YOUTH IN DEVELOPMENT POLICY: TOKENISM OR TRANSFORMATION? THE CASE OF NIGERIA

Abstract

The study focused on Youth in development policy in Nigeria. Its main objective was to examine whether youth inclusion in Nigeria’s development policies represents tokenism or genuine structural transformation. The study was guided by specific objectives to: identify and review any relevant youth development policies in Nigeria within 2020 - 2025 framework; assess the extent to which the identified policies have translated into structural changes in youths' access to education, employment, healthcare, and political participation; and to compare Nigeria’s youth development policy outcomes with a sub-Saharan African country (South Africa). To achieve these objectives, the study adopted a qualitative research design in its methodology. This entailed a critical descriptive analytical approach (CDA): this involved a critical textual/content analysis of multiple case studies on development policies in Nigeria within 2020 - 2025 band (like, the 'National Youth Policy 2019 - 2023'; and the 'Nigerian Development Plans 2021 - 2025'), including a comparative case from South Africa (SA) the 'National Youth Policy 2020 - 2030' (focusing on its 2020 - 2025 early implementation phase). Its sources of data relied exclusively on secondary data derived from the qualitative review of policy documents in Nigeria (2020 - 2025) including their transformative outcomes. The study employed the purposive sampling technique which enabled relevant case studies on development plans in Nigeria,  and SA (for a comparative analysis) to be included. It employed a thematic method of data analysis involving these sequential procedures: First, data familiarization/reading of the policy transcripts of the selected case study countries; second, interpretation of the documents with critical analytical emphasis on the implementation outcomes; next, a cross-case thematic comparison between Nigeria and SA while anchoring the analytical framework on 'tokenism-transformation continuum'. Tabulated youth human capital development indicators, and tabulated comparative policy effectiveness assessment supported by WoS Studies, and the HDI of the case study countries were included in the analysis. The findings, backed up by a comparative WoS/Scopus indexed studies, identified relevant youth  development policies and development plans in Nigeria (NYP 2019 - 2023; and NDP 2021 - 2025) for analysis, including NYP 2020 - 2030 (for SA), revealing that: Nigeria’s policies vis-a-vis SA lack effectiveness in its framework as it is observed to be mere aspirational, and weak in implementation; there was limited substantive structural transformation in Nigeria’s youths' employment, education, healthcare,  and political participation outcomes despite their provisional inclusion; etc. A few recommendations were made: Government should institutionalize meaningful youth participation in governance; government should improve policy implementation and accountability, inter alia.

Keywords: development, youth-in-development, policy discourse, structural transformation, tokenism

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