YOUTH EMPOWERMENT: GOVERNOR ORTOM'S APPROACH. by Idakpo Friday Nicholas.

Benue State apparently has the largest generation of young people in history. I place great hope in their power to shape our future. Obviously, there are dividend in the State, to realize the dividend, the State must invest in the empowerment, education and employment of their young people. There are more than a million young people in Benue today, representing a staggering amount of human potential. Yet too many of them are trapped in poverty, with few opportunities to learn or to earn a decent living. Perhaps those at the corridors of power all appreciate the massive waste of human capital in the State when hundred of thousands of young people are jobless.

Young people are hungry for better options. “They are rejecting the status quo and demanding a better future. Many of them are claiming their right to a decent living, and they are willing to take risks to do so. We have seen in recent times the high numbers of young people taking risks around the Mediterranean, trying to reach a better life. But if these youths are allowed to realize their full potential, the State could see huge economic gains.

Obviously, The more young people grow into well-educated adults with fewer dependants and new opportunities to acquire wealth, savings and purchasing power, the more they will be able to accelerate economic growth and development.

More so, increasing investment in young people is key and pivotal for economic development. Until leaders begin to look in this direction, development remains a mirage. Similarly, empowerment is essential especially for the youths. The State must increase employment opportunities for young people and equip them with all it takes for wealth creation. Such equipping cut across furnishing the youths with business tools, funding, capacity building, technical support, entrepreneurship training and more alike. There is also a critical need to involve young people in decisions that will affect them. We cannot talk about sustainable development without the active involvement of youth. Hence, there is need for wide consultation with youths in addressing the State's economic challenge and woes.

On the contrary, Benue State Chief administrator, Governor Samuel Ortom like his colleagues in the past recently approached youth empowerment from an absurd perspective. The fleet of wheel-barrows purchased recently by the Governor as a move for youth empowerment in the State and to address the lingering economic hardship in the region is not a plausible idea and it is not in the best interest of the Benue youths. In as much as empowerment demands equipping of young people with business tools, ideas, funds and more alike, wheel-barrows in contemporary Nigeria holds no economic value, as such, it is not a viable business tool. Such initiative is untenable in a civilized society. It has no possibility to harness economic gains for the State. At best, it is a colossal waste.

It is lucid that there no consultations with the youths before initiating such move. Lack of consultation with youths has translated to the recorded failure playing out lately. This fatal fall has finds it way into the pages of history just as Gabriel Suswam "Pigs" saga. I am afraid the chain will continue ad infinitum if Benue leaders do not find a way to give its empowerment initiatives a human face, and the youths learn to put an end to celebrating wrong initiatives and gestures from their leaders.