AYO OLAWANDE: A MAN ON A MISSION

The Minister of Youth Development is on track, reckons JOSHUA J. OMOJUWA

When he was announced as the Minister of State for Youth Development, Comrade Ayodele Olawande sent me a text message about the appointment. I told him I was aware and that he was deserving of it. That is what you say to someone who has just been appointed and saw you a friend, ally or family enough to inform you. Because in those moments, many others, including those they do not really know, are looking to connect, re-connect or must-connect with them. He has since gone from being the Minister of State, where he was redundant to being a substantive Minister. He has since moved the ministries performance and efficiency from the 20s to tending toward the 80s percentage, on Hadiza Bala Usman’s marking scheme.

Ayodele Olawande has been Minister for a year. In that period, I have seen him set up a Nigerian Youth HelpDesk, launched to give Nigerian youth a platform to connect with the government and receive immediate support. Designed to be trouble-shooting, it is intended to address specific issues identified by young people who are pragmatic enough to make a call or send an email. He helped to advance a partnership with the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) to launch DL4ALL program to train 30 million young people in digital literacy. Ambitious, but not impossible. Digital literacy and skills are essential for the century of AI and this Minister has led the mission to ensure young people aren’t without the tools to face it.

Conversations on Digital Skills and AI are transcendental for young people who just want to feed here and now. To even start them on what this century demands of them, you’ve got to them feed them to get through the day. This is why the ministry’s partnership with the Presidential Initiative on CNG to deliver CNG-Powered Tricycles to 2,000 youth in the transportation sector, seemingly insignificant in the grand scheme of Nigeria’s challenges, went a long way in addressing the pressing needs of those who were lucky to be plugged in.

Young people generally knock their own. Because whilst they have low expectations of the older generation, they have high standards for their peers. That’s a blessing and a curse. It is a blessing because high standards are essential in a world where mediocrity seems to be the norm, but low expectations can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. In such a situation, a young person could miss out on the Youth Ministry’s partnership with the National Data Protection Commission (NDPC) to train and deliver 5,000 jobs to youth in the data protection and privacy sector. If you have no or such low expectations, you are often blinded from opportunities such as these.

In a broadcast by President Bola Tinubu, he referenced the Minister spearheading a National Youth Conference to foster dialogue and engagement with the government, and to create a platform for youth nationwide to deliberate and proffer solutions to specific youth issues and challenges.  This is yet to happen but it is not because Minister Olawande hasn’t set the ball in motion and advanced his intentions in the right quarters.

Amidst an avalanche of mental issues amongst young people, the minister set up a Department of Youth Health, Mental and Psychosocial Affairs (YHMPA). This is with young people and modern society’s pressing challenges in mind. Youth Health, is a national programme designed to place the health and wellbeing of young Nigerians at the heart of national development. Built on four strategic objectives—Raising Awareness, Empowering Youth, Advocacy and Policy Influence, and Design/Co-creation/Co-implementation—(READ), it provides a structured response to pressing youth health challenges. Guided by six evidence-based pillars (Mental Health, Alcohol/Drug Abuse, Communicable Diseases, Health Insurance, Non-Communicable Diseases, and Sexual & Reproductive Health), Yo! Health promotes inclusiveness, partnerships, and evidence-driven interventions to ensure young people are equipped to lead healthier, more productive lives.

Yo! Health expanded its advocacy and visibility in the second half of 2025 as it was showcased at the 4th Nigeria Conference on Adolescent and Youth Health and Development in Port Harcourt, where it got the attention of several delegates.

For someone who was appointed substantive Minister on the 23rd October, 2024, the second quarter performance review of the Ministry by the Central Delivery Coordination Unit (CDCU) reflects some progress against the benchmarks set by the ministry. Having set a target of training 10,000 youths in digital skills, it did almost 15,000, surpassing its own expectations by a mile and more. Olawande’s ministry projected to support 80,000 youths in mentorship, internship, apprenticeship, and career development but it went beyond that, reaching a target of almost 100,000 young people at 97,000 beneficiaries.

Numbers matter, but beyond the aforementioned numbers and the ones that will be recounted by the ministry as proof of work done, the Youth Minister has been a breath of fresh air, connecting with young people wherever he goes and staying grounded, managing to retain the same persona as before he was minister. In a world where people are quick to get carried away by their office, he has instead chosen to carry the office with his own persona.

This is why this cannot be in praise Ayodele Olawande. There really is nothing to be praised. He has gone about the business of the president’s mandate like a man on a mission and has been about it with the zeal of an evangelist and the clarity of an eagle. He is not the type to enjoy the pleasure of pens and the praise of many, because the ministry could be better funded. Plus even if they had the resources, I doubt that he’d commit to funding any effort to advance his own praises where such could be put to use to promote the interest of the youth. This is exactly why this is not in praise of Ayo Olawande. I have only come to say it as it is. It is a tough job, as I am sure he has come to learn, but whilst he can do much more, he is on track.

 Omojuwa is chief strategist, Alpha Reach/BGX Publishing