Abstract
This study is an appraisal of the impact of
globalization on economic empowerment of youths in Nigeria. Globalization has
yielded positive impact on youths in Nigeria. Globalization has brought about
development in different regions across the globe. Available data shows that
globalization is still an ongoing process in Nigeria and it has a far reaching
effect on the youths as regards economic empowerment. This study predicated its
analysis on the following research questions: Does technological innovations
account for improvement in the standard of living among youths in Nigeria? Does
access to information, communication technology account for youths in Nigeria?
The objectives of this study is to ascertain if technological innovation
account for improvement in Nigeria and to determine if access to information,
communication technology account for youth empowerment in Nigeria. To achieve
these objectives, the study predicated it’s analysis on the theory of
neoliberalism. The study adopted documentary method of data collection with
reliance on secondary sources of data from books, journal articles, newspapers,
thesis, online materials, unpublished works, etc. Data was analyzed using
content analysis and we employed time series analysis as the research design. The
findings of this study reveals that indeed technological innovation account for
improvement in the standard of living among youths in Nigeria and also that
access to information, communication technology account for youth empowerment
in Nigeria. This study recommends that since the wave of ICT is more prevalent
among the youths, the government should therefore utilize it by developing
programs and schemes involving technology use which would help in creating jobs
for the youth and consequently would help in raising their living
standards. The government should also
make use of high-technology to generate database of employed and unemployed
youth for efficient planning.
Table of Contents
Title
Page i
Approval
Page ii
Certification
iii
Dedication iv
Acknowledgments v
Abstract
vi
Table
of Contents vii
CHAPTER ONE:
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study 1
1.2 Statement of the Problem 12
1.3 Objectives of the Study 13
1.4 Significance of the Study 14
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE
REVIEW
2.1 Technological innovation and improvement in
the standard
of living among youths 15
2.2 Access to information, communication
technology and youth
Empowerment 21
2.3 Gap in Literature 33
CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY
3.1 Theoretical Framework 35
3.2 Hypotheses 41
3.3 Research Design 42
3.4 Method of Data Collection 42
3.5 Method of Data Analysis 43
CHAPTER FOUR:
TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION AND IMPROVEMENT IN THE STANDARD OF LIVING AMONG YOUTHS
IN NIGERIA
4.1 Improvement in the system of
telecommunication and job
creation in Nigeria 54
4.2 Improvement in the means of transportation
and access to
public goods and services 68
CHAPTER FIVE: ACCESS TO
INFORMATION, COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY AND YOUTH EMPOWERMENT
5.1 Easy access to online materials and online
educational training 77
5.2 Access to information gadgets and increase
in employment rate
in Nigeria 80
CHAPTER SIX: SUMMARY,
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
6.1 Summary 82
6.2 Conclusion 83
6.3 Recommendations 84
Bibliography 85
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
The
history and evolution of globalization and development is a history that is
dotted and punctuated with the movement from wandering band to settled bands
and from slave owning society to capitalist society and also a history that is
beatificated with. technological advancement, thus Aina, (2003:25) observed
that every discovery and advancement in the technological and scientific world
has impacted on its evolution “globalization” is a contested concept that
refers to sometimes contradictory social processes’. Since its earliest appearance
in the 1960s, the term globalization’ has been used in both popular and
academic literature to describe a process, a condition, a system, a force and
an age. Given that these competing labels have very different meanings, their
indiscriminate usage is often obscure and invites confusion.
Globalization
is multifaceted as it means different things to different people depending on
the angle one looks at it. According to Asobie (2001) and Bello (2004), globalization
when viewed Born the south may imply essentially the universaatlol, of
capitalism with attendant negative implication for the developing economies,
while a view from the north sees it as the increasing integration of activities
and priorities of human societies around the world which holds prospect for
their progress and advancement.
Various
definitions of globalization abound, here are a few given by some scholars; Anthony
Giddens, Director of the London School of Economics, defined globalization as
the intensification of worldwide social relations which link distant localities
in such away that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles
away and Vice versa.
Fredric
Jameson, Professor of Literature at Duke University noted that the concept of
globalization reflects the sense of an immense enlargement of world
communication, as well as of the horizon of a world market, both of which seem far
more tangible and immediate than in earlier stage of modernity.
David
Held, Professor of Political Science at the London School of Economics noted
that globalization may be thought of as a process (or set of processes) which
embodies a transformation in the spatial organization of social relations and
transactions-assessed in terms of their extensity, intensity, velocity and
impact generating transcontinental or interregional flows and networks of
activity, interaction, and the exercise of power.
Globalization
as a concept refers both to the compression of the world and the intensification
of consciousness of the world as a whole. Roland Robertson, Professor of
Sociology at the University of Pittsburgh.
A
genetic way of understanding globalization is to consider it as a process of
the creation of a worldwide system in which no event, process or important
action remains circumscribed within the geographic area in which it was born.
In the same way, events, processes and actions at the global level have an
impact either deliberately or involuntary on all the local level. However, it
is on the basis of the second meaning that the predominant image of
globalization is constructed, that is the impact of the metropole (global) on
the periphery (local) because we are instinctively led to ensure that the
subjects which are in a privileged position in the metropolitan system are by
nature stronger than the periphery Therefore, the term globalization in this
sense is considered the synonym of hegemonization, uniformization and also
westernization or Americanization. This image generates negative attitudes in
relation to globalization. The material factors of globalization which
includes, technical advancements in transportation communication and the
economy have evolved in leaps and abounds in human history. The last leaps and
bounds have been the first, second, third and today the fourth industrial revolution,
These material factors have had effects oil the world as a whole and also
within a single country where they emanated from. They have generated the
expansion of a world-wide economic market. Globalization refers to a multidimensional
set of social processes that create, multiply, stretch, and intensify worldwide
social interdependencies and exchanges while at the same time fostering in
people a growing awareness of deepening connections between the local and the
distant. Globalization involves the intensification and acceleration of social
exchanges and activities. The Internet relays distant information in mere
seconds, and satellites provide consumers with real-time pictures of remote
events, As Anthony Giddens notes in his definition, the intensification of worldwide
social relations means that local happenings are shaped by events occurring far
away, and vice versa. In other words, the seemingly opposing processes of
globalization and localization actually imply each other.
In
normative terms, some authors have associated ‘globalization’ with progress,
prosperity and peace. For others, however, the word has conjured up
deprivation, disaster and doom. No one is indifferent, but many are confused.
Confusion concerning understanding of the meaning of globalization is not
unusual.
Kucok
defined globalization as;
a complex and controversial process of
building of the world as a whole creation of global institutional structures(...)
and global cultural forms i.e. the forms that have been produced or transformed
by global available objects. It is declared as; a) free market-economic unification
of the world with uniform patterns of production and consumption; b) democratic
integration of the world based on common interests of mankind such as equity,
human rights protection, rule of law, pluralism, peace and security; c) moral
integration of the World concerning some central humanistic values, important
for sustainable development of humanity.”
This
definition tries to comprehend controversial positive and negative parts of the
phenomenon. Proponents of pro-globalization policy use to stress its positive
effects, arguing that worldwide statistics strongly support globalizat1on
Anti-globalists, however, show quite opposite figures. Methodologically we can
make however, a difference between
globalization as an objective present-day reality, a value-free phenomenon that
has its positive and negative elements and characteristics and globalization as
neoliberal oriented policy directed from leading world centres and powers This
sort of pro-globalization policy Is usually labelled as ‘globalism’. In the interdisciplinary
dictionary, globalism was defined as a viewpoint, doctrine and/or ideology that
promote the principle of interdependence and unity of the whole world, of all
nations and states instead of a national and state particularism. It has often
been noted that behind, the ideology of globalism can be hidden an intention of
economic and cultural hegemony of the Western powers, as well as the proletarian
or socialist internationalism which had served as an ideological fig leaf for
the Soviet i.e. greater Russian hegemony over other nations from the communist
bloc. Such pro-globalist understanding has equated globalization with
westernization or modernization, especially in an “Americanized” form. Notable
critical theorists, such as Immanuel Wallenstein emphasize that globalization
cannot be understood separately from the historical development of the
capitalist world-system. Globalization is a dynamic process whereby the social
structures of modernity, such as capitalism, bureaucracy, information
technology, and philosophy of rationalism and liberalism are spread all over
the world. Globalization in this sense is described as hyper capitalism, as an
imperialism of McDonald’s (or “McDonaldization”), Hollywood and CNN, also as neo-colonialism.
In
a common parlance, the kpim of globalization was captured by Reyes (2001) and
Amuoio (2003) Reyes postulated that globalization has two principal meanings,
as a phenomenon and as a theory of economic development. As an economic
development, Reyes maintained that globalization implies the occurrence of
greater interdependence among different geographical entities in terms of
trade, finance and communication. From a political dimension, Reyes noted that
globalization entails a creation of world government which is entrusted with
the ability of regulating relationship among states and equally guarantees the
right arising from social and economic globalization. On the other hand, Amuro
(2003) conceptualized globalization as a complex process and phenomenon of
antimonies and dialectics, integrating and fragmenting world, uniformity and
localization, increased material prosperity and deepening misery,
homogenization and hegemonization.
Furthermore,
Robertson (2003) suggested that globalization has reduced the world to a global
village. He opined that globalization is a process of universalization and turning
the world into a global village this means that location and entities could be
easily accessed within a limited time.
Globalization
also entails the way in which development in one region can rapidly come to
have significant consequence for the security and wellbeing of communities in quite
distant regions of the globe. It is an inter-regional flows and network of
interaction within all realms of social activity from cultural to criminal on
different regional levels from global to local. The most outstanding-consequence
of globalization is development that it always accomplishes. Development in
this sense is man centered, it revolves around man and for the well-being of
man. Development is not a process that is rooted on the economy alone but a
multi-dimensional process involving re-organization and re— orientation of an
entire economic and social system. The tenet of development entails the
systematic use of scientific and technical knowledge to meet specific
objectives and requirement.
The
new Webster‘s dictionary stated that to “empower’ implies to give power to’ or
‘to enable’ someone. Empowerment is linked to the concept of self-help,
participation, networking and equity within the context of community
development. Whereas it’s respectability within the vocabulary of development
is not in doubt, its content is yet to acquire social agreement (Egbon, 2009).
Within
an organization, empowerment is viewed as critical in the process of change.
This is because rather than forcing or pushing people to change, empowerment involves
away of attracting them to change since they own the change process. People are
empowered the moment they feel an enhancement of their abilities to control,
influence or cope with their social economic roles (Conger and Kamugo, 1988).
The motivational dimension of empowerment involves various factors:
·
People will not be empowered if they
do not want to be. They have to believe in the merits and prospects of
empowerment.
·
Empowerment is about creating the
condition conducive for enhancing motivation and performance. This implies developing
the person’s sense of self determination a’ enhancing his (her) belief in
self-efficacy.
Empowerment
entails providing the individual with the ability to perform, in terms of
having the necessary skills and knowledge and giving a fair opportunity to
performance (Mogolori (1998); Sprieritzer, (2005). Within the context of the
society, the fundamental goal of empowerment is to help individual to improve
the quality of their own lives and share equitably in the benefits of economic
growth.
Empowerment
is about helping people realize their creative and product energies to achieve
sustainable growth and continuous improvements in then living standards. It
involves engraining the relevant stakeholders in a given process by apply
principles of inclusiveness, transparency and accountability.
Economic empowerment according to
Ogbe, (2006) is the way of motivation and individuals in the society to be
productive and self-dependent by inculcating into the individual’s
entrepreneurship skills such as personal business initiatives and basic skills
and business development. In fact, the best foundation for any business success
is to have several possibilities for creating profits. However, profit creation
is determined by the choice of the business, self-concept, interest, resources,
and aspirations which in would enable the person to achieve self-development,
self-actualization and fulfillment economic empowerment of citizen implies that
disempowered people responsibility for their own material gains on an on-going
basis and become managers of then own development. Government cannot impose
empowerment from above (Egbo, 2009) Government should ensure equal access to
economic opportunities. It is however up to each citizen to take advantage of
them or ignore them The principal objectives of citizen economic empowerment
should be the expansion of income and employment, generating activities for as
many people as possible, without sacrificing efficiency.
Therefore,
economic empowerment strategies should generally include:
v Financial
intervention; in order to assist local business activities.
v Enterprise
development for citizens (increased access to skills, business and management
training and improved production technologies)
v Marketing
strategies for locally produced goods and services
v Bargaining
strategies (for higher wages, better working conditions etc) for citizen and
employers.
v Training
and education consistent with skill requirements in the economy (Mogdori, 1988;
Conger and Kamugo, 1988, Enterprises 1999).
The concept of youth was a subject of
debate in Nigeria for so long. It was finally determined by age-range. Every
new administration decides what age-range would be in the youth category. Age
7-30, age 12-30, age 18-20. It has been agreed as a matter of convenience that
30 which features in the National Youth Corps Decree, is the limiting age for
youth in Nigeria (Arazu, 2008, Egboh et al 2009).
NYEES (National Youth Economic
Empowerment Strategy) refers to youth as constituting two categories, i.e
primary youth and secondary youth Primary youth is defined as those young men
and women between the age group of 18 to 35 years, who can enter into a
business contact independently without the requirement for parental, guardian
or representative assistance and consent (i e youth within the age of majority).
Secondary youth constitute young men and women within the age group of 14 until
17 years, can enter into business contract solely with the support and consent
of parents, guardian or representative e youth below the age of majority).
Those above the age of 30, according
to the National Youth Policy for Nigeria, may be accepted [o play the roles of
youth leaders, youth organizers, youth animators, etc. The
National
Youth Council of Nigeria got this clause enshrined in the youth. policy; Young
people make-up two thirds of the Nigerian population! These young people are
faced with numerous challenges ranging from unemployment, HI V/AIDS, poverty
and a myriad other challenges. As a results national development planning needs
to take into consideration the critical needs of the youth The development of
NEEDS 2 is a strategic opportunity to ensure that youth development priorities
are integrated into Nigeria’s broad development goals and to ensure that action
is taken to advance youth development and empowerment in Nigeria.
Youth are critical stakeholders in
development processes! They have diverse needs and development priorities.
Experience from the zonal consultations with the National Planning Commission
from May 3-10, 2007, has shown that the development priorities of the youth in
each geopolitical zone do not differ remarkably and thus NEEDS 2 should be tailored
to effectively address these needs. Investments in Agricultural development,
youth entrepreneurship ICT education and a market demand driven educational
system, opportunities to participate in the development of then country and
investments in health strategies and programs targeting key challenges like HIV/AIDS,
malaria and youth friendly reproductive health services are the despites of the
youth.
Many international frameworks have
continued to point to the important needs and challenges of young people in
Africa and across the world and strategies to effectively address them have
been developed. The most recent is the African Youth Charter which was adopted
by African Union heads of State and Government in July 2006. The Charter
identified 16 youth development priorities with relevant actions needed to effectively
address them. This is consistent with the National Youth Policy and its
implementation strategy. The World Program of Action for Youth developed by the
UN has also continued to provide a framework for youth development since 2001.
A youth as defined by the National
Policy on Youth Development is any individual who is a citizen of the Federal
republic of Nigeria, between the ages of 18-35 Between 1991 and 2006, the youth
population in Nigeria has grown from 22 5 million to over 30 million Young people
currently comprise over 25% of the Nigerian Population (National Youth Policy,
2001). In addition to the youth population, 32.40% of the total populations are
children below the age of 18 years. If these two groups are taken together, the
population of Nigerians below the age of 35 comprise more than half of the
population (NPC. 2002). In absolute numbers there are more young people in
Nigeria than ever before.
From the 1991 census, 6.l million
young people between the ages of 12 24 were illiterates (NPC, 2003) and a
survey in 2003 shows that 104% male young people and 12.4% of these aged 20-24
had no formal education NDHS, 2003). Also, only 37% of youth aged 12-47 attend
secondary school. Over the last few years, due to the introduction of the USE program,
school enrolment levels have increased significantly, yet there are concerns
about the quality of the services delivered (Nigeria’s EFA Report Card, 2004).
Youth development is the process of
continuous improvement of the youth, development of Structures, institutions
and programs in order to create asocial condition, and to ensure that the
rights of the youth are advanced and protected, their welfare enhanced, and
their effective functioning and self-actualization ensured. Youth development
is a sine-quo-non for youth empowerment.
Youth
economic empowerment can be relatively achieved if all tiers of government that
have the responsibility of mainstreaming youth in all their core programs do it
in such a way that they strictly adhere to the following guiding principles:
(a)
Youth Economic Empowerment through
Mainstreaming is a Shared Responsibility: achieving youth economic
empowerment is not the task of the data alone, but it is the responsibility
that must be shared by all national departments within the economic cluster,
provincial departments, municipalities and its implementing agencies; as well
ns extra-parliamentary stakeholders (i.e. civil society, private and business
sectors and youth organizations).
(b)
Participatory and Collaborative Approach economic mainstreaming of young people
through various policy instruments and forums, must take place involving the
full participation and consultation of young people through their organizations
and institutions.
Special
attention should be taken to ensure that disabled young women and men ate
consulted and accorded full participation and benefit.
(c)
Human Rights and Diversity: youth economic empowerment promotes
non-discrimination, adhere to democracy and good governance and protect human
rights. It must also promote gender parity between young men and women
including the disabled on economic oppoi1tihities. It must instill a sense of
worth, purpose and direction to young people.
(d)
Responsiveness and Relevance: All policies, strategies, programs and special
interventions aimed at economically empowering the youth, with special attention
to the disabled, must respond to the unique challenges confronting them and act
in their best interests.
(e)
Accountability: government and its agencies that are involved in youth economic
development must put in place systems to monitor, report and record progress
made on youth economic empowerment.
(f)
Youth as a Target Group: all core programs designed for economic development
and empowerment must place youth as one the of primary benefactors. All the
categories of youth as defined in this document must benefit, with special
attention given to the disabled.
(g)
Transparency all tiers of government including its agencies and extra-parliamentary
players involved in youth economic empowerment must operate in a transparent
and accountable manner.
For the sake of this research work
that is embedded on globalization and economic empowerment of youths in
Nigeria, it is pertinent to take into cognizance that globalization has been a
fructrom into which youth developmental factors which is based on economic
empowerment rest. As Asobie (2001) and Yusu (2000) pointed out that openness to
trade, factor flows; ideas and information inevitability promote economic
growth for all countries.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Prior to the invent of globalization,
information and communication has been passed through crude and rudimentary means
thus making information landlocked. This was as a result of the fact that there
were no information gadgets such as phones, laptops, etc. As a corollary to the
above there was nothing like the internet people could not access many things
online, for instance, if one wishes to read an ancient book, such a person might
tirelessly look for it and at the end of the day still not get what he or she
wants but with the coining of globalization, at simple clicks on various
information gadgets, one could access books, videos of events of many
centuries.
Before globalization, the widely used
means of transportation was by sea. People would travel for days to a very
close place, they would be faced with so many tragedies ranging from loss of
life to loss of individuals, this means of transportation was crude, it was
only wealthy men (bourgeois), and those from royalty that could even make use
of this form of transportation, thus the transportation of goods and services
where very high but globalization brought and put in place other means of
transportation such as road, air and railway and also improved heavily on water
or sea transport, with this improvement in the transportation system, cost of
transporting goods declined. Consequently, globalization made relationship
among nations possible. Nations could make business transactions easily,
technological transfer was also made possible, there was a collapse of
boundaries between different worlds, therefore turning the world into a global
village.
Lack of access to information and
communication technologies like the Internet has remained a major challenge to
young people in Nigeria. A recent study shows that 331 persons per 1000 use the
Internet in Europe, 92 pet 1000 use it in Latin America and just 15 per 1000 in
Africa use the Internet (WYR, 2005) The Internet is a key tool for
communication, education and entertainment. If ever there was an area where
young people are the leaders, not only of tomorrow but also today, it is in the
fields of Information and communication technology (ICT) (WSIS Youth Caucus
Strategy, 2001).
Based
on the aforementioned problems, t the following research questions have been
sieved out:
1.
Does technological innovation account
for improvement in the standard of living among youths in Nigeria Between
2001-20 16
2.
Does access to information and
communication technology account for youth empowerment in Nigeria Between
2001-2016
1.3 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
The study has a broad objective of
determining whether globalization has aided economic empowerment of the
Nigerian youth within the period covered, 2001-2016. The study also has some
specific objectives which are;
1. To
determine if technological innovation account for improvement in the standard
of living among youths in Nigeria between 2001-2016
2. To
ascertain whether access to information and communication technology account
for youth empowerment in Nigeria between 2001-2016
1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
This study has both theoretical and practical
significance Its theoretical significance is to contribute to the several
existing literatures on the field of study, to also serve as a guide or
reference for future researchers in this field of study.
Practically, this study w111 help the
government to ascertain whether globalization is favorable to the Nigeria
youth, whether it has helped to solve the youth’s developmental problems
especially economic problems. It will also help the government to know how far
the Nigeria youths have capitalized on the influx caused by globalization to
develop themselves in their own capacity and to the extent to which it has
helped to boost the Nigeria economy. The recommendations and findings of this
study will guide the government agencies in-charge of improving the status of
the youths in Nigeria to formulate policies as well as establish programs that
would foster youth development in Nigeria.
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