by Okoli Christian
It is common knowledge that youths make up more than 50% of the Nigerian population. It is also common knowledge that the youths do not have a voice in Nigeria. There are many presumptions about youths such as youths being irresponsible, unskilled, and violent among others. These presumptions are wrong. Unfortunately, youths do not have the opportunity or platform to present their ideas, skills or knowledge on issues that concern them. A group of young people have decided to change all that by starting an initiative called the UrbanSpace.
The UrbanSpace is a community of young people who have skills, ideas, knowledge and various competencies. They will come together to pitch out these ideas with a view to spur growth and development of the nation. The UrbanSpace is designed to spur a new culture among young people where they are able to take action to bring about national transformation and spur growth within their communities. Each UrbanSpace will have various segments which are:
⦁ Entrepreneurial education: This will enlighten young people about how to start up their business, how to grow their business, how to kick off their registration without major bottlenecks among others.
⦁ Intellectual discussion on issues of good governance, among others. This is an intellectual feast where a renowned scholar or practitioner on any major community or national issue will present ideas of how a new culture of change can be inspired and young people will be able to challenge status quo and contribution to national transformation.
⦁ Moment of inspiration: A lot of young people are doing various positive things that are helping growth and development within their communities. This can become an inspiration to many young people who will realize that they too can contribute to national development using their skills, knowledge and indeed their talents.
⦁ Meet and greet (networking): meeting new people can be fun. Establishing new relationships can help move your ideas and spur growth. The UrbanSpace brings up opportunities for growth and development through networking.
⦁ Debate: Daily young people in Nigeria use the social media to express their frustration with the current political climate. These ideas end on social media platform and are not moved forward towards taking action. It is common knowledge that debate is fundamental to democracy and each debated idea becomes better. In this regards the debate session of the UrbanSpace provides an opportunity for youths to debate on the current political clime and draw pitch ideas and learn lessons necessary for national development and spur community growth.
⦁ All work and no play makes jack a dull boy. Youths are people with energy and having fun is never a bad idea. At the end of the UrbanSpace event entertainment will be used to reward a day of hard work at the UrbanSpace. This may come in form of music, spoken word poetry, drama among others.
– See more at: http://blueprintafric.com/news/urbanspace_inspiring_a_new_culture.html#sthash.lbljtiXE.dpuf
