President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on 17th September, 2023 approved the nomination of two young people to help his administration lead the youth constituency in the country. Dr. Jamila Bio Ibrahim was eventually made the Minister of Youths Development while Engr. Ayodele Olawande was made the Minister of State for Youths Development.
The two ministers like a tag team were meant to drive a very robust youth agenda that was expected to extract great productivity from this very crucial demographic group. The bulk of active people in any population is always found within the youthful bracket. Therefore in order to drive an economy that is resilient and inclusive, the young people must be the bedrock.
However, 10 months down the line after their appointments, it is apparent that one member of the tag team is becoming a liability to speedily achieving the youth agenda. The Minister of Youth, Jamila Bio Ibrahim seems to be overwhelmed or unprepared for the huge undertaking placed on her shoulders. It has been the Minister of State, Engr. Ayodele Olawande that has been all over the place trying to get the momentum going.
In less than a year and within the limit of his given responsibility, Engr. Ayodele Olawande has reeled out several programmes and projects targeted at developing and empowering young people with 21st century tools and resources to become huge contributors to the nation’s GDP.
Despite the lack of complementary support from his colleague Dr. Jamila Ibrahim, the Minister of State for Youth Development, Engr. Ayodele Olawande has been able to establish and launch the Youth Innovation Hub, which currently supports 500 startups and has created at least 2,000 direct jobs. Engr. Olawande also started the Youth Skills Acquisition Program which has seen over 5,000 youths across the country receiving training in various fields. The major aim of this program is to address the skill gap that is very noticeable among Nigerian youths and which also hinders their employability and self-reliance. The programme did not stop at just training the beneficiaries but equally supported them with resources to begin their journey into entrepreneurship.
The Minister of State for Youth Development has equally midwifed the creation of an app known as the Youth Connect, which connects young people with resources, opportunities and the mentorship they require to facilitate their personal and professional growth. This is in addition to instituting the Youth Innovation Challenge. These two digital platforms are targeted at enhancing the ability of our young people to take advantage of technology in accessing skills and resources to push themselves out of poverty.
Perhaps, one of the defining policies, Engr. Ayodele Olawande has put together is the establishment of the Youth Entrepreneurship Fund, which is meant to provide access to capital for young entrepreneurs. He understands the fact that one of the biggest obstacles preventing young people from pursuing their dreams and aspirations is finance. The Minister of State therefore has made it a priority to get a youth-friendly financing option available to Nigerian young entrepreneurs to start up small businesses or grow their existing small businesses to a medium scale.
It is this dream that he pursued vigorously which led to the rejuvenation of the Nigerian Youth Investment Fund (NYIF), a N110 billion fund meant to provide cheap financing to young people who intend to venture into areas such as technology, agriculture, creative industries, and more. More than 80,000 young people have already applied for this within 48 hours.
When you pause for a moment to realise that Engr. Ayodele Olawande is not the Senior Minister of Youth Development but still has his hands in multiple programmes, you may be tempted to ask, where is the Minister of Youths, Dr. Jamila Ibrahim?
Few months ago, it was the Minister of State for Youth Development, Engr Ayodele Olawande that took the initiative to meet with the Commissioners of Youths of the 36 states of the federation in order to have a strong collaboration with the federal government to better address the challenges confronting the youths across the country. At that meeting he disclosed plans by the federal government to deliver at least two skills to 7 million Nigerian youths within the next two years through a platform that is underway called the Nigerian Youth Academy (NiYA).
At that meeting he reeled out plans to establish hubs for unemployed youths to access various kinds of support in each LGA in partnership with the States as they begin their journey towards a productive and gainful engagement. These are engagements that a proactive Senior Minister should be doing, unfortunately, Dr. Jamila Ibrahim appears unwilling or maybe incapable of doing.
The resultant effect of Dr. Jamila Ibrahim’s passiveness is a situation whereby it seems there is a hollow created in the Ministry. This weighs heavily on the ability of the Ministry of Youths Development to achieve more and with a sense of urgency. Dr. Jamila Ibrahim’s lack of interest or incompetence in providing leadership to the youth constituency can be seen in the past couple of days where Nigerian youths are gearing up for protests because of the challenging economic realities in the country. Engr. Ayodele Olawande is seen engaging robustly with young people across many platforms such as twitter spaces, TV stations, radio programmes and even physical engagements. Dr. Jamila Ibrahim on the other hand is missing in action. We cannot continue like this.
Nigeria at this point in time needs a Senior Minister of Youths Development that is ready to get to the grassroot and bring the youths onboard the Renewed Hope Journey. We need a Minister that can understand the urgency of the times we are in instead of one that would be a clog to the wheel of quick progress. Within the past 10 months, it is obvious that Engr. Ayodele Olawande has shown himself to be the more eager driver to lead the youth vehicle and it would be very wise to elevate him as the Minister of Youths Development.
Nigeria has little time to experiment on political appointees. Ten months is enough to gauge who is passionate about a job and also who is imbued with the leadership qualities to drive result-yielding innovations. Engr. Ayodele Olawande has shown he is made for the tough ride, during this time of economic emergencies, he should be the general on the battlefield trying to bring succour to our youths who just want results as quickly as possible.
If there is one thing I am certain of, it is the fact that if Engr. Ayodele Olawande is made the Senior Minister of Youths Development (or perhaps just the Minister of Youths Development because I do not think the Ministry requires two ministers), he is going to redefine how the Ministry of Youths Development should operate. From the little I have gleaned from his moves so far, I am seeing someone who is ready to collaborate with any ministry or organisation necessary to create opportunities for real youths at the grassroots to live their dreams.
Someone like Engr. Ayodele will surely partner with the Ministry of Agriculture to ensure Nigerian youths are in the driving seat for attaining food security and prosperity through agriculture. He is already talking up partnership with SMEDAN and Bank of Industry, even as Minister of State. By the time he is made the Minister of Youths Development, he is definitely going to go beyond SMEDAN and BoI, he will tap opportunities in the housing, education, health, and even mining sector for our youths. President Bola Tinubu should give impetus to his youth agenda by elevating Engr. Ayodele Olawande as the Minister of Youths Development.