“Our youth are not failing the system; the system is failing our youth. Ironically, the very youth who are being treated the worst are the young people who are going to lead us out of this nightmare.” — Rachel Jackson
Nigeria is considered the most populous nation in the entire continent of Africa and the seventh largest nation worldwide. At the moment, Nigeria has the largest number of young people in the world. Nigeria has a relatively high and growing population of dependents which could put a strain on those who provide for them. The young people account for a bigger share of the dependents, a situation which will get worse unless there is a deliberate public policy to address the situation Nigeria is, by every measure of socioeconomic progress, failing to develop its endowment of young people.
In the midst of all these enigmatic worries of the unpleasant trends among the youths, Asiwaju of Ijesaland; Asiwaju Yinka Fasuyi has precipitated the eventual steps towards the transformation of Ijesaland by triggering innovation and creativity among the youths in Ijesaland which came in through his passionate bid to consciously attend to the frustrations of thousands of youth in Ijesaland by championing the cause of youth development and empowerment in the entire Ijesaland.
The outcome of this conscious effort brought forth a watershed intervention to the way, career, and fortune of Youths in Ijesaland when on Wednesday, 7th September 2022, major stakeholders converged to engage the Youths from all the six LGAs in Ijesaland on practical steps and solutions to be embarked upon in taking the Youths in Ijesaland out of the bondage of unemployment and under-employment ravaging the communities in Ijesaland.
Furthermore, key multi-sectoral stakeholders comprising the entire 42-Member Leadership of the umbrella Youths organisation in Ijesaland, Ijesa Youths Forum; Royal Majesties from Ijesaland; Osun State Government through the Ministry of Commerce, Industry, Cooperative, & Empowerment; and Five (5) Guests Speakers including a National renowned and tested Vocational & Entrepreneurship Development Specialist; and the Executive Secretary of United Nations Global Youths Consortium on FGM were all invited by the Convener, the Asiwaju of Ijesaland, Asiwaju Yinka Fasuyi to proffer a sustainable and lasting solution to the impasse of Youths Unemployment and Under-employment in Ijesaland.
The Consultative meeting which lasted for 6 hours was held at the Ilesa residence of Asiwaju Yinka Fasuyi had in attendance the Asiwaju of Ijesaland, Asiwaju Yinka Fasuyi; Elegboro of Ijebujesa, Oba (Engr) Moses Olufemi Agunsoye; Owa-Omiran of Esa-Oke, Oba Adeyemi Adediran; Oloja of Ibodi, Oba Omisade Agboluaje; Alademure of Ibokun, Oba Festus Awogboro; Ajalaiye of Ipetu-Ijesa; Oba Adeleke Agunbiade; Olosu of Osu, Oba Jethro Adejola; Owaloko of Iloko-ijesa, Oba Hakeem Ogungbamgbe; and Tirimi of Iperindo, Oba Isaiah Olusegun Adedeji. One of the major highly of the resolutions at the Strategic Stakeholders Forum is that all the traditional rulers in attendance unanimously agreed to supports the youths in the achievement of these vocational and entrepreneurial ventures in the respective LGAs by providing land and in any other area necessary.
Also in attendance to offer the technical presentations on all available Vocational and Entrepreneurial Skills and procedures for evaluating their respective feasibilities; and Vocational Trades Establishment, Financing, Marketing, and Growing were the CEO of Big Media, Mr Tomiwa Aladekomo; Dr Gbolabo Oni; Director of Industry, Osun State Ministry of Commerce, Industry, Cooperative, and Empowerment, Mr Oluseyi Adigun; the Executive Secretary of UN Global Youths Consortium on FGM, Dr Costly Aderibigbe; and the Internationally Renowned Vocational & Entrepreneurship Development Specialist, Dr (Engr) K. A. Yusuf.
The prospective beneficiaries of the Empowerment programme were fully represented by 42-Member Leadership cadre of Ijesa Youths Forum under the outgoing Presidency of Mr. Sunday Owoborode and incoming Presidency of Mr. Olufemi Oluwatoba.
The 42-Member representation covers the attendance from the 6 LGAs including male and female. All these strategic stakeholders shared together, re-echoed and strongly affirmed the multisectoral approach to vocational and entrepreneurial development in Ijesaland as a sure proof path to economically responsible citizenry in Ijesaland. According to the Ministry of Trade and Investment, Nigeria’s over 37.07 million MSMEs account for more than 84 per cent jobs in the country. They also account for about 48.5 per cent of the gross domestic product, GDP, as well as about 7.27 per cent of goods and services exported out of the country. With this in mind and the youth developmental approach in Ijesaland, this is a viable way of dealing with the menace of unemployment and poverty in Ijesaland.
“The more we increase the active participation and partnership with young people, the better we serve them. …And the more comprehensively we work with them as service partners, the more we increase our public value to the entire community.” — Carmen Martinez
The traditional rulers and royal fathers who are passionate about community development gave their words of assurance and supports for the youths in Ijesaland in assisting these youths in their respective capacities in the provision of land for agribusiness purposes and enterprises. The royal fathers also agreed to monitor the progress of these youths who are demographically distributed in their constituencies.
The pedigrees and significant impacts made by the Keynote speaker was so thrilling and mind-blowing to the youths in attendance. Engr. Dr. K.A. Yusuff is an accomplished vocational and enterprise development experts of thirty-five years both in the academia and the market place. Engr. Dr. K.A Yusuff acquired M.Sc and Ph.D degrees in Technology Policy and Technology Management respectively and former Director, Vocational Skills and Entrepreneurship Study Centre (VSESC) of The Polytechnic Ibadan where he also served as Acting Dean in the Faculty of Engineering. He is a Fellow of Strategic Institute for Natural Resources and Human Development among others. He is an expert in diverse areas of Vocational Skills which are not limited to; Bakery, Cosmetology, Welding & Fabrication, Foundry work, Computer Programming and Automotive Mechanic Works to mention just a few. Engr. Dr. K.A. Yusuff won many grants for the proliferation of the vocational development for the institution. He is an accomplished author with textbooks and many published journals to his credit.
He unraveled the dynamics of vocational and entrepreneurial skills to the youths assured them of mentoring as many of them on scaling to global limelight. Other guests speakers shared from their wealth of experience and success stories which not inspired but triggered process of change in the attendees.
Dr. Gbolabo Oni is a renowned businessman, economic analyst, a core philanthropist propelled mental reprogramming from consumer consciousness to producer consciousness in the youths and stirred them from his journey to prominence as Ijesa.
Mr. Tomiwa Aladekomo who’s a peer mentor at the forum is an accomplished entrepreneur with is the Chief Executive Officer of Big Cabal Media, a prominent tech/online media brand in the continent delivering 400% revenue growth. He is also Member Board of Directors of CharmsSwitch Plc and Director SmartCity Resorts Plc. an Alumnus of the African Leadership Institute and the recipient of Archbishop Tutu Leadership Fellowship Programme. Tomiwa Aladekomo is a graduate of Business Administration and Cultural Anthropology from Boston University and Columbia University respectively.
The award winning Dr. Costly Aderibigbe, an Executive Secretary of Global Youth Consortium against Female Genital Mutilation under the joint programme of the United Nations Population Fund and United Nations Children Fund, she’s an energetic and passionate Medical Practitioner who founded an NGO known as Value Female Network pulled the influence and impacts of the value-addition to the society to a level of global recognition through the undeniable impacts of her movement and was elected into the prestigious but keenly contested highest seat of the consortium in UN.
The representative of the State Government of Osun; Mr. Oluseyi Adigun who’s the Director in Charge of Industry from Osun State Ministry of Commerce, Industry, Cooperative and Empowerment who espoused the various enterprise interventions that the State Government have facilitated with agencies like Bank of Industry, SMEDAN, SON, NAFDAC among others to bolster the financial upheaval associated with entrepreneurial development which would be of immense benefits to Ijesa youths.
He strengthened the youths to maximize this opportunity through commitment to the progressive work of bringing forth results. He further assure them of the importance the State Government of Osun would be attaching in responding in any useful ways to Ijesa youths based on the collaborative support of the government towards this empowerment. He categorically emphasized that Ijesaland is setting the pace for sustainable economic development while leveraging on youth’s creativity and innovation in the state.
There were observers who are key stakeholders in Ijesaland that observed the process and intelligently analyze the output for comparative advantages the various youths across the constituencies would leverage on for economically viable Ijesaland.
The Convener of the Strategic Forum; Asiwaju Yinka Fasuyi , The Asiwaju of Ijesaland whose experience as an accomplished Management Consultant of over 30 years with viable consultancy impacts spanning across sixty countries in all the continents of the world doubled as the President, Ibadan Business School cum Chief Consultant, Supreme Management Training and Consultancy Services Limited unequivocally with unflinching passion galvanized the youths with the big picture of the future of Ijesaland flooded with countless number of financially flourishing youths placing Ijesaland as the most economically viable society in the nation.
The Convener’s speech placed the youth on a swift move for action catalyzed by passionate desire for success. Asiwaju Yinka Fasuyi further challenged the youths to establish “Ijesa Youth Development Fund” through which the youth leadership in Ijesaland would reach-out to all stakeholders in mobilizing a minimum of NGN10Million each for the six LGAs which comes up to NGN 60 Million for the entire six LGAs.. These funds would invariably serve as the seed money to establish and for immediate kick-off of the various vocational and entrepreneurship skill centres across the six LGAs.
In demonstration of his support for the mobilization of these take-off funds, the convener; Asiwaju Yinka Fasuyi pledged to donate the sum of NGN 2Million each to each of these six LGAs for the mobilization of the Ijesa Youth Development Fund totaling NGN 12Million. It was further reiterated that the youth leaders are to reach out to stakeholders to mobilize for these funds and such funds being mobilized by the leaders of Ijesa Youths Forum (IYF) would be managed independently at each of the six Local Government Areas level with a well-defined structured made up of Youth Leaders of Integrity, Transparency and Accountability to judiciously manage such funds. This would also provide for competitive performance evaluation among the six LGAs with periodic reporting to Ijesaland on progress made.
After the series of presentations from the various guest speakers, all the youths from the six (6) LGAs were exposed to the following vocational and entrepreneurial categories to deliberate-on and make choice during the syndicate sessions: Agro-business/enterprise, Hair Styling (Unisex), Beading works, Barbing Works, Catering & Confectionaries, Fashion Designing, Makeup Artistry, Event Planning, Electrical Repairs, Arts and Crafts, Graphic Design, Programming and Coding, Website Design & Software Development, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning , Renewable energy and solar/inverter system among others.
Moreover, the syndicate session took a great and energetic dive with the passion with which all the youth leaders from the six (6) Local Government Areas went about the discussions on the farming options and vocational skills that are based on their constituency advantages. The following were the outcome during the presentations by Local Government:
ILESA EAST which was presented by Fashipe Isaac indicated Goat Rearing as a livestock option and (Shear Butter and Hand Sanitizer) as Household Production.
ATAKUMOSA EAST was represented by Ogungbemi Gideon and he presented Piggery and Goat Rearing as livestock farming option they are opting for.
OBOKUN LGA was represented by John Fakanlu presented Dog and Goat Rearing as Livestock farming option while going for cassava and maize production as Crop farming option.
ATAKUMOSA WEST LGA was represented by Olufemi Michael Oluwatoba and he presented Goat Rearing while Maize and Mushroom were considered for Crop production.
ILESA WEST presented Vegetable Farming, Snail, Rabbit and Goat Rearing as farming options while they opted for Knitting as vocation to leverage on in the local government.
ORIADE was represented by Sunday Owoborode and he presented on behalf of the team Fishery and Annual Crop as their farming options.
In the light of the various presentations, the guest speakers therefore requested the various LGAs youth leaders to develop Business Plans on their proposed vocational and enterprise areas which should be submitted by September 30, 2022 for review, assessment and onward processing by the guest speakers who have unanimously agreed to serve as mentors to the Ijesa Youth Forum.
In conclusion, this forum was indeed a starting point towards meaningful engagement and the foundation for empowerment of the youths in Ijesaland. The forum connected the young people across the entire six LGAs to potential opportunities for self-sufficiency and sustainable development in Ijesaland. It was further reiterated that where lands are needed for agro-based businesses, there must be evidence and required approved documents that the concerned royal fathers have given assurance of providing in such communities. Emphasis was laid on cooperative societies amongst the youths as necessary platforms for collaboration and access to funds. Periodical inspections and supervisory efforts at the local government level for follow up was strengthened, evidence of account opening by the youth group and the fund mobilization plan by the youths were given as fundamental requirements for the successful implementation of the project.
It is an acceptable truism that we can never doubt what a small group of thoughtful, committed people can do in transforming the land by being focused, being led and being resilience irrespective of the enormous challenges that lie ahead. That’s’ the path for the transformation in Ijesaland, when the youths take their rightful place! ,, .
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