Youth Challenges and Failures of Stakeholders Intervention in Africa : The Experience of the Nigerian Lazy Youth

Youth in Africa makes up most of the population of the Continent. Ideally, this demography should be an advantage to the continent in terms of human resources. However, this has not been the case. This study examined the challenges of youth in Africa, in general, and Nigeria, in particular; as well as efforts made by stakeholders, including governments to tackle these challenges. Qualitative method was adopted for the study. This included both primary and secondary sources of data. The primary source relied on observations. The secondary source relied on a critical analysis of extant literature, media reports and desktop publications. The data was analysed using descriptive approach and result presented thematically. The study revealed among other things that the challenges confronting the youth is multifaceted ranging from poor health and non-inclusiveness to lack of opportunities. It further revealed that interventions to address the challenges have fallen short as a result of corruption, non-inclusiveness, among others. It recommended that, the major stakeholders, especially governments across the continent, should appropriate policies that will ameliorate these challenges by creating an enabling environment, involve the youth in policy making, good governance, and inclusiveness among others.

Keywords:
Youth, Unemployment, Crimes, Africa, Nigeria, Not too young to run