USED AND DUMPED: THE CHALLENGES OF THE NIGERIAN YOUTH AND NATION BUILDING

Abstract

This paper is a study on the challenges of the Nigerian youth and her exclusion in the processes of nation building in post-colonial Nigeria. The youth form a significant part of the demographic structure of the country; therefore, serious attention should be paid to their role in nation building. Once they are excluded in efforts that are made to foster growth and development, lasting national cohesion becomes a daunting task. Sadly, the exclusion of the Nigerian youth in all the efforts targeted at nation building has resulted to a tale of woes such as unemployment, violence and thuggery. Nigeria is a multi-ethnic nation, with over 250 ethnic nationalities of divergent historical trajectories, and of course the most populous country in Africa which has been united by compelling historical forces of change and continuity. These nations are bound by a common government and also occupy a common national location with a myriad of issues that confront the youth of the nation. The paper tries to lend a voice to a body of scholarly works that captured the youth as one of the greatest agencies of building Nigeria into a virile nation. The paper will among other things consider the challenges of the Nigerian youth vis-a-vis nation building. It will also address various factors which act as pull-factors and how the youth population could be co-opted and integrated into this building process for the actualisation of nationhood. The paper concludes that the youth should not just be used and dumped, but integrated into the holistic nation building process else nation building in Nigeria would remain a far cry.