Unemployment and Youth policy in Nigeria’s vision 20:2020 agenda: intergenerational conflicts of perception

In the last decade, the debate on “youth” and “youth policy” has gained momentum worldwide, due to emerging demands by young people to exercise their rights and growing unemployment among young people in many parts of the world. Supra national institutions and national governments have all adopted a new approach to youth policy with the belief that this will help solve youth problems. The Nigeria experience, contrast with the international expectations about the efficacy of solving youth issues, by adopting this new approach. Since 2001, two national youth policies have been adopted by the Nigerian government; however, youth problems, particularly unemployment has steadily increased from 3.6% to 26.7% in 2012. This study explores how the policy environment around youth and development is affected by the con-ceptualization of youth; and concludes that, adopting youth policies alone does not guarantee that youth issues will be solved; there are other factors that af-fect young people’s social situation.