‎Youth, women future of greater Nigeria —Walter Carrington

For Nigeria to become a great nation, not only Africa but the whole world, women and youth participation in policy-making has been identified as a way out.

Walter Carrington, the former United States Ambassador to Nigeria gave the summation at a public lecture in Lagos with the theme, “Nigeria and Africa in a changing world.”

At the public lecture organised by the Lagos State Office of Overseas Affairs and Investment, Carrington recalled the years of the fight for civil rights.

“I became especially close to the African contingents and returned home as committed to African liberation and independence as I was to the Civil Rights struggle in America in which I was already much involved,” he recalled.

Looking forward, he predicted that the country would be a major stance in the world as projected, not only in term of the population but it’s economy as well.

“The Population Division of the UN predicts that by 2050 Africa will account for more than half of the world’s population growth.  During that same period, Nigeria will replace the United States as the world’s third most populist nation.

“Today, you are number seven. By 2050 you will be one of only six, along with India, China, Indonesia, Pakistan and the United States whose population will exceed 300 million.  You will, by then, be not only the giant of Africa but one of the titans of the world,” he said.

He, however, noted that despite Nigeria being the 20th largest economy in the world, it continued to be frozen out of membership in confederations of nations which are thought to be the most important in the world.

“Nigeria is not regarded as influential enough internationally or regionally to be included in the company of Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States,”

He, therefore, advised that Nigerian leaders should give more opportunity to women and youths to take the nation to a height that has been projected years back.

“That explosion can be best diffused by allowing the youth to have a greater say in the formation of the policies which will affect their lives far longer than those of the old men who draw them up.

“We must leave our heirs a legacy of good governance which they will be proud to emulate. Let them inherit an Africa far freer from the inequality, corruption, and venality which characterize too many of its governments.

“We must throughout the continent give more hope to the burgeoning youth population lest in their growing disillusionment they become an angry proletariat no longer believing in the dreams of their founding fathers.

He stated that male elites need to give up their monopoly of power and allow for women to enjoy the same opportunities, rights, and privileges which my gender has, since the dawn of history, arrogated to ourselves.

“Women must be far more numerically present in the halls of power if they are to change the laws and customs which relegate them to the status of second-class citizens.  Both morality and practicality demand this,” he said.