By Mercy Gadia Adi
The House of Representatives has restated its commitment to promoting youth-focused legislations and motions to create an enabling environment for young Nigerians.
Chairman of the House Committee on Youth in Parliament, Hon. Ayodeji Alao-Akala, made the pledge yesterday in Abuja during the Nigerian Youth Dialogue organised by the committee to mark the International Youth Day.
Alao-Akala noted that the parliament had devoted considerable time to passing bills and motions aimed at empowering young people, stressing that their aspirations could no longer be ignored.
“As a country, we cannot afford to ignore the aspirations of our youths. They are the future of Nigeria, and our responsibility as lawmakers is to ensure their potential is harnessed for national development,” he said.
His remarks came as the State of the Nigerian Youth Report 2025, produced by Plan International Nigeria in collaboration with ActionAid Nigeria, painted a grim picture of the challenges confronting young people in the country.
Presenting the report, Advocacy and Youth Programme Officer at Plan International, Jonathan Abakpa, revealed that about 80 million young Nigerians representing 53 per cent of the youth population are unemployed.
“This is not just a statistic; it represents shattered dreams and wasted talent. The desperation is pushing many into irregular migration, cybercrime and other risky coping mechanisms,” he said.
The report cited National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data showing a 5.3 per cent rise in youth unemployment in the first quarter of 2024. Although there was a marginal improvement in the second quarter, Abakpa stressed that “the situation remains dire.”
It further identified insecurity as a major factor shaping youth experiences, disclosing that more than 600,000 people have been killed and 2.2 million kidnapped in recent years, with young people accounting for a significant proportion of the victims.
“The tragedy of insecurity is not only the loss of lives but also the collapse of opportunities. Over 1,500 schools have been shut down in the past two years, leaving one million children out of school. Education, which should be a ladder of opportunity, has been violently pulled away from them,” Abakpa added.