Eradication of extreme poverty

The deadline for the MDGs is on the horizon, progress has been made in several areas but more work is needed to be done.

This is my humble call to all stake holders, partners and contributors to the MDGs, the world over to more than ever double their effort towards the actualization to the MDGs by the year 2015 and begin to make preparation for the post 2015 development agenda.

The 2013 MDG report stated that the proportion of people of people living in extreme poverty has been halved at the global level. This suggests that the world reached the poverty reduction target five years ahead of schedule. The report also noted that, the number of people living on less than $1.25 a day fell from 47% in 1990 to 22% in 2010.

This was possible because of the concerted effort of government, civil society, development partners, non-government organization, several private organizations and individuals. We are not there yet, we will continue to work until extreme poverty become history.

I am particularly excited to be part of the success of the MDGs, in a remote community called; Sabon Afaka, Mando, Igabi Local government Area, Kaduna State, Nigeria in the year 2010. I embark on a specific project to distribute free clothing and material to hundreds of people in the community. The children, youth, widows, woman and men benefited, they where happy that someone remembered them and brought succor to their door step at no cost.

The desire to have at least one extra clothe was evident as you could literally see the youth and children in the community queued up and some struggle to collect their free clothe. It took the help of some of the village chiefs and community head to distribute the clothes and prevent possible stampede.

The crowd present at different location where we distributed was far more than the available materials but we did our best and they were happy we came.

ENHANCING EMPLOYABILITY OF THE NIGERIAN YOUTH

INTRODUCTION

The youth is the period between childhood and Adulthood. The Nigerian youth like youth from the rest of the world are active and vibrant set of individuals and excited about learning but the environment they have found themselves has made them unemployable.

THE WAY FORWARD

u Development of Skills

u Training and Re-training

u Hand-on and Hard Working

u Academic Re-Orientation

u Development of Educational System

Development of Skills
An average Nigerian youth is concern about certificate because they live in an environment that celebrate certificate rather than skills acquisition. An average employer is after what you have to offer. Nigerian youth need to development hand-on skills and look beyond certificate.
Certificate is good but what gives it value is the holder.

Training and Re-training
Nigeria youth need to avail themselves the opportunity to trained and embrace continuous training in order to remain relevance in the society. There are young people in Nigeria involved in the production of concrete blocks manually, if they are expose to training in handling advance concrete block making machine and they will be come employable in companies that produces concrete blocks.

Hand-on and Hard Working
An average Nigerian youth prefers the easy way out of every thing. The ‘get rich quick’ syndrome has eaten deep into an average Nigerian youth. There is no substitute for hard working, they need to refuse laziness and embrace hard-working.

Academic Re-Orientation
An average Nigerian University Graduate can not practice what he or she has learnt in the four-wall of the classroom. Many went to school for the sake of attendance not for knowledge acquisition. The youth need to change there orientation about learning and seek to acquire knowledge.

Development of Educational System
The government need to invest more than ever before into the educational system. Private and non-governmental organisation alike need to be involved in the development of education, do it yourself and not leave it to the government alone. Nigerian youth are been trained to seek employment and not productive .