Across political discourse in Nigeria, the adage remains as persistent as ever: “Youths are the leaders of tomorrow.” Yet in Kogi State—particularly across the Okun nation—a troubling, intentional paradigm has emerged. Rather than serving as a training ground for public stewardship, youth engagement in governance has been reduced to a transaction of economic survival.
What appears on the surface as political inclusion is, in reality, a systemic mechanism that trades genuine leadership development for digital warfare: the “datafication” of Okun youths.
Political appointments for young individuals should, in principle, be laudable. When executed with intent, they expose emergent leaders to the inner workings of governance, policy formulation, and administrative mechanics, building a pipeline of experienced public servants.
However, the current reality in Kogi State presents a stark departure from this ideal:
A significant majority of appointed youths are given titles devoid of clear job descriptions.
Even where roles are ostensibly defined, appointees are systematically denied access to practical, on-the-job governance experience.
The financial rewards attached to these roles are pitifully small—barely enough to cover immediate basic living costs. Rather than wealth creation or capacity development, these stipends operate as a short-term leash.
Because these stipends lack economic depth, only a minute percentage of young political appointees can remain financially buoyant just a few months after being disengaged from office. The moment the appointment ends, their illusion of stability collapses, leaving them financially stranded and economically worse off than before.
To compensate for their operational irrelevance within ministry corridors, these young appointees are deployed to a different battlefield: cyberspace.
Swarming social media platforms like swarms of locusts, their primary assignment becomes the uncritical defense of government policy, the propagation of falsehoods, and the verbal harassment of dissenting voices.
An entire generation of educated, vibrant Okun youth is having its intellect weaponized for short-term political preservation. Instead of developing expertise in public health, policy analysis, economics, or agriculture, their talent is wasted daily on micro-data bundles, comment-section battles, and partisan propaganda—all for crumbs that vanish the moment their appointment is terminated.
This dynamic represents a generational mortgage. By trading genuine capacity development and sustainable wealth-building for fleeting, meagre hand-outs, the state is effectively neutralizing the next generation of Okun leadership before it even has the chance to form.
To reverse this dangerous trend and restore the dignity of youth engagement in Okun land and Kogi State at large, structural and societal interventions are urgently required:
- Political appointments must be tied to transparent, published job descriptions with measurable Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) focused on real governance, not social media defense.
Appointees should be embedded directly alongside seasoned civil servants and policy experts to learn public administration, budgeting, and project execution. - Youth appointments should be restructured to include mandatory skills acquisition and post-service transition funds, ensuring appointees don’t plunge into immediate poverty upon leaving office.
Civil society organizations and diaspora groups in Okun land must prioritize funding technical education, technology hubs, and agricultural entrepreneurship to reduce sole reliance on state political hand-outs.
The energy currently spent on political defense can be redirected through targeted bootcamps into high-income, globally competitive digital skills—such as software engineering, data analytics, and digital marketing.
Traditional institutions, elders, and community development associations within Okun land must redefine what constitutes “success” for young political appointees, measuring their impact by tangible community value added rather than loyalty displayed on social media.
The “datafication” of youth is not empowerment; it is an erosion of potential. To build a sustainable future, Kogi State must transition from using its youth as cheap digital shields to investing in them as genuine, economically self-sustaining architects of governance.
– Ponle Adeniyi
(ponleadeniyi457@gmail.com)
