Nigeria’s youth could become a ‘curse’ without education, opportunity — Ndoma-Egba warns

Former Senate Leader Victor Ndoma-Egba has issued a powerful warning about Nigeria’s growing youth population, describing it as a potential “demographic curse” if the government fails to invest in education, skills development, and meaningful opportunities.

Speaking during an interview on “The Exchange”, a podcast hosted by journalist Femi Soneye, Ndoma-Egba shared deep reflections on Nigeria’s socio-economic trajectory, drawing from his decades of public service and legal experience.

According to him, while Nigeria’s youth represent a vast resource for national development, their potential remains largely untapped due to persistent unemployment, poor educational standards, and a lack of economic inclusion.

“Our young people are our greatest asset, but without education, skills, and jobs, they will become our greatest liability,” he cautioned.

The former lawmaker traced the country’s downward slide from the hopeful post-independence era when Nigeria was one of the world’s fastest-growing economies to the present state of institutional weakness and economic decline.

Ndoma-Egba asserted that the foundation of the current challenges lies in the failure to build strong institutions, a problem he sees as fundamentally cultural. He criticised a national tendency to be “so differential to authority” and “very timid about holding authority to account,” a deference that prevents effective scrutiny of governance and allows for structural inefficiencies to persist.

One of the greatest inefficiencies, he argued, is the ballooning cost of governance, which he first encountered as a young commissioner in the mid-1980s. He explained that efforts to cut costs by consolidating multiple ministries under a few commissioners led to an unsustainable workload. This over-bureaucracy sacrifices efficiency, which he says creates an opportunistic environment for corruption.

He used his tenure at the NDDC as a prime example of institutional failure, noting that the agency, though well-conceived, was crippled by intense political interference and the abandonment of its foundational master plan. He revealed a staggering 62 ‘stops’ for payment processing within the agency, a system guaranteed to breed bureaucracy, inefficiency, and corruption.

The Senator also highlighted the institutional volatility at the NDDC, where boards are dissolved without notice or due process. He believes that a simple experiment—allowing the current board to serve its full term as stipulated by law—could inject the stability needed for proper planning and execution.

In the legislative arm, he faced the challenge of a deeply unpopular National Assembly following long periods of military rule. The public viewed the institution as an “irritation” that the country functioned without. He emphasized that the perception of new political class often exacerbated this hostility, citing the misinformation that fueled the furniture allowance saga.

Returning to the youth demographic, Ndoma-Egba stressed that youth brings vital “innovation, energy, and daring courage” but will only be an asset if a deliberate policy is made to invest in them. “If they are not educated, if they are not skilled, if they are not empowered, they become a curse,” he warned.

He passionately advocated for education as the starting point, as it “opens your mind… to all sorts of opportunities.” Furthermore, he cautioned that an educated person without opportunity is also a threat, warning that an “educated armed robber is more dangerous.” The government must actively create an environment of opportunity.

Senator Ndoma-Egba concluded with a call for a return to economic productivity and enhanced security, the twin pillars of his vision for the future: a “secure and prosperous Nigeria.” He stressed that the stability and well-being of the next generation depend on immediately reversing the trends of institutional instability and youth neglect.