 Youth and the power of change. In recent times, we have seen an uprising of young Nigerians and Africans in a never-before-experienced opera occasioned by the protracted seeming inability of governments to provide an enabling environment for young people to thrive. As a development consultant, every day I engage scores of young people in discussions hinged on their personal ambitions, career projections and general polls about life and living in Nigeria. Needless to say, 10 out of 10 young people live in abject despondency concerning their ambitions and dreams in Nigeria. In my work engagements too, I have had reason to interact with the top echelon of society, the so-called big men and women. The disparity in living circumstances between these two groups is not only glaringly alarming. The dissonant gaps that exist between these demographic divides seems to have no bridging in sight. With an arguably eroded middle class, Nigeria presents at best a morbidly unwell social construct which, if not urgently checked, will result in, I reserve my comments. I do not necessarily want to delve into the myriad mental health issues that these feelings of utter hopelessness produce, but my focus today lies in the question how can young people governize their power and collective goodwill toward engaging the socio-economic, political and structural systems of Nigeria as a whole. Governizing saying in order to produce an El Dorado of sorts, or at the very least, a land they can be proud to call their own. A land that gives them hope for today and assurance for the future. A place where dreams are not daily met with the possibility of death. A country where the aspirations of young people are not too easily crushed by the seeming indifference of successive governments to the plight of their greatest strengths, the youth. Much as we may want to move away quickly from the horrors that tell the end-sales protests, this phenomenal expression of the strength, unity and glory of youth, in my opinion, should be properly harnessed and channeled to outputs and outcomes that not only provide a pedestal for positive youth engagement, but ultimately change systems, improved governance and consequently improved life outcomes for the people. Sadly, it seems our youth find greater satisfaction with simple campaigns, some of which are violent, aggressive exchange and a never-ending cycle of mob action. While these are somewhat applied and found to be commonplace as expressions of quest for change globally, what next becomes the question after all of the upheaval? How do we channel the voice of youth unrest into outright, tangible, productive and sustainable change in Nigeria, Africa and the world at large? Quite an interesting read. And Mr Amy, what do you think about this conversation? Especially as a Nigerian who is based in the UK, what's your opinion or perspective on this issue? No, it's a good point. I'd like the fact that he briefly touched on end-sales without going into detail. But we saw what can be achieved when people come together for a plan. We saw unity, we saw the use of social media and technology, we saw large sections of people from a certain age demographic coming together for a common purpose with the demonstrations and protests that went on. But to your question, how can it be challenged? You can only, I think to get to the future you have to understand the past first and foremost and then align and change the present to get to the future. If you try, you can't do it with willpower alone, but we know that the youth have the ideas, they have the energy, they have the creativity, they have the innovation, they have the imagination and they have hope. What they don't have is experience. And I feel in a country like Nigeria, if you rush that change it might not end too well like one of the other advocates said it has to be something that you have to have a plan, a long-term vision with not so much emotion, a little bit of emotion because you are aggrieved about certain things not working properly, but you have to have a plan in terms of, okay, how do you want to represent yourself? Do you have a 10-year plan to say, okay, like the other advocate said, let's start from the bottom up and the top-down approach. Do we want to take some certain seats in some certain elections because we want to have political power and then grow that over a period of maybe two or three election cycles? Because if you just channel all your anger to the streets you don't want a situation where it ends in violence whether it's state-sponsored or otherwise. I think in the last few years we have seen the youth show their own concerns and their appetite to certain actions within the state but I think that has to be channeled. Youth advocate groups around the country are being formed, they have been formed and perhaps they want to go back and then learn the lessons of the past and look for a new way forward. I think in my view, what is most pertinent is after looking at the kind of directions and things that have happened in Nigeria, especially during the ensars, the ensars situation is something most people do not know. Yeah, you got a lot of people in Lagos in different states on the streets but do you know that that number is enough to recall this entire state house of assembly in Lagos and in all those other states? So I believe political literacy is key to moving forward. It's hard to explain to Nigerians when you tell them okay you're not politically literate enough but imagine if they took out, by recalling that's what I mean by the takeout, took out the entire state house of assembly you know how to clarify that. So if they took out the entire state house of assembly you can take out a governor or you can impeach a governor for inaction and that will send a message to the center they will never forget. We need to understand the constitution, how our country works and what exactly could work. So looking at the Aram Spring and Co. Yes, there's the front which looks like the agitation streets but there's also the strategic at the back end and I think that was missing. Okay exactly, I think I agree with you especially that the fact that the problem when it comes to youth participation is the fact that we're missing out on the strategic part. Now this is what happened during the ENSA campaign. A vast majority of young people were on the streets but the vast majority of people in the corridors of power were older people, right? Because the truth is for the interests of the youth to be represented, let's come to the reality the youth must be there to represent their interests. So the solution is simple young people have to start getting involved. You talk to an average young person in Nigeria he or she feels governance is not their business politics is not their business he or she has visions of becoming CEOs of companies becoming things but when it comes to politics you discover that young persons walk away from politics those people there are like we said earlier occupying political position and they will represent their own interests until they are no longer there so I think it's an organic process, right? Young people need to start getting involved in politics from the grassroots because it will always get to power is never given, it has to be taken. And I believe that's where he mentioned about political literacy I think that's the first step when people understand the correct process how to go about things during the ENSA's advocacy I was constantly speaking on the need to engage strategy, it's like in development you have programs and you have a project now the project is what gives longevity and sustainability to the programs that you do so your programs are like activities that you carry out but that alone cannot stand and bring structural change like we deserve and like you've mentioned which is something I realized during the ENSA's protest the refusal of the young people to come to the negotiation table the truth is except you're going to have a cool guitar even if it's the devil that is sitting on that table you have to engage the powers that be and it has to be systemic, it has to be strategic and it has to be with the goal of sustainable change and it was difficult during the ENSA's campaign because we are now dependent on Twitter influencers to engage the government you know what I find most odd about the whole matter I remember a comment saying during the ENSA's and when I saw it I was really hurt and it meant what the old people cannot see we use drone and everybody joked about it and I was like this is an IT generation, you know that a drone can only go where the mind of the person controlling it knows so it doesn't change and actually this statement came from someone who is serving in government with older so he was even more keen the fact that they thought in that process let's understand the people in power right now and I heard this when I was in South South and I was with some politicians and they said something to me we took over power from our fathers who didn't go to university and who lived in a hamlet I say we were schooled in America, ATC do you think you want to take power from us with university degrees you are going to come without a plan? 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