Nigeria’s future hinges on youth empowerment, JCIN president

By Abubakar Yunusa

The National President of Junior Chamber International Nigeria, JCIN Amb.Akinbode Abitogun, has said Nigeria’s future depends largely on empowering young people to contribute meaningfully to national development.

Abitogun stated this on Saturday at the JCIN Nigeria Northern Conference, themed, “Build Youth Vision and the New North,” with the tag, “Gbedegu,” held in Abuja.

He urged Northern governors and the Federal Government to support organisations committed to developing young people in the region.

According to him, such support would enable youth-focused organisations to expand their interventions and create more opportunities for young Nigerians.

“The major specific commitment is to support organisations like JCI, who are willing to continuously build young people in the Northern region,” Abitogun said.

Speaking on the 2027 general elections, the JCIN president urged governments to ensure that the electoral process remained free and fair.

“My message to the governors or to the government is to keep everything free and fair. The young people are willing, everybody is willing to vote, and also to continue to sensitise people on why they need to vote,” he said.

Abitogun described the Northern Conference as a gathering of JCI Nigeria members from across the Northern region, noting that members from the Southern region also participated.

He urged delegates to use the conference to establish meaningful relationships that would continue beyond the event.

“The most important one: build key and meaningful relationships. Relationships that are not bounded by the conference, but outlive the conference,” he said.

He added that such relationships should extend beyond friendship to include business partnerships capable of creating opportunities for members.

Abitogun also urged the delegates to explore Abuja rather than restrict themselves to the conference venues.

“Make sure that you have experienced Abuja. Don’t just restrict yourself to the four walls of the training rooms or the banquet halls, but explore the city, such that you have another memory to tell, or let me say, another memory to add to your memory book,” he said.

He said JCI Nigeria had prioritised data collection as part of efforts to make informed decisions about membership and organisational development.

“Our data, putting structures in place so that we can capture our data, and this data is what is going to help us to make intentional decisions, data-driven decisions,” Abitogun said.

He explained that reliable membership data would help the organisation identify age groups requiring more attention, particularly as its active membership was between 18 and 40 years.

The JCIN president, however, identified brand visibility and awareness as areas requiring further attention.

He said the media panel at the conference was organised partly to showcase JCI Nigeria as an organisation focused on helping young people improve themselves.

“We will not stop until JCI Nigeria becomes a household name,” he said.

Also speaking, the Executive Vice President, North-East, JCIN, Ambassador Hauwa Musa, said the organisation was committed to developing young leaders who would return to their communities and make positive contributions.

She said JCI’s philosophy was rooted in the belief that the brotherhood of man transcended national boundaries.

“We try to structure it in a way that our young leaders are being able to make positive impact, and then go back to their community to ensure that that also happens,” Musa said.

She said the organisation would continue to contribute to community development while encouraging governments to recognise and support youth-led initiatives.

Musa said her experience travelling through the Northern region had exposed her to the vastness of the area and the challenges confronting young people.

She said JCI’s focus on peacebuilding, foundational skills, monetisation and entrepreneurship programmes could help young people develop solutions to challenges in their communities.

Also, the Executive Vice President, North-West, JCIN, Ambassador Olarenwaju Alawode, called on Nigerians, particularly young people, to rethink their approach to economic opportunities.

Alawode said citizens should engage government differently and also recognise that economic opportunities existed beyond government employment.

Referring to the recent Osun State governorship election, he said the outcome demonstrated the importance of citizens exercising their civic responsibilities.

“If you look at the trajectory of that particular election, you will see that despite the fact that there are challenges, the voice, the choice of people, at the end of the day came to play for one reason: because people decided to do their civic responsibilities,” he said.

Alawode urged young people in the North to identify opportunities within their communities and develop products that could be marketed in other parts of the country.

He cited agricultural products from Jos, including strawberries, which he said could be brought to Abuja and other markets.

According to him, some members who brought products from their communities to the conference were able to make thousands of naira from the initiative.

He said the experience demonstrated how local resources could be converted into economic opportunities.

Alawode, however, said government also had a role to play by creating policies and infrastructure that would make it easier for young entrepreneurs and small businesses to access funding.

“One of the major problems that we currently have is little or no access to funding, especially for young or small and medium-scale enterprises,” he said.

He urged the government to formulate policies that would make funding more accessible to young entrepreneurs and provide infrastructure to support their businesses.

He said changing the mindset of young Nigerians, coupled with supportive government policies and infrastructure, could help put the country on a better path.

“We change mindset with very lovely policies and infrastructure. I believe that Nigeria is on for the best,” Alawode said.