There is a moment many young people know too well.
It usually happens late at night when the phone is finally silent and there is nothing left to distract you. You begin thinking about your life.
Some of your classmates are getting married. Some have landed jobs abroad. Others seem to be building businesses, buying cars, or posting pictures of achievements that make it look like they have everything figured out.
Then you look at your own life and quietly ask yourself a question you would never say out loud.
"Am I falling behind?"
It is a heavy question because it carries fear, uncertainty, and the pressure to become somebody before time seems to run out.
The truth is that millions of young people, not just in Nigeria but across the world, are asking themselves the same question. They are trying to find work, build meaningful lives, discover who they are, and navigate a world that often feels more demanding than ever before.
Growing up has never been easy, but today's generation faces challenges that previous generations could hardly have imagined. Understanding those challenges is the first step toward overcoming them.
Introduction
The challenges facing the youth in Nigeria and youth all over the world are uncountable.
Youth today are the greatest gem of any Nation and upon which the development of a country is dependent on.
According to UN, youth is a period of transition from dependence childhood to independence adulthood. For UN, anyone between the ages of 15 to 24 is a youth.
The African Youth charter age bracket for a youth is 25 to 35 years.
The difficulties of young persons are not hidden, they are glaring. A lot of young persons parade the street aimlessly and most in fear, in fear of what life is going to throw (has already thrown) at them. What if I don't make it in life? This is the question many if not all youth ask themselves.
Can these challenges facing the youth be mitigated or be brought to barest minimum? They can but it is only when there is a great enlightenment and understanding of these challenges can solutions be proffered.
Let's look at these challenges facing the youths both in Nigeria, Africa and in the world.
Every young person reading this has, at one point or another, sat quietly with their own thoughts and wondered, "will I make it in life?" That fear is not imagined, it is shaped by real, everyday struggles that surround young people in Nigeria and across the world. Before we go further, one small correction worth noting for accuracy. According to the actual text of the African Youth Charter, the age bracket recognized for youth is 15 to 35 years, slightly different from the 25 to 35 range mentioned above, while the United Nations defines youth as those between 15 and 24 years. Different bodies, different numbers, but the same underlying truth, this is a season of life packed with pressure, transition, and uncertainty.
Let's walk through the 7 biggest challenges facing the youth today, both in Nigeria and around the world.
Table of Contents
- Unemployment
- Lack of Mentoring and Coaching
- Lack of Adequate Education
- Social Media Addiction
- Shortcuts and Get Rich Quick Mentality
- Lack of Self Awareness
- Peer Influence
Challenges Facing the Youths All Over the World
How Unemployment Has Worsened the Problems of the Youth
One of the greatest fear of a youth especially a Nigeria Youth is lack of jobs. Most youth have asked and some adolescents are asking too.
What is the importance of spending large amount of money schooling when you are not sure of a job after graduation?
Unemployment has increased the number of idle young persons thereby increasing the level of social menace and moral degradation of the youth. Because an idle mind is a devil's workshop. Consequently, many youths are engaged in criminal activities to survive. Most get frustrated and end up committing suicide. It's quite painful. Do you know they are young men and women upon whose the whole expenses of their family fall on? Yet they are jobless, hungry and angry.
This one hits close to home for millions of young Nigerians. Reports paint different pictures depending on how the numbers are measured. Some official modeled estimates place Nigeria's youth unemployment rate in the single digits, while a 2025 report by Plan International Nigeria and Action Aid Nigeria found that youth unemployment stands at roughly 53 percent when broader measures of joblessness and underemployment are considered, translating to tens of millions of young people without stable work. Whichever figure you look at, the lived reality on ground for many young Nigerians remains the same, spending years and family savings in school only to graduate into a job market that simply is not ready to absorb them.
That gap between expectation and reality is exactly what breeds the frustration, idleness, and in painful cases, the criminal activity or depression the original writeup speaks about. An idle mind truly does become fertile ground for trouble when hope keeps deferring.
Lack of Mentoring and Coaching for the Young People
Too many young persons are not guided properly. Show me a youth that is well mentored and I will show you a successful youth. Some young persons don't mingle with forward thinking individual nor have models who they are looking up to. For some, it is meaningless, but it does matters.
Iron they say, sharpens iron, if youth are coached properly by professionals (successful men and women) in their chosen areas of interest there wouldn't be repetition of the same mistake.
But the question is are the youth ready to be mentored or coached? If your answer is yes, find a coach or a mentor now.
There is a quiet tragedy in how many talented young people wander through their most formative years without a single person guiding them. Mentorship shortens the learning curve. A mentor has already walked the road, made the mistakes, and can point out the potholes before a young person falls into them. Without that guidance, many youths end up repeating the same errors their predecessors made, simply because nobody warned them ahead of time.
Finding a mentor does not always require a formal program. Sometimes it is as simple as identifying someone doing well in your field of interest and humbly asking for guidance, even occasionally.
Lack of Adequate Education for the Youth
Is this really a challenge of the Youths, since most of those that went to school seems to be useless? I can hear someone asking this question. Well, if you don't know, know this now.
There is no other way upon which man can liberate himself economically, socially, politically and otherwise except through quality education.
I always tell my students that the major aim of education is not to get a job but to polish and prepare you for the future. I believe with quality education, a young person could harness his full potentials.
- Scholarship opportunities are not readily available
This is simply the government or affluence citizens subsidizing or providing funding for children from poor homes.
- Some youth are easily distracted
This is for those who can afford to fund their education. Many youths went to school, spent so much money in school but they don't know their right from their left. Most youth are halfbaked as such can't defend their certificate. Lack of seriousness while in school might never position a youth well.
Education remains one of the most powerful tools any young person can hold, but access to quality education is far from equal. For young people from poorer households, the absence of readily available scholarships often shuts the door on their potential before it even opens. Government and private sector support in this area remains limited compared to the sheer number of bright, capable young people who need it.
On the other side, there are those who have the opportunity and the means to go to school, graduating with a certificate that carries little real substance behind it. Both problems, unequal access and half hearted effort, quietly work together to widen the education gap facing young people today.
Do You Know Many Youth Binge on Social Media?
Social media is very wonderful, it's one of the best innovation ever. But, are we putting it to good use?
The answer is no. Instead of using it for marketing, dissemination of information and reuniting with old friends. Most youth use it for frivolous things like showing off.
The youth are always glued to their phones, just to get the latest updates on social media. Do you binge on social media? If yes, cut back on the amount of time you spent on these platforms except you're doing something meaningful.
Beigeing on social media had made so many youths give up on themselves, some went as far as committing suicides because they felt that their mates are making it more than them without knowing that most of their friends are just snapping photos to impress their Facebook or Instagram friends.
Social media itself is not the enemy, it is genuinely one of the most powerful tools of our generation for connection, learning, and even business. The trouble starts when it becomes a stage for comparison rather than a tool for growth. Watching curated highlight reels of other people's lives, often exaggerated or entirely staged for likes, can quietly convince a young person that everyone else is winning while they alone are struggling. That distorted comparison has, tragically, pushed some young people toward depression and even suicide.
The healthier approach is intentionality, using these platforms to learn, market a skill, or reconnect meaningfully, while consciously limiting the mindless scrolling that only feeds comparison and anxiety.
Shortcuts
The youth want it sharp sharp, to make money without wasting time. Some young people don't want to stress themselves in knowing the 'process' rather they want the 'finished products'.
In addition, some youth don't want to bend down and learn a skill that will be of use in the future. Do you know shortsightedness is a disease? Not having foresight.
The anthem of most youths is gratifying themselves now and gratifying themselves tomorrow. Instead of sacrificing now for tomorrow gratification. This has lead some many youth into soiling their hands and killing their consciences.
If you are a youth and you take shortcut a lot, please pause and ponder.
The desire for quick wins is understandable in a world moving as fast as ours, but it comes at a steep cost when it replaces patience and skill building entirely. Chasing the "finished product" without respecting the process often pushes young people toward cutting corners, and in the worst cases, toward outright criminal shortcuts to wealth. What looks like a fast track today frequently becomes a dead end, or worse, a prison sentence, tomorrow.
Real, lasting success is almost always built slowly, through skill, patience, and consistency, even when the process feels painfully slow compared to what social media makes wealth look like.
Lack of Self Awareness
Do you know yourself? Socrate once said, "man know thyself."
If there is no self awareness there wouldn't be self discovery and self development.
It is only when a youth knows the stuff he is made of can he be able to set certain goals for himself and be able attain them.
You cannot build a life you have not first understood. Self awareness, knowing your strengths, weaknesses, values, and purpose, forms the foundation for every meaningful goal a young person sets. Without it, ambition becomes directionless, chasing whatever trend or opportunity looks appealing at the moment rather than what genuinely aligns with who you are.
Taking time for honest self reflection, even something as simple as journaling or quiet prayer and meditation, can be the starting point for the self discovery that so many young people skip past entirely.
Peer Influence
Who is your association? What kind of environment do you live in? The effects of nurture and nature on moral values of everyone can never be overemphasized. However, in my own perspective, the environment is the greatest molder and remolder of character, values and moral.
Engr Elvis Nwankwo once said that, he grew up in slum but as an adolescent once he returned from school he left his locality to GRA (government residential areas) everyday.
A place that is known to be inhabited by enlightened and rich people. Hence, his life was touched tremendously because the way reasoned became different from the way all his mates living at that slum reasoned.
Who is your friend, adviser, confidants and cheerleader? If they are not adding to your life positively they will definitely drain all the little value you have gotten till none is left.
Define your association and stick to right association.
Nobody grows in isolation from their environment. The people you surround yourself with daily, whether physically or now increasingly online, shape your thinking, your habits, and eventually your outcomes in life. Engr Elvis Nwankwo's story of deliberately spending his after school hours in a different, more enlightened environment than his own neighborhood illustrates just how powerfully surroundings can shift a young person's trajectory.
Take an honest look at your circle. Friends, advisers, and confidants who genuinely add value should be nurtured, while those who consistently drain your energy, time, or values deserve a second, honest look.
Key Takeaways
The seven biggest challenges facing youth today are unemployment, lack of mentoring, inadequate education, social media addiction, the pursuit of shortcuts, lack of self awareness, and negative peer influence.
Youth is defined differently across bodies, the UN uses ages 15 to 24, while the African Youth Charter officially recognizes ages 15 to 35.
Nigeria's youth unemployment figures vary widely depending on the measurement used, from single digit modeled estimates to over 50 percent when broader joblessness and underemployment are included.
Mentorship shortens the learning curve and helps young people avoid repeating avoidable mistakes.
Quality education, whether through scholarship access or genuine effort in school, remains one of the strongest tools for youth empowerment.
Comparison driven social media use has contributed to depression and, in tragic cases, suicide among young people. Chasing shortcuts instead of skill and patience often leads to moral compromise or dead ends.
Self awareness is the foundation for meaningful goal setting, and environment and peer association strongly shape a young person's character and outcomes.
Frequently Asked Questions
What age range is officially considered youth? The United Nations defines youth as ages 15 to 24, while the African Youth Charter defines youth as ages 15 to 35.
What is the biggest challenge facing Nigerian youth today? Unemployment is widely considered the most pressing challenge, with reports showing figures ranging from single digits under modeled international estimates to over 50 percent when broader underemployment is included.
How can a young person find a mentor? Identifying someone successful in your area of interest and respectfully reaching out, or joining professional and community groups in that field, are practical ways to find mentorship.
Is social media entirely bad for young people? No, social media is a powerful tool when used intentionally for learning, marketing, or genuine connection, the harm comes mainly from excessive, comparison driven use.
How does peer influence affect youth development? The people and environment surrounding a young person significantly shape their values, character, and life choices, both positively and negatively.
Why is self awareness important for youth? Self awareness helps young people understand their strengths and purpose, allowing them to set meaningful, achievable goals rather than chasing directionless ambition.
What can be done to reduce youth unemployment in Nigeria? Addressing skills mismatches, expanding vocational and apprenticeship training, and improving access to funding and quality education are commonly cited solutions among labor experts.
Conclusion
The challenges facing youth in Nigeria and around the world are real, layered, and often interconnected, unemployment feeds frustration, frustration feeds shortcuts, and lack of mentorship and self awareness leave many without direction. But as heavy as these challenges are, they are not the final word. With deliberate enlightenment, the right mentorship, quality education, healthier social media habits, patience over shortcuts, self awareness, and the right circle of friends, young people can rewrite what their future looks like. Happy International Youth Day. Please like, share and comment if this makes sense to you.
Sources
- UNFPA ESARO, African Youth Charter (esaro.unfpa.org)
- African Union, African Youth Charter full text (archive.uneca.org)
- Wikipedia, Youth in Nigeria (en.wikipedia.org)
- Macrotrends, Nigeria Youth Unemployment Rate (macrotrends.net)
- Daily Trust, Over 80m Nigerian Youths Unemployed, Report (dailytrust.com)
- Vanguard, Nigeria's Youth Unemployment Rises to 6.5 Percent, ILO (vanguardngr.com)
Nice one
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