SUMMY FRANCIS (President, Africa’s Young Entrepreneurs)-I Challenge Buhari To Involve The Youth To Provide Solutions To Nigeria’s Economic Challenges

It is of great concern that the status of the Nigerian economy has affected both the young and old. The youth are in total defiance of what our leaders have driven the nation into with unism of thoughts and actions.

I urge Nigerians to stay calm and positive as the catastrophic and calamitous state were mistakes of some arguably past leaders and generation. I ponder on how our Nation’s economic stance has been viewed with disdain by some world powers even the citizens.

It is a note to us that we can’t give the right to a solution to those who brought it upon us.

Fellow Nigerians, our inability to self-sustain through our manufacturing, agricultural and natural resources sectors have encouraged unprintable names such as radical consumers, aggressive buyers and the dumping site for unconsumed or faulty parts on the “Giant of Africa”.

A country with over 180 Million citizens scampers for crumbs and pleas for debt reliefs rent the nation’s air. Conditions are been stifled with the geometric increase of the dollar to the Naira, inconsistent policies excavate the markets potential hence the dearth of businesses and plummeting prices of oil worldwide.

In the words of Aries Spears; “To sustain longevity, we have to evolve.” His Excellency, President Buhari should consider entrepreneurship solutions as a bounce back of the country’s economy. The intervention of young brilliant minds should be employed for vibrant positions in the regions of governance rather than mere blogger and photographers. We are smarter than the positions ascribed to the youth.

The buoyancy of most nations is in the vibrancy of the youth; the ministerial cabinet has less than 3% of Nigerians aged 50 and below. On the otherhand, I beseech all political parties and heads to shove aside their political differences; they should come together as great citizens of the country to fix our national issues. These issues are a ticking time bomb that will be carcinogenic and should not be handled with kid gloves. Nigeria is our future and they should stop toiling with it!

If Mark Zuckerberg’s (31yrs) annual net-worth generated can sustain a large percentage of Nigeria or Jan Koum at 39yrs generating the allocation of more than 29 states or Ashish Thakka (34yrs) earning more than the entire South-West states and Colin Thornton (35yrs) ROI is higher than IGR of Lagos State. These examples have a unifying tone, they are all young entrepreneurs and not politicians.

Recently, every strata of discussion and campaign suggest, ‘Made in Nigeria’ but my question goes thus; with what skills, with what machinery and with what infrastructures do we achieve this? The enabling environment must be provided for businesses to thrive as the necessary resources such as power must be addressed to reduce the dearth of start-ups and SMEs.

History has a place in time, President Buhari led this great country at the age of 41, Yakubu Gowon at 32, Aguyi Irosi at 42, Muritala Mohammed at 37, Ibrahim Babaginda at 44 and Olusegun Obasanjo at 39.

Therefore, we cannot undermine the strength and mental capability of the youth as we are the nation’s asset and should be involved in the economic development process. In the past weeks, there has been an outcry from thousands to millions of young entrepreneurs in Nigeria. This has brought to our attention as an organization that we have no choice than to offer entrepreneurial solution kits to the current perplexity.

We can proffer our economic solution portfolio (ESP) through our economic development team that will proportionately have a positive turn in rebuilding our nation and lift us from the dunghill.

Let us all remember that “We voted for change and we are entitled to be part of the change process.”