By Sunday Ajisafe
The 2020 #EndSARS protest was a landmark in the annals of the Nigerian polity. The protest, which was a climax of a lingering call by some concerned Nigerian youths against police brutality in Nigeria, especially, the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), a unit of the Nigerian Police, went ahead to expose the ills of a nation which has for a long time ignored the plights of the Nigerian youths. The EndSARS protest which took its name from the slogan that started in 2017 as a Twitter campaign using the hashtag #EndSARS to demand the disbanding of the unit by the Nigerian government was arguably an eye-opener for the stakeholders in the Nigerian polity. Though, with its complexities and controversies, the protest achieved one main thing; that any nation that takes her youth population for granted will pay dearly for it. Not that alone, it revealed the fact that, any country that fails to resourcefully engage her youth populace and productively harness its potentials is moving against the tide in this contemporary world.
For awhile, the Nigerian political system is believed not to considerably take the benefits of the youths into consideration. A good number of political analysts have continuously argued that since the beginning of this political dispensation in 1999, the youths have not relatively represented in the scheme of public governance and political administration. Hence the “not too young too rule” bill, an act of parliament which sought to reduce the age limit for running for elective office in Nigeria, sponsored by the members of the National Assembly, Tony Nwulu in the House of Representatives and AbdulAziz Nyako in the Senate was rigoriously pursued and passed into a law by the National Assembly. The law notwithstanding, the Nigerian Youth agenda remains unachieved.
Meanwhile , at different forum and in various ways, many individuals, groups and organisations have continued to stress the need for the youth populace to be reasonably and genuinely carried along in the nation’s political affairs. This school of thought argued that the Nigerian political class has for a very long time played lip service to the idea of bringing the youths to the mainstream of political governance. In this regard, many strategies have come up, why many ideas have surfaced. During political campaigns, government policy formation or projects implementations, the idea has continued to be a recurring issue in the polity. This idea, as Ekiti State is preparing for another gubernatorial election, has once again brought to the fore. However, this time around in a more spectacular through the candidate of the Young Progressive Party (YPP) in the forthcoming June 18th election, Debo Ranti Ajayi, popularly known as DRA in the Ekiti political space.
Debo Ranti Ajayi, who is currently listed among the 100 Nigerians leading transformational change is an Actuary by profession and Fellow of American Society of Actuaries as well as Fellow of Canadian Institute of Actuaries. The highest qualifications any Actuary could have in the world. The story of his academic excellence and life achievements started at University of Lagos where he became the university’s first student ever to graduate with a first class in Actuarial Science.
Debo Ajayi continued with the excellence feat in August 1987, when he left Nigeria to pursue post-graduate studies in Actuarial Mathematics at the University of Waterloo, Canada. At the University, he completed a breakthrough research work which was acknowledged in the Journal of Financial Studies. Upon graduation in 1988, he secured employment with an Insurance Company in Vancouver, B.C., Canada, living there with his family until year 2000.
In October 2000, DRA joined the American Life Insurance Company (an AIG company) in USA. He was soon posted to Dubai to serve as Chief Actuary for the Middle East, Africa and South Asia region. DRA witnessed first-hand the transformation of Dubai from 2001 until 2007 when he returned to the USA to assume global responsibilities as Senior Corporate Actuary. He left ALICO to assume position of Managing Director in a U.S based, global actuarial firm to establish Dubai office to serve Middle East, Africa and South Asia.
It was therefore, not a surprise, that In December 2011, based on his achievements and ideas in developing people and economies, he was called up by the then Ekiti State Governor to serve as the pioneer Commissioner for Budget & Economic Planning, where he introduced major reforms. He developed the tools and processes for budgeting, introduced participatory budgeting culture and the incorporation of Medium-Term Sectoral Strategy framework into budgeting cycle. In 2013, he became Commissioner for Trade, Investments and Innovations where he conceived and initiated the Ekiti Knowledge Zone project to promote a knowledge economy in Ekiti.
Through out his service with the government, he was always with the initiatives that will ensure a better tomorrow for the young generations. Therefore, as soon as he left government in 2014, he remained in Ekiti. He stayed back to establish an NGO called Ekitikete WandA (Warriors and Arrows) to connect Ekiti Intellectuals, Professionals and Industrialists (Warriors) to Ekiti Youths (Arrows) for the purpose of converting the unemployed Youths into productive members of society through counselling, mentoring and empowerment. Today, the initiative is a success story where a good number of Ekiti born youths and young leaders have been made and are doing greatly today in many areas of life. This is the idea and more of it that DRA wants to bring into governance. His intention is to supervise a government that will not only make the youth to have a great say, but would also make the youth to form the larger part of its administration as well as its policy making and implementation.
Speaking on his ideas for Ekiti youths, DRA brought to the fore his passion for youth development in correlation with the realities of the current socioeconomic status in regard to the creation of Ekiti Knowledge Zone, he said; “I was the one that conceived and designed Ekiti Knowledge Zone to provide a physical location where we can establish principles and standards that will attract global investors around knowledge-based industries. This was with an intention to create a platform for our teeming youths to be increasingly resourceful in the global market.”
With his ‘Youth Agenda’, Debo Ajayi also believes that the future of the youths should not be mortgaged in the name of acquiring debts. He said; It is also imperative that we stop amassing debt in Ekiti. We need equity capital. We cannot endanger future generations with unsustainable levels of debt. There’s optimal level of debt which we have long surpassed. We need a Governor that create wealth, not one that can simply manage money which we don’t have. We must invest in our youths and women for economic development. We need a vibrant Private Sector in Ekiti to absorb our glut of unemployed youth and diversity away from civil service jobs.”
“We should turn Agriculture into major source of wealth creation. Train and retain our youths to strategically provide high valued input into the food chain. Take advantage of our more than double national average yield in cassava by turning commercializing every aspect of cassava. The tuber, the stem, the leaves, among others. In this regard, our education should no longer just to fill our heads but must also to engage our hands. We need to review our education curriculum to ensure that we equip our students to actualize knowledge. I’m all for effective education. I’m also open to using local language by the teachers whenever it will aid comprehension.”
Sunday Ajisafe is a Public Affairs Analyst and writer from Ado Ekiti.
