men and women of goodwill like you seated here today.
I sincerely thank you all for listening,
God bless you all
God bless Okunland.
– Being Paper Presented by Omoluabi Olabode Adeyemi at the 1st Okun Summit Held On Saturday 26th Nov. 2016.
