Youth Empowerment

The peculiar nature of Lagos State as a former Federal Capital and the economic hub of the country has led to continuous influx of people into the metropolis. Some of the migrants are young and others are families with young children. Either way, there has been an immense increase in the youth population of the state, which has led to a lot of pressure on the social facilities available to them.

The Ministry of Youth, Sports and Development was founded to address these issues. Some of the objectives of the ministry include interfacing with the Ministry of Education to lay a solid foundation for our youth through functional education curriculum with a strong moral and civic content; promoting the New Face of Lagos Youth- Educated, Clean and Upwardly mobile and re- orientation of the Youth to redirect their vision and goals to give them hope for sustainable self development.

Regarding youth education, the youth empowerment initiative of the present administration in the state has commenced the rehabilitation of technical and vocational schools. Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN), inaugurated the pioneer Board of Technical and Vocational Education, to facilitate the empowerment of the youths and the eradication of poverty in the State. Over the last three years, a lot of work has been done to improve the conditions of the five vocational and technical schools that exist in the State by law. The first step was to rehabilitate the schools into functional, attractive and comfortable learning institutions and to restore the equipment and libraries to an acceptable level. The State is also pairing up Lagos Technical and Vocational Schools to similar vocational schools in the United Kingdom and other parts of the world for the benefit of the youth.

The youth empowerment programme gives the youth in Lagos State the confidence to help themselves and each other. Many non-governmental organizations (NGO) are being initiated by the youth of the state. One of these is the Youth Empowerment Foundation (YEF). YEF started a Nigeria HIV/AIDS telephone hotline. The primary target of the hotline is youth between 15 and 24 years and using a form of access that is universal in Lagos. Everyone either has a phone or can use one for a nominal fee. Awareness of the hotline was done through the television and radio at the peak periods and also in the print media and billboard adverts. Posters were placed in markets and bus terminals where out-of-school youth work or congregate. It was (and still is) imperative that the information about the hotline reaches as many young people (between 10 and 24years) as possible because the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Nigeria is twice that of the rest of the world.

These are only two of the many programmes embarked upon by Lagos State to ensure the empowerment of the youth of Lagos State.

The Saga continues