8. Opinion: Youths and the Renewed Hope Agenda
Context and Background
When President Bola Ahmed Tinubu campaigned on the promise of a “Renewed Hope” agenda, the phrase carried particular weight for Nigeria’s young people. For a generation shaped by economic instability, unemployment, insecurity, weak public services and a distrust of political institutions, hope cannot be merely rhetorical. It must be visible in the quality of schools, the accessibility of jobs, the affordability of data, the responsiveness of public agencies and the credibility of elections.
Nigeria is one of the world’s youngest countries by population. Its demographic profile should be a strategic advantage: a large working-age population, rapidly expanding digital entrepreneurship, a globally recognised creative sector and young citizens who are increasingly literate in technology, media and public affairs. Yet the country’s youth dividend remains precarious. A large number of young Nigerians continue to navigate precarious work, informal employment, migration pressures and limited access to capital, despite possessing skills that could accelerate national development.
The central question for the Renewed Hope Agenda is therefore not whether young Nigerians are prepared to participate in national transformation. They already are. The question is whether government institutions, political parties and public-sector leaders are prepared to share authority with them.
Youth participation must not be reduced to campaign rallies, social-media endorsements or appointments that carry impressive titles but little institutional influence. It requires deliberate reforms that enable young Nigerians to shape budgets, monitor public programmes, build digital public infrastructure and participate meaningfully in governance at federal, state and local levels.
“The security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government.” — Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), Section 14(2)(b)
This constitutional principle should be understood not as an abstract declaration, but as a practical obligation. The welfare of Nigeria’s people includes whether young graduates can find dignified work, whether innovators can access finance, whether citizens can communicate with their representatives, and whether public policy reflects the lived experience of those who will inhabit the country’s future longest.
Youths as Drivers, Not Spectators
Nigerian youths have repeatedly shown their capacity to set the country’s public agenda. The #EndSARS protests of 2020 demonstrated the speed with which digitally connected citizens could organise around issues of police accountability, constitutional rights and state violence. Although the protests were followed by painful controversies, including the events at the Lekki Toll Gate, their enduring significance lies in the civic awakening they represented.
Young Nigerians did not merely demand an end to a notorious police unit. They raised broader questions about the legitimacy of public institutions, the transparency of security spending, the treatment of detainees and the obligation of government to protect fundamental rights. The movement also revealed a generation that understood the power of data, livestreams, online fundraising, legal aid networks and citizen journalism.
This energy should not be regarded by government as a threat to be contained. It should be treated as a national asset to be organised, protected and constructively incorporated into democratic life.
There are already examples of youth-led innovation across Nigeria. The country’s technology ecosystem, particularly in Lagos, Abuja and emerging hubs in cities such as Ibadan, Enugu, Kano and Ilorin, has produced fintech firms, health-tech ventures, logistics platforms and creative enterprises with continental reach. Young professionals are building software for businesses, designing financial products for underserved communities and creating cultural content that has expanded Nigeria’s global influence.
But innovation cannot flourish sustainably where public policy is unpredictable, electricity is unreliable, capital is expensive and internet access remains unaffordable for many households. The state’s role is not to replace young innovators; it is to create the legal, regulatory and physical conditions in which innovation can endure.
Digital Literacy as a Public Good
Digital literacy should be treated as a foundational civic and economic skill, not a luxury reserved for urban elites. In the twenty-first century, the ability to assess online information, use productivity tools, understand digital security and access government services is closely connected to a citizen’s ability to participate in society.
The Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, under the leadership of Dr Bosun Tijani, has placed digital skills and innovation prominently in public discussion. Such emphasis is welcome. Yet national ambition must be matched by local implementation. A young person in a rural community should not be excluded from digital opportunities because of poor network coverage, lack of electricity or the absence of adequately trained teachers.
Digital-skills programmes should therefore move beyond short-term training announcements. They should include modernised school curricula, community technology centres, accessible devices, teacher training, broadband expansion and support for women and girls who face persistent barriers in science and technology fields. They should also recognise that literacy today includes the capacity to identify disinformation, protect personal data and engage responsibly in digital public debate.
In a country where official information is often communicated late, inconsistently or in language inaccessible to ordinary citizens, young people have become informal interpreters of government policy. On social platforms, they explain tax measures, court decisions, electoral rules, fuel-price changes and exchange-rate developments. Government should not leave this civic education to chance.
Legal and Policy Analysis
Nigeria possesses a substantial legal and policy framework that, properly implemented, could support greater youth inclusion. The problem is not a complete absence of law. It is the recurring gap between statutory commitments and administrative practice.
Under Section 39 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), every person is entitled to freedom of expression, including the freedom to hold opinions and receive and impart ideas and information without interference. This right is central to youth participation. Young citizens cannot contribute meaningfully to governance if criticism is dismissed as disloyalty, online speech is treated automatically as a security threat, or public institutions fail to answer legitimate questions.
“Every person shall be entitled to freedom of expression, including freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart ideas and information without interference.” — Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), Section 39(1)
The Freedom of Information Act 2011 provides another essential instrument. It gives citizens a legal basis to seek records held by public institutions, subject to specified exemptions. For young researchers, journalists, civic-tech developers and community organisers, the Act can be a powerful means of obtaining budget documents, procurement information and programme data. But its promise is weakened when ministries, departments and agencies delay responses, fail to maintain proper records or lack designated information officers with the authority to act.
There is also the Nigeria Startup Act 2022, a significant effort to create a more enabling environment for technology-enabled businesses. The law provides a framework for startup labelling, regulatory support, incentives and engagement between innovators and government. Its importance lies in recognising that young entrepreneurs require more than motivational speeches: they require predictable rules, access to funding, intellectual-property protection and protection from arbitrary regulatory disruption.
Likewise, the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023 is increasingly relevant to the youth economy. As more young Nigerians work in fintech, e-commerce, digital media and artificial intelligence, personal data has become both an economic resource and a rights issue. Government-led digitalisation must not create a surveillance culture in which citizens surrender privacy in exchange for access to essential services. The Nigeria Data Protection Commission has an important role in ensuring that public and private actors handle citizens’ information lawfully and transparently.
Political inclusion has also advanced, at least formally. The constitutional amendment popularly known as the Not Too Young To Run Act, signed in 2018 by former President Muhammadu Buhari, reduced age requirements for certain elective offices. It was a landmark reform, driven by young Nigerians who argued that leadership should not be monopolised by older political elites.
Yet age eligibility is not the same as political access. The cost of party nomination forms, the influence of godfathers, opaque party primaries and the expense of campaigning still prevent many capable young people from contesting elections. Political parties must therefore reform their internal structures. Youth wings should not serve only as mobilisation machines; they should have voting power, policy influence and transparent pathways into leadership.
From Consultation to Co-Governance
The government should establish concrete mechanisms through which young citizens can participate in policy design and oversight. These should include youth advisory councils with published mandates, open recruitment processes for public-sector innovation fellowships, participatory budgeting at local-government level and regular town halls in which ministers and governors answer questions directly.
Importantly, these platforms must not be ceremonial. A youth council that cannot see budget proposals, publish recommendations or receive formal responses from government is little more than public relations. Young people should be represented in procurement-monitoring groups, climate-policy processes, education boards, technology committees and urban-planning discussions.
The National Youth Policy and the work of institutions such as the Federal Ministry of Youth Development can provide an administrative foundation. But policy documents have value only where targets are measurable. Government should publish annual data on youth employment programmes, disaggregated by state, gender, disability status and sector. It should disclose how many beneficiaries obtain durable employment after training, rather than celebrating enrolment figures alone.
Communicating Policy in an Age of Distrust
A major weakness in Nigerian governance is the communication gap between policymakers and citizens. Complex reforms are often announced without clear explanations of their timing, costs, legal basis or expected outcomes. This creates fertile ground for misinformation and deepens public suspicion.
The removal of fuel subsidy, exchange-rate reforms and other economic measures may be debated on their merits, but citizens are entitled to clear and honest information about how such decisions affect them. Young Nigerians, many of whom are active on X, Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp and YouTube, are not difficult to reach. What they reject is communication that appears patronising, evasive or detached from daily hardship.
Government agencies should communicate in plain language, publish accessible data and engage independent experts, student organisations, professional associations and community media. Policy communication should also occur in major Nigerian languages, not exclusively in formal English. Transparency is not simply a public-relations strategy; it is an instrument of democratic legitimacy.
Impact and Future Outlook
The socio-economic stakes are considerable. If Nigeria equips its young people with relevant education, digital access, civic freedoms and pathways into productive work, it can convert demographic pressure into national strength. A more inclusive economy would expand the tax base, reduce insecurity, improve innovation and lessen the desperation that drives dangerous migration routes and criminal recruitment.
Conversely, persistent exclusion carries costs. A generation that sees no route into formal politics, no reward for education and no accountability from public institutions may withdraw from democratic participation altogether. Such alienation is harmful not only to young people; it weakens the state itself.
The future of the Renewed Hope Agenda will be judged less by slogans than by whether it creates credible opportunities for citizens under 35. It will be judged by the quality of public schools, the reach of broadband, the integrity of elections, the openness of budgets and the willingness of officials to accept scrutiny.
Nigeria does not need to choose between the wisdom of older generations and the energy of the young. It needs a deliberate partnership between both. Experienced leaders possess institutional memory, political knowledge and historical perspective. Young Nigerians bring technological fluency, urgency, creativity and a sharper understanding of the country’s changing social realities.
Renewed hope becomes meaningful when it is shared as power, not offered as a promise. The government’s task is to build the platforms, legal safeguards and public institutions that allow young Nigerians not merely to inherit the future, but to govern, design and defend it.
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