In
commemoration of the 2019 Africa Youth Day celebration themed“1 million by 2020: count me in”, and in response to the African
Unions call on governments, the private sector participants, development
partners, civil society organizations and youth development stakeholders to
stand up and be counted as drivers of its 1 million by 2021 initiative towards
youth empowerment,Baywood
Foundation, a youth-oriented organization founded and funded by Emperor
Baywood-Ibe organized a one day consultative dialogue to foster new approaches
to address the Challenges of the African Youth.
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Empress Patricia Baywood Ibe, Deputy Managing Director, Baywood Foundation Enugu giving the keynote address on behalf of the
Chairman of Baywood Foundation
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Speaking
at the event which held on Monday 11th November, 2019, at Claire
hall, Genesis Sojourner, Ikeja GRA, Lagos,
the chairman of the foundation, Emperor Baywood-Ibe in his keynote address
presented by his wife Empress Pat Baywood Ibe called on the private sector to
embrace the “intern and retain” initiative and subsume it into its recruitment
processes as a way of harnessing the nation’s youth bulge which currently faces
dire un-employability challenges.
Emperor Baywood Ibe called on stakeholders,
particularly African leaders to key into his proposed 30% affirmative action
for youths especially in the light of current statistics which puts Africa as a
continent with a 400 million youth population (UNICEF estimate). He emphasized
that the future of Africa was tied to the future of its young people and so the
continent was inadvertently stepping on a land mine if it didn’t as a matter of
urgency, prioritize the engagement of its young people. Such engagement he
emphasized needed to adopt different approaches from those presently practiced.
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| Kobi Ikpo. Executive Director Teenage Development for Africa (Teen Africa) |
Also
speaking at the event, the Special Adviser to the Speaker of the National House
of Representatives Dubem Moghalu, hailed the foundations efforts and noted that the glaring lack of an existing
succession plan within such areas as leadership, governance, business and even
politics was
a bane to progress in Nigeria. He therefore called on Baywood Foundation to
extend its current efforts to include collaborating with government to
institutionalize the “intern and retain initiative” within the public sector as
well.
Drawn
from several sectors within the public and private sectors,the events panelists
and speakers - Professor Chiso Ndukwe-Okafor, Barrister Ifedy Eze, Olubumi
Shonde, Emmanuel Gambari,Chioma Onuchukwu, Muktar Modibbo (representing
HamzaLawal), Nita George and Isaac Jude Dahilo, identified the numerous challenges facing young people
in Nigeria and highlighted youth skills training and self-development through
smart phones as being key to better youth preparedness for facing the labor
market.
At
the end of the exhaustive deliberations, participants in a signed communiqué
called on private sector to take the initiative to approach and engage with
government representatives towards salvaging the current situation.
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| Prof. Chiso Ndukwe-Okafor. CEO Sources Resources Logistics & Consultants, Lagos |
It pointed
out that all Nigerian citizens must learn to demand accountability from the
government. The Freedom of Information Act it noted was passed to ensure that
people could freely and openly request information about government activities,
expenditure and procurement and also expect to receive response.
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| Chioma Onuchukwu. Baywood Foundation, Enugu |
The process
they stated,
might take time and
cost money, but the frequent use of this process by the general public was of
essence if the desire to change the status quo will ever come to fruition.
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| Isaac Jude Dahilo. Youth Advocate |
The
communiqué also called on young people and other stakeholders to get
politically involved and not shy away from politics at any level, because it
was the best way to change the system.
Youths it said, must realize that they have the most important role
towards addressing the challenges facing the African youth; the desire to
acquire skills and the drive to daily become better at those skills was
something the government cannot imbue in young people. Therefore, it behooves
the individual to identify their passion,
identify suitable mentors to provide
needed guidance and acquire the necessary skills while realizing at the same
time that delayed gratification was essential to ultimately attaining vision.
Finally,
the communiqué noted that Baywood Foundation was working tirelessly towards the
adoption of a 30% affirmative action for youth inclusion in governance both in
public and private sector and therefore urged other organizations to
collaborate with the foundation to actualize the noble cause.This it stated,
was one of the best ways to actualize 1 million by 2021 vision.
The
event which ended at 3:30pm was
indeed a veritable attempt by Baywood Foundationto take the Africa
Unions’ call beyond rhetorics!
More Faces at the event...
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| Nita George, Youth Advocate and Actress |
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| Cross Section of students from Lagos State University |
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| Emmanuel Gambari Radio Broadcaster & Youth Advocate. |
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| Olubunmi Shonde, Director for Training, Institute of Family System Engineering and Development |
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| Muktar Modibbo Rep. Hamza Lawal of Connected Development |
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| Dubem Moghalu. Special Adviser, Speaker, National House of Assembly |
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| Dr. Ofem. Head, Entrepreneurship Development, Lagos State University |
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| Barr. Obinna Ede, Lecturer -Faculty of Law, University of Nigeria Enugu |
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| Chukwudi Ojielo, Country Director, Baywood Foundation Enugu |
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| Barr. Ifedy Eze, Business Development Expert |
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| Kobi Ikpo, Prof. Chiso Ndukwe-Okafor, Chukwudi Ojielo, and Chioma Onuchukwu |
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