Consultant urges youths to harness social capital

NIGERIAN youths have been urged to harness their social relationship or capital for future benefits.

A Media Consultant, Alhaja Adeola Agoro, made the call at the 2nd Annual Lecture of the Aliyu Ilias Foundation in Abuja on Thursday.

She explained that “social capital is a network of social connections that exist among people, and their shared values and norms of behaviour, which enables and encourages mutual beneficial social cooperation.”

Agoro said there was need for youths to build up social capital.

“You may be the CEO of your own company or a politician. To continue to achieve successes in all you do, you need to make social capital an important ingredient,” she said.

She added that one could use the social media to build up relationship for social capital, adding that social capital concept goes beyond networking.

Agoro called on the youths to use social capital to open the doors of their desired goals.

“We should ensure that members of our community hear from us and know what we do.

“So many things count in our lives that we take for granted. When we invest time in our neighbour and they in turn check on us, that is an accumulation of social capital.

“Social capital can open doors to gaining access to powerful positions through the direct and indirect use of social connects,” she added.

Convener of the lecture, Mr Aliyu Ilias, called on the youths to support the growth of education in the country.

Ilias said the topic of the lecture was to deepen the knowledge of Nigerians particularly the youths in education and contemporary issues.

“The aim of Aliyu Ilias foundation is to educate Nigerians on contemporary issues that will bring development.

“The topic, “Harnessing social capital in Nigeria’’, has become imperative, trust is very scarce in Nigeria, and with trust, people can relate with you, discuss with you’’, he said.

He called on Nigerians to work on their social capital as financial capital alone cannot do everything.