Salihu Tanko Yakasai, popularly known as Dawisu, is the founding curator of the Global Shapers Community of the World Economic Forum Kano Hub in Kano state. He is a former Special Adviser to the Kano State Governor on Media. Notable as a grassroots’ politician, Yakasai contributes momentously towards community development issues and initiatives. He speaks exclusively to Daily News24 on issues surrounding the Nigerian Youths.
DN24: The rumour which made rounds in the media that ‘Nigerian Youth are Lazy’ didn’t go well with the Youth. What is your take on it?
Yakasai: Generally, what exists among the Nigerian youth, is the lack of opportunities. Firstly, some people do not have the opportunity to get educated up till tertiary level, which is a huge problem. In the course of study, some students drop out of school from their primary and secondary levels, especially in the Northern part of the country.
Even those who are fortunate enough of having their education advanced to the university level are plagued by series of strike by ASSU, ASUP, NASU and the likes. They waste a good number of years seeking education while their mates abroad are advancing. After successfully graduating, how many of them get job opportunities?
In Nigeria, people of about 46 to 50 years will be tagged as youth, while people of such age abroad have advanced. Only a few youth are fortunate to get the opportunities they seek. The education system in the country also deprives the youth of the opportunity to shine and excel while they are young because they don’t get vocational skills.
DN24: Asides from corporate jobs, are there no opportunities for youth to thrive by becoming entrepreneurs?
Yakasai: There are a few opportunities, but because the business environment isn’t conducive for youths to successfully become Small and Medium Entrepreneurs (SMEs), it poses a huge challenge that looms in the youths’ faces. This is a major reason for the intensified unemployment amongst them. Till now, majority of Nigerias still leave below $1 a day.
Another factor that deprives the youth of success as SMEs is the high cost of setting up their businesses. It isn’t easy for a young person to go into a business without having capital, and access to capital has increasingly become problematic. This is a huge hindrance for young entrepreneurs to reach a level to sustain themselves. Even if the government is trying to improve the situation, unfortunately, it isn’t enough to remedy it.
Moreover, many of our young entrepreneurs lack professionalism in their business. Some of them have a passion but don’t know how to operate their businesses professionally. Hence, the government must equip them with the necessary skills and right tools to upgrade and know how to run their passion as a business because it is a different thing to have a passion and another thing to run it as a business. They need to be trained and given the necessary skills to become advanced in their businesses.
DN24: How can the youth go into small scale businesses make their brand visible at a low cost?
Yakasai: Social media is the best option youth could utilize to make their business visible. With platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Whatsapp and the likes, they can sell their market to their audience at a meagre cost. Those who have developed their social media platform can easily advertise, and in no time, many people will see it.
I have huge followers on social media, and posting about people’s businesses is something I’ve been doing for a long time, and I don’t charge a dime. Those who do not have huge followership on social media could approach those with large followers to assist them in posting their businesses online. Those who need this kind of assistance can also come to me and request that aid, and I will do it free of charge.
Even if some social media influencers or people with many followers request a fee, it is still better because the cost will be meagre, compared to the advert changes of traditional media like Billboard, TV, Radio and others. Another good thing about social media advertising is targeting a certain local government area or a locality that the advert should cover. The youth in business need to understand how the social media space works.
DN24: How can the government ameliorate unemployment among the youth?
Yakasai: Technical and vocational skills have to be included in the education system in such a way that while a person is studying, that individual will be learning a viable skill that that person can use to get something tangible. It is so appalling that individuals from nearby Senegal, Benin Republic, Ghana and others take our Jobs. As little as cooking is, we have people from other countries who are professional cooks in houses and organizations here in Nigeria, despite the teaming number of unemployed youth.
Because of the lack of mastery of certain skills by a good number of Nigerian youths, many foreigners who are skilful in those technical and vocational skills takeover jobs meant for the Nigerian youth, which keeps adding to the reasons for unemployment amongst the youth in the country. If those skills are mandatory for education in Nigeria, many youth wouldn’t lack jobs because there is always a market for whatever skill in Nigeria.
DN24: What hopes do you see for the Nigerian Youth?
Yakasai: It is good that most Nigerian youth have realized the need to polish the various professions they are engaged in. For instance, many of them who are into baking, entertainment, tailoring and the likes have tried to advance their professions by moving along with the best practices and going by what we see on social media, and they are doing well.
Nigerians are always successful wherever they go, so they are sometimes attacked, just like the xenophobic attacks in South Africa. The phase where I think the youths have to forge ahead is a collaborative one in that they have to come together in the professional sense to enhance their respective profession collectively because they are in the stage of capacity building and polishing their individual profession.
When they come together to form communities based on their different professions, they would be able to share ideas and opportunities and harness the power of togetherness to face the dwindling challenges in their professions, rather than waiting for a solution to pop up from nowhere. With this, they will have a support system that will also help achieve bigger goals.
DN24: Ahead of the 2023 elections, do you think Nigerian youth will be given opportunities?
Yakasai: Politically, I think the Nigerian youth will have opportunities simply because the older ones are beginning to realize that the youth have come of age. A lot of the politicians who are working with the younger generation are not only keen on the elections but also post-election. I hope that many of the youths will take advantage of opportunities as they surface.
For the first time in a long time, I think we will experience an avenue whereby the older generation will exit the scene, particularly from 2023 because almost all of them at the top will hopefully quit, in a bid to give the youths a chance. Many of them are already ancient, and politically, 2023 will be their last bus stop.
Starting from 2027, we will begin to see a huge generational change in leadership because I want to believe that many of our governors will be those that will be in their fifties and under that alone, we have a generational change. When the younger ones come to the scene, I am also confident that they will work with the much younger ones to prepare them for the future.
