By Anjorin Fehintola Stella

Father’s Day is often filled with celebration, gratitude, and family photographs shared across dining tables and social media feeds. There are cards and phone calls, gifts and warm ritual of telling the men who raised us that we are grateful they did. For many people, the day carries genuine and uncomplicated joy. But for many others, it arrives with something more complicated, a quieter, more private kind of reflection that does not always make it into the public celebrations.

Not everyone had the father they needed.

Some grew up with fathers who were present in every meaningful way, providing guidance, protection, encouragement, and love. Men who showed up not only at celebrations and milestones but in the ordinary, unglamorous moments of daily life. Who sat with their children through homework and heartbreak, who modelled patience and responsibility not through speeches but through consistent action, and who made their children feel seen, valued, and safe. For those who had such fathers, the day is uncomplicated. It is simply a chance to say thank you to someone who deserved it.

Others grew up with fathers who were physically present but emotionally unreachable. Men who provided materially but who never learned, or never felt permitted, to express tenderness or vulnerability. Who sat at the head of the table every evening but left their children feeling strangely alone. Whose love, if it existed, was never translated into the words or gestures that children need in order to feel it. This kind of presence can be its own particular form of absence, and the confusion it leaves behind, the love mixed with longing, the gratitude mixed with grief is something many adults carry quietly for years.

And then there are those who never knew their fathers at all. Whose fathers left before memory could form, or were taken by circumstances beyond anyone’s control. Who grew up answering questions about their fathers with rehearsed sentences designed to protect themselves from the weight of the real answer. For them, Father’s Day can feel like a celebration happening in a language they were never quite taught to speak.

The truth is that fathers shape lives in ways that often go unnoticed until much later, sometimes not until we ourselves are grown and standing at the crossroads of our own choices, only then recognizing how deeply the paths laid before us were shaped by the man who either walked beside us or was nowhere to be found.

A father’s words can become a child’s inner voice. The encouragement he gives, or withholds, can determine whether a child approaches the world with confidence or with a perpetual need to prove themselves. His actions can become a blueprint for how relationships are conducted, how conflict is navigated, how responsibility is understood, and how love is expressed or suppressed. Research in developmental psychology and sociology consistently shows that the presence, quality, and emotional availability of a father figure are among the most significant predictors of a child’s long-term emotional wellbeing, self-esteem, and capacity for healthy relationships. His absence, too, leaves its mark, not as destiny, but as questions. Questions about worth, about belonging, about what it means to be loved by someone who was supposed to stay.

There is also the man who loved his children deeply but never knew how to show it, shaped by a generation or a culture that taught men to equate silence with strength and emotion with weakness. Who worked long hours in the belief that provision was the fullest expression of love available to him. Who would have been bewildered by the idea that his children needed something from him beyond a roof and a meal. He is not a villain. He is a product of his own formation, of fathers and societies that never gave him the tools to do better. Understanding this does not erase the longing. But it can begin to make room for something other than bitterness.

And there is the man who broke the cycle. Who grew up without a father, or with one who caused harm, and who made a quiet and daily decision not to pass that on. Who had no template to follow and had to build his understanding of fatherhood from scratch, from instinct, from observation, from the determined conviction that his children would not carry what he carried. These men rarely receive enough recognition. Their victory is invisible because it consists of things that did not happen, the harsh word that was not spoken, the absence that did not repeat itself, the wound that stopped with them.

Yet fatherhood, it must be said, is not simply about biology. It never has been.

Throughout history and across cultures, countless children have been guided, protected, and shaped by men who stepped into the role of father without sharing a bloodline. Grandfathers who became the steady presence when everything else was uncertain. Uncles who showed up consistently enough to become something more than relatives. Teachers who noticed a child struggling and chose to stay a little longer. Coaches, neighbours, older brothers, family friends, and community elders who offered time, attention, wisdom, and the simple but profound gift of being present. These men are fathers in the truest and most meaningful sense of the word. Biology establishes a connection. Choice sustains it.

Perhaps that is why Father’s Day means genuinely different things to different people. For some, it is a day of uncomplicated gratitude, a chance to honour a man who gave them a foundation they are still building on. For others, it is a day of healing, of sitting gently with old wounds, of choosing not to let unresolved pain define the present. For many, it is both at once, gratitude and grief, celebration and quiet mourning, honour and longing all woven together in the complicated fabric of what family actually looks like for most people.

Fatherhood is not a fixed or finished thing. It is an intergenerational conversation, passed down through behaviour, attitude, silence, and example. The fathers we had, whether present or absent, nurturing or withholding, intentional or oblivious shaped us. And in turn, we will shape the next generation, whether or not we are aware of doing so. This is both the weight and the opportunity of being human in relationship with one another.

As we celebrate fathers today, we can also turn our attention to a larger and more urgent question; What kind of fathers are we raising for tomorrow? The boys who are learning about responsibility, respect, and relationships right now will become the fathers of the next generation. The young men who are taught that emotional strength is not the absence of feeling but the courage to feel and still act with integrity, who are shown that love is expressed through presence and consistency and not only through provision, who grow up in environments where fatherhood is modelled as something active and intentional rather than merely biological, these are the men who will change the story for their own children.

This means that investing in boys and young men today is not separate from the conversation about fatherhood. It is central to it. How we socialize boys, what we teach them about masculinity, emotion, responsibility, and relationship, will determine the kind of fathers they become. Societies that raise boys to suppress vulnerability, to equate manhood with dominance, and to view emotional expression as weakness are, in the same breath, producing fathers who will struggle to give their children what they need most. Changing this is not a small task. But it is a necessary one.

Maybe the goal, on a day like today, is not to dwell only on the fathers we had or the fathers we lacked. Maybe it is to learn from both, to carry forward what was given with love, and to gently set down what was passed on through pain. To honour the fathers who showed up fully and consistently, whose presence was a gift that not everyone received. To extend compassion, difficult as it may be, to those who did not know how, or who were never taught. To recognize and celebrate the men who are not biological fathers but who fathered nonetheless, through choice and commitment and quiet devotion. And to invest, with intention and urgency, in building a world where more children grow up with the guidance, safety, and love they deserve, not as a privilege for the fortunate few, but as a foundation available to all.

Today, we celebrate the fathers we needed, appreciate the fathers we had, and invest wholeheartedly in the fathers we hope to become.

By Anjorin Fehintola Stella

Education has been regarded as the golden ticket to a better life in Nigeria for decades. Parents worked tirelessly, often sacrificing their personal comfort and long-term financial stability, to ensure their children acquired formal education. Mothers sold produce in markets at dawn. Fathers took on multiple jobs. Entire extended families pooled resources together to pay school fees, buy textbooks, and keep a child in school. The promise that sustained all of this sacrifice was simple and seemingly unbreakable, work hard in school, obtain a degree, secure a good job, and achieve upward social mobility. For many families, education was not merely an academic pursuit. It was the single most important investment they could make in the future.

Today, that promise appears increasingly uncertain.

Across the country, hundreds of thousands of young Nigerians graduate annually from universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education, only to encounter a labour market that is structurally unable to absorb them. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, Nigeria’s youth unemployment and underemployment rate has hovered at alarming levels for years, with a significant proportion of young people between the ages of fifteen and thirty-five either jobless or working in conditions far below their qualification and potential. The result is a growing population of educated but unemployed and underemployed youths navigating a future marked by uncertainty, frustration, and diminishing hope. They have done everything society asked of them, and it has not been enough.

While unemployment is frequently discussed as an economic challenge best addressed through fiscal policy and job creation schemes, its implications extend far beyond income and employment statistics. It is fundamentally a social issue with profound and far-reaching consequences for individuals, families, communities, and national development. To understand the youth unemployment crisis only through the lens of economics is to miss much of what makes it so damaging and so difficult to resolve.

The relationship between education and opportunity has historically been one of the cornerstones of social stability in modern societies. Education serves not only as a means of acquiring knowledge and technical skills but also as a primary pathway to social mobility. It enables individuals to improve their socioeconomic standing, participate meaningfully in civic life, and contribute to the development of their communities. In societies where this relationship functions well, education acts as a great equalizer, offering individuals from modest backgrounds a realistic chance at advancement. When it functions poorly, the consequences ripple through every dimension of social life.

However, when educational attainment consistently fails to translate into employment opportunities, the social contract between institutions and citizens begins to weaken. People start to question the value of the systems they were taught to trust. They begin to wonder whether the sacrifices made in the name of education were worthwhile. And when enough people arrive at that conclusion simultaneously, it produces a shift with serious implications for social cohesion, institutional legitimacy, and collective purpose.

Many young Nigerians today find themselves trapped in what can only be described as a painful paradox. They have fulfilled society’s expectations by obtaining academic qualifications, sitting through years of lectures, passing examinations, and earning certificates. Yet the rewards traditionally associated with those qualifications remain stubbornly elusive. Consequently, many graduates are compelled to accept jobs entirely unrelated to their fields of study, engage in low-paying informal work to survive, or remain economically dependent on parents and relatives long after completing their education. The degree hangs on the wall. The opportunities it was supposed to unlock remain firmly closed.

This reality has given rise to what many social observers describe as a crisis of expectations. Young people who once envisioned stable careers, financial independence, and steady social advancement now struggle to achieve milestones that previous generations considered not only attainable but expected. The gap between what was promised and what is delivered has become one of the defining social tensions of contemporary Nigerian life. And that gap is widening.

One of the most visible consequences of this situation is the widespread delay in major life transitions. Marriage, home ownership, family formation, and financial independence are being postponed not by choice but by economic necessity. In many Nigerian communities, adulthood has traditionally been defined by the achievement of certain milestones: securing employment, establishing a household, and taking on family responsibilities. Today, many young adults in their late twenties and thirties are unable to meet these social expectations, not because they lack ambition or discipline, but because the economic infrastructure that would enable such transitions no longer exists in a reliable form. The social weight of this inability is significant. It generates feelings of shame, inadequacy, and frustration that many young people carry privately and silently.

The psychological effects of prolonged unemployment are equally significant and deserve greater public attention. Extended periods of joblessness are strongly associated in research literature with increased rates of anxiety, depression, and diminished self-worth. In a society where success is frequently measured by economic achievement and visible material progress, unemployment can quickly become a source of social exclusion and deep emotional distress. Young people who cannot find work often withdraw from social engagements, avoid family gatherings, and distance themselves from peers who appear to be progressing. The isolation compounds the suffering. What begins as an economic problem gradually becomes a mental health crisis, and Nigeria’s mental health infrastructure is poorly equipped to respond to the scale of what is emerging.

Another notable and deeply consequential outcome of this crisis is the growing appeal of emigration. The phenomenon popularly known as the Japa movement reflects the strong and increasingly urgent desire of educated Nigerians to seek better opportunities abroad. The word Japa, derived from Yoruba slang meaning to run or escape, has become a defining cultural phrase of an entire generation. It is spoken with a mixture of aspiration, resignation, and bitterness. While migration has always existed as a human response to constrained opportunities, the current scale and demographic profile of Nigerian emigration is alarming. It is no longer only the unemployed who are leaving. Doctors, nurses, engineers, academics, and experienced professionals are departing in significant numbers, drawn by better pay, functional systems, and the basic assurance that their qualifications will be recognized and rewarded.

Reports from the United Kingdom, Canada, and various European countries consistently show rising numbers of Nigerian-born professionals entering their labour markets. Nigeria’s healthcare sector in particular has been severely affected, with hospitals struggling to retain staff as medical professionals seek greener pastures overseas. While migration offers individuals better prospects, and while the remittances sent home by the diaspora contribute meaningfully to household incomes and the national economy, the long-term implications for national development are troubling. The departure of skilled and educated young people represents a significant loss of human capital, talent, and innovation capacity that Nigeria urgently needs to address its own development challenges.

It is worth acknowledging that some analysts argue the relationship between education and unemployment is more complex than it appears, and that informal economies represent legitimate and sometimes vibrant pathways to livelihood and even prosperity. There is truth in this. Nigeria’s informal sector is enormous, creative, and resilient. It employs millions of people and drives significant economic activity. However, the existence of informal pathways does not diminish the legitimate grievance of young people who invested years and resources into formal education specifically because they were told it would open doors. The issue is not whether informal work has value. The issue is whether society kept its promise.

At the same time, many young Nigerians have turned to entrepreneurship as an alternative response to unemployment. Entrepreneurship is widely celebrated in public discourse as both a solution to joblessness and a driver of innovation and economic growth. While this is true in certain contexts, it is essential to draw a careful distinction between entrepreneurship driven by genuine innovation and market opportunity, and entrepreneurship driven purely by necessity and survival. A significant and growing number of young Nigerians are not starting businesses because they have identified a compelling product idea or underserved market. They are doing so because formal employment is simply not available, and they have no other viable option.

This form of survival entrepreneurship is a testament to the extraordinary resilience and creativity of Nigerian youth. Young people are finding ways to generate income through e-commerce, digital services, creative arts, fashion, food vending, logistics, and countless other ventures. They are adapting, innovating, and persisting under difficult conditions. But it would be a mistake for policymakers and institutions to celebrate this resilience as a substitute for structural reform. Resilience in the face of systemic failure is admirable, but it is not a policy. Young Nigerians deserve systems that support their potential, not just conditions that test their endurance.

The social consequences of widespread youth unemployment extend well beyond individual experiences of hardship. Communities affected by persistent and concentrated unemployment often experience increased social tensions, weakening of communal bonds, declining trust in institutions, and heightened vulnerability to various forms of social instability. When young people have little to do and little to look forward to, the social fabric of communities becomes strained in ways that are difficult to quantify but impossible to ignore.

Research in sociology and criminology consistently demonstrates that when legitimate pathways to economic and social success become inaccessible over a sustained period, individuals may become more susceptible to alternative means of meeting their needs and asserting their worth. This does not mean that unemployment causes crime in any simple or deterministic sense. The vast majority of unemployed young people in Nigeria are not engaged in criminal activity. However, persistent economic exclusion creates conditions of social strain, frustration, and disillusionment that can increase vulnerability to recruitment by criminal networks, extremist groups, or political actors who offer financial incentives in exchange for participation in activities that destabilize communities and institutions.

Nigeria has already seen the consequences of this dynamic play out in various regions of the country. Insurgency in the northeast, banditry in the northwest, and rising crime in urban centers all have complex causes, but economic exclusion and the absence of legitimate opportunity for young people consistently appear as contributing factors in analyses of these crises. Addressing youth unemployment is therefore not only a matter of economic policy. It is a matter of national security and social stability.

Addressing this challenge requires more than short-term employment programmes and token interventions. It demands a comprehensive, long-term, and genuinely committed approach that begins with an honest reckoning about the state of Nigeria’s educational system and its relationship to the labour market. Nigerian universities currently produce graduates in large numbers, but the curriculum in many institutions remains outdated, theoretically heavy, and disconnected from the practical demands of contemporary employers. Graduates emerge with certificates but without the technical competencies, digital literacy, critical thinking skills, or entrepreneurial mindset that the modern economy increasingly demands.

Educational institutions must undergo meaningful and substantive reform, not cosmetic adjustments. This means redesigning curricula to integrate practical skills, industry-relevant training, and technology competencies at every level of education. It means creating genuine partnerships between universities and industries so that students graduate with real-world experience and established professional networks. It means investing in vocational and technical education, which has long been underfunded and culturally undervalued in Nigeria despite its enormous potential to equip young people with marketable and immediately deployable skills.

Beyond education, the private sector must be incentivized and enabled to expand and create jobs at the scale that Nigeria’s youth population demands. This requires a business environment characterized by stable macroeconomic policy, reliable power supply, accessible credit, functional infrastructure, and a regulatory framework that encourages investment rather than discouraging it. Nigeria cannot produce jobs in sufficient numbers within a hostile business environment. Economic reforms that make it genuinely easier to start, grow, and sustain businesses are therefore inseparable from any serious effort to address youth unemployment.

Government also has a direct and irreplaceable role to play, not only as a regulator and policymaker but as an employer and investor in public infrastructure. Large-scale investment in roads, railways, housing, hospitals, schools, and digital infrastructure creates employment directly while also improving the conditions under which private enterprise can flourish. Social protection programmes that provide basic income support to the most vulnerable unemployed young people can also serve as a buffer, preventing the most desperate consequences of joblessness while longer-term structural reforms take effect.

The youth unemployment crisis should not be viewed solely through economic indicators and statistics, as important as those are. It represents a deeper social challenge that touches on social mobility, family structures, gender dynamics, community development, mental health, and national cohesion. It is a crisis of meaning and belonging as much as it is a crisis of income. Young people who cannot find their place in the economic life of their country often struggle to find their place in its social and civic life as well. Disengagement from society is a predictable and understandable response to repeated exclusion. But disengagement at scale carries enormous risks for the quality of democracy, the strength of civic institutions, and the social trust upon which stable societies depend.

The voices and experiences of young Nigerians themselves must be central to any serious conversation about solutions. Too often, young people are discussed as a problem to be managed rather than as citizens with agency, insight, and legitimate demands. They understand the realities of the labour market, the gaps in their education, the barriers to entrepreneurship, and the frustrations of navigating a system that frequently fails them. Platforms that genuinely listen to and incorporate their perspectives are not only more democratic but are also more likely to produce policies and interventions that actually work.

The future of any nation depends significantly on the opportunities available to its young people. When a generation begins to lose confidence in the ability of education and hard work to improve life chances, society risks undermining one of its most important mechanisms for progress, cohesion, and stability. That loss of confidence, once entrenched, is extraordinarily difficult to reverse. For Nigeria, the challenge is not merely to create jobs, although jobs are urgently needed. It is to restore confidence in the fundamental social promise that effort, education, and talent can still lead to opportunity and dignity. The extent to which this challenge is honestly confronted and adequately addressed may well determine not only Nigeria’s economic trajectory but the kind of society it becomes in the decades ahead. The clock is running, and the young people waiting for answers deserve more than silence.

By Dr. Sani Sa’idu Baba

Having traveled extensively across Nigeria over the years, I have had the privilege of observing firsthand the realities of governance and development in different parts of our country. I first visited Osun State in 2021 and again in May 2022. During those visits, I traveled through several communities and observed the developmental realities on the ground. Recently, I returned to Osun, and I must confess that I could hardly recognize the state I once knew. The transformation I witnessed was remarkable and convincing enough for me to conclude that if the additional revenues accruing to states from fuel subsidy removal were utilized the way Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun State, Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf of Kano State, and Governor Alex Otti of Abia State have utilized theirs, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu would not be facing the level of criticism he receives across the country today.

Since the removal of fuel subsidy in May 2023, Nigerians have endured enormous hardship. Transportation costs have skyrocketed, food prices have become unbearable, rents have increased dramatically, and many families struggle daily to survive. Yet while citizens bore the pains of the policy, state governments began receiving unprecedented revenues from the Federation Account. The real issue therefore is no longer whether subsidy was removed, but what governors are doing with the resources generated from that decision.

Based on my observations across the country, I have come to a simple conclusion: Osun State has become one of the clearest examples of how subsidy-related revenues can be translated into visible development when leadership is focused on the people.

Healthcare provides one of the strongest examples. Through the Imole Medical Outreach Programme, thousands of residents have received free medical treatment, including surgeries for cataracts and hernia, services many families could never have afforded under normal circumstances. Thousands of senior citizens and vulnerable residents have also been enrolled in the Osun Health Insurance Scheme free of charge, ensuring that healthcare is not reserved only for the wealthy.

Beyond healthcare, the Adeleke administration has implemented various social intervention programmes aimed at cushioning the effects of economic hardship. Through the Imole Business Empowerment Scheme, small business owners have received support in the form of POS terminals, start-up grants, and interest-free loans. These interventions have particularly benefited women, youths, and cooperative societies, creating opportunities for economic survival during difficult times.

Infrastructure development is equally visible across the state. During my recent visit, I personally observed significant improvements in parts of Osogbo, Ede, Iwo, and Gbogan. Roads that were once difficult to navigate have received attention, while rural electrification projects and portable borehole water schemes have extended development beyond the urban centers.

Before my recent visit to Osun State, I came across a video of former President Olusegun Obasanjo speaking during the commissioning of some of Governor Adeleke’s projects, including the VIP Lodge and major road networks. In his characteristic jovial manner, Chief Obasanjo remarked in Yoruba: “Mr Governor, they call you a dancer. But you are dancing to praise God. And I heard you are working hard for your people.” He urged Governor Adeleke to ignore distractions and the shortcomings of previous administrations and remain focused on delivering dividends of democracy to the people. At the time, I considered it a generous endorsement from a respected elder statesman. However, after my recent visit to Osun, I now better understand why Obasanjo made those remarks.

One experience stood out for me. Seeing light virtually everywhere across Osogbo helped me understand why Governor Adeleke is popularly called “Imole.” In Yoruba, Imole means “Light,” and the visible improvements in infrastructure, electrification, and public services across the state give practical meaning to that nickname. Development, after all, is the light that dispels the darkness of poverty and neglect.

Governor Adeleke’s commitment to long-term development is equally evident in its approach to the power sector. By signing the Osun Electricity Law, Governor Adeleke positioned the state to address chronic electricity challenges through off-grid and renewable energy solutions. This is the kind of forward-thinking policy many states should be emulating.

Education has not been neglected. Instructional materials have been distributed to schools, and the state’s performance in national examinations has reportedly improved significantly. Combined with the payment of salary and pension arrears inherited from previous administrations, these measures have helped restore confidence among workers, retirees, students, and families across the state.

In retrospect, my initial criticism of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s subsidy removal policy was understandable, given the uncertainty and hardship that followed. Today, however, I see the issue differently. The policy itself is not necessarily the problem. The bigger challenge lies with governors who fail to translate increased revenues into tangible benefits for their citizens.

Osun State, much like Kano and Abia States, has demonstrated that when leadership is people-oriented, even painful economic reforms can produce meaningful outcomes.

In fact, President Tinubu owes Governors Ademola Adeleke, Abba Kabir Yusuf, and Alex Otti a sincere thank you. These governors have shown Nigerians what subsidy-derived revenues can accomplish when managed responsibly. Their performances have given citizens practical examples of what they should be demanding from their respective state governments.

More importantly, they have exposed the scale of resources now available to states. Citizens can now ask legitimate questions: If these states can build roads, improve healthcare, support businesses, expand social welfare programmes, and invest in education, what is preventing others from doing the same?

The real debate surrounding subsidy removal is therefore no longer about the availability of resources but about the quality of leadership managing those resources. If Nigeria truly wants to understand what the benefits of subsidy removal should look like, it should stop listening to excuses and start studying examples such as Osun, Kano, and Abia States.

As an outsider with no political stake in Osun State, I believe the people of the state should carefully reflect on the transformation they have witnessed under Governor Ademola Adeleke. Elections are ultimately a report card on performance. They should be about results rather than rhetoric, delivery rather than promises, and tangible impact rather than partisan sentiments. When leaders demonstrate commitment to improving the lives of ordinary people, democracy demands that such performance be acknowledged and encouraged.

For me, the contrast between the Osun I saw in 2021 and the Osun I recently revisited is striking. The difference is visible, measurable, and difficult to ignore. If the current pace of development is sustained, Osun may well become one of the strongest examples in Nigeria of how responsible leadership can convert public resources into public good.

The lesson is simple: when leadership works, even difficult policies can produce positive results. And when leadership fails, even abundant resources become invisible to the people they are meant to serve.

Dr. Sani Sa’idu Baba writes from Kano, and can be reached via drssbaba@yahoo.com