The word empower means to give power or authority to individuals. It entails getting the people most importantly the youths involved in poverty alleviation processes for improved standard of living. The commonwealth sees young people aged 15-29 as assets to a country’s development who should be empowered to realize their potentials. The opposite is the case in Nigeria, youths are not being reckoned with but are fast becoming liabilities to the nation. For empowerment to be effective, various mechanisms must be put to work to make things easier for those being empowered such as control of inflation, making the economy conducive for investment, improving security, provision of infrastructural facilities and also making education and training affordable to the people. According to Commonwealth.org, the commonwealth’s 54 member countries have a combined population of more than 2billion, of which more than 60% are under 30 years of age.
We are in a changing world where there is a need to account for human intellectualism as a tool towards self-dependency and the avoidance of over dependent on foreign super powers. The success of a nation depends on the intellectual capability of its people and there is a need to empower the youths in order to be able to channel their energy into positive things. The spate of crime and economic downturn boils down to the inefficiency in government to be able to integrate the youths in its plans. This is a problem most African nations are saddled with. The youths are not being groomed to take over the economy to project it competitively with developed countries that is why crime and fraud is fast becoming rampant among the populace. It is a sad state to see so many youths out there not gainfully employed with an average human being living below the one dollar threshold. Poverty and addictions have become endemic within the society, insecurity is fast becoming a common language. The incessant attack by the terrorist organizations known as Boko Haram is as a result of the lack of empowerment of the youths and the spate of corruption among political office holders.
Empowering the people entails giving them the right tool to earn an honest living, making available the required opportunities for a successful career growth and also bridging the gap between the haves and have-nots. We have heard success stories of great start-ups established by successful youths in developed countries most of whom started from scratch with the support required and have grown to become a huge success and contributing favourably to such economy's GDP. Companies like google, facebook, snapchat, Microsoft and a whole others were ideas born from the minds of youths even though some are in their 60s now.
In this part of the world, empowerment is all about giving handouts to the poor and not really educating them to be self-sufficient, using the youths for political unrest with the promise of cash and also giving out stipends to youths who are supposed to be gainfully employed while the corrupt public officials keep looting billions overnight.
