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Former Governor of Osun State and Pro-Chancellor of the University of Ibadan, Chief Bisi Akande, has warned that Nigeria’s stability and future prosperity depend heavily on how urgently it addresses youth unemployment, insecurity, and the need for good governance.
He issued the warning while delivering a goodwill message at the 19th Annual International Conference and General Assembly of the Society for Peace Studies and Practice (SPSP) held on Tuesday in Ibadan.
Speaking on the theme, “Reflections on Nigeria’s Quest to Attain Sustainable Peace and Prosperity in a Globalized World,” Akande said current global conflicts and geopolitical rivalries have created ripple effects that directly shape Nigeria’s internal security environment.
“We are witnessing an era where the normative principles of justice, fairness and human dignity have been replaced with crass opportunism,” he said, citing wars in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, and the Sahel as examples of global instability affecting local realities.
Akande said Nigeria is doubly challenged by external geopolitical pressures and internal insecurity, and urged scholars and policymakers at the conference to propose workable solutions. “Threats to our security and progress derive from external and internal causes,” he noted.
A major thrust of Akande’s message was the “peace-development nexus,” which emphasizes that peace, security, and socio-economic development must be pursued jointly.
He referenced African and global traditions of peacebuilding, arguing that peace is not merely the absence of war but the presence of justice, harmony, and fairness. For Africa, he said, peace is tied to what “promotes the integration of human society,” reflecting communal philosophy.
Quoting Amadei’s definition of peace, he described it as an “enabling violent-free state of dynamic equilibrium emerging from the right relationships among different populations.”
Akande stressed that sustainable peace requires good governance, saying it is built on justice, transparency, the rule of law, and institutions that protect social harmony.
He recalled former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s remarks that global security is impossible without development. “Extreme poverty and infectious diseases… provide fertile breeding grounds for threats including civil conflicts,” Akande quoted Annan as saying.
Nigeria, he argued, must embrace this logic if it hopes to overcome insecurity and build long-term prosperity.
Akande raised an alarm over Nigeria’s rapidly growing youth population, describing it as a decisive factor in the nation’s future stability.
Citing World Bank figures, he said Africa will host one-third of the world’s population by 2075, with Nigeria already home to 230 million people. “Almost 60% of Africa’s population is under the age of 25… and 58% of Nigeria’s population is under 30,” he said, calling it both a “demographic dividend” and a potential “time bomb.”
He warned that without jobs, education, and opportunities, this huge youth population could turn disruptive. “If we have about 60% of our population below the age of 30 with no jobs and no social welfare… we are in trouble,” he declared.
Akande delivered one of his most striking warnings when he said: “To act fast and effectively is to escape the fury of the anger of the untrained Nigerian youths.”
The elder statesman lamented that Nigeria remains unable to fully exploit its abundant natural resources because it lacks sufficient skilled manpower.
“Nigeria is blessed with enormous resources — 38 billion barrels of crude oil, 210 trillion cubic feet of gas, and over 200 solid minerals,” he noted, adding that the country also holds critical minerals needed for global energy transition.
Yet, he said, these assets have not translated into prosperity because “large populations of uneducated and untrained workers have no capacity to exploit these resources for our wealth. We are truly at wars with ourselves.”
Akande warned that if Nigeria fails to urgently develop scientific and technological capacity, foreign exploitation could re-emerge in new forms. He made a dramatic comparison: “We shall be lucky indeed if the itinerant foreign scientists and technologists don’t use their skills to kill all of us and occupy our lands as the whites did to the Red Indians in present day America.”
He suggested that banditry and terrorism are symptoms of a deeper crisis tied to ignorance, weak institutions, and underdevelopment—problems worsened by global economic and security pressures.
Akande concluded by urging Nigerian leaders, scholars, and institutions to urgently address the roots of insecurity by investing in education, science, technology, and governance reforms.
He argued that sustainable peace and prosperity will remain elusive unless Nigeria strengthens institutions, prioritizes youth development, and builds a just and equitable society.
“What we must pursue is a society where the larger population is happy and contented,” he said, drawing from the African philosophy of Ubuntu: “I am because we are.”
The goodwill message ended with a rallying appeal that Nigeria must not delay the urgent work of nation-building. “To act fast and effectively,” Akande emphasised once more, “is to escape the fury of the untrained Nigerian youths.”
Story by Dayo Emmanuel
