Osun’s Commissioner For Youth Affairs: Wading Through Treacle While Osun Youth Turns To Data Boys

Femi Adesola

Osun State… On August 12th, the world celebrated International Youth Day, a day set aside to reflect on the achievements, potential, and challenges of young people. For many states and countries, it was an opportunity to highlight investments in youth development, innovation, and empowerment. Sadly, in Osun State, the occasion came and went without any meaningful highlight of progress. Instead, what we witnessed from Hon. Moshood Olagunju, Commissioner for Youth Affairs, was a display of uninspired rhetoric and a pseudo-political gathering of endorsement.

This is particularly disheartening given the staggering over ₦1 billion in capital expenditure allocated to the Ministry of Youth Affairs in the 2025 budget. With such a budget, one would expect transformative initiatives, modern training programs, and measurable impact on youth empowerment. Instead, what we have is a commissioner who appears to be wading through treacle, sluggish, and unable to generate momentum, while the youth of Osun continue to sink deeper into unemployment and irrelevance in the digital economy; rather, they turn to data boys on social media for politicians.

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In 2025, the conversation about youth development is inseparable from technology. Across the country, governments and NGOs are rolling out training in artificial intelligence, digital marketing, creative designs, coding, renewable energy technology, and agri-tech. These are not luxuries; they are the bare minimum in a world driven by innovation and sustainability. Yet, under Hon. Olagunju’s leadership, Osun’s Ministry of Youth Affairs seems stuck in a time warp.

Where is the Ministry of Youth-backed IT boot camps? Where are the renewable energy training initiatives form the Ministry of Youth to prepare our youth for the green economy? Where are the agricultural start-up incubators that could equip thousands with the tools and funding to become employers rather than job seekers?

The painful truth is that none of these have been meaningfully pursued by the Honourable Commissioner for Youth. The absence of vision is glaring, and the silence on these issues during his Youth Day address was deafening.

The Commissioner frequently references the Imole Youth Corps, a legacy program initiated by former Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola and later rebranded by Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola and rechristened by Governor Ademola Adeleke. Aside of deploying them to the school to teach. What value has Mr Moshood added to the program? However, instead of building on its structure and expanding its relevance in today’s job market, Hon. Olagunju has turned it into a tired talking point, a shield against criticism rather than a tool for impact.

Rather than modernizing the program to include digital skills, renewable energy projects, and agribusiness training, it remains largely stagnant. The original vision is to mobilize young people into productive, skills-oriented engagements, which has been watered down into photo-ops and ceremonial activities that do little to change the unemployment statistics.

Osun State’s vast agricultural potential should be a cornerstone of youth empowerment. With the Governor’s plan to cultivate thousands of hectares of farmland per local government. From cassava to cocoa, from poultry to fishery, the opportunities for value-chain development are immense. A proactive Commissioner for Youth Affairs should have seized the moment to connect young people to this sector not just as farmhands but as agri-entrepreneurs. Yet, the question remains: How many Osun youth has Hon. Olagunju supported with agricultural training and start-up kits? How many have been linked to micro-credit facilities or export markets? How many success stories can his ministry showcase after spending hundreds of millions in taxpayer funds?

If the Commissioner needed a model for action, he need not look far. The Osun Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Agency, headed by Mr. Bankole Omisore, has shown that even with limited resources, innovation is possible. The agency has organised innovation challenges, ICT training sessions, and entrepreneurship workshops that have reached real beneficiaries. He should also borrow a leaf from the renewable energy team, training youth on battery making and waste to wealth program. How has he keyed in the youth he led to those laudable programs?

This proves one thing: you cannot give what you do not have. A leader without technical understanding of today’s youth economy will naturally fail to inspire, plan, or execute relevant programs. The Commissioner appears to lack the vision and skillset needed to navigate the complexities of youth development in the 21st century.

A Commissioner for Youth Affairs is not a ceremonial role. It demands strategic thinking, clear targets, and measurable results. At a time when youth unemployment in Osun State remains high, while youth are turning to data boys, we should have a comprehensive roadmap that addresses Digital Skills Development, equipping youth with tech competencies for remote jobs and digital entrepreneurship. Renewable Energy Training that preparing the next generation to tap into the green economy. Agri-Tech and Agribusiness Support are creating job creators in the agricultural sector. Start-up incubation and funding access that will enable youth-led enterprises to thrive. Mentorship and apprenticeship programs that will further equip youth with the rightful experience needed to succeed in business and job market.

Every year of poor leadership in youth affairs is a year stolen from the future of Osun youth. We cannot afford to have a commissioner whose primary achievement is recycling legacy programs without innovation. The over ₦1 billion capital expenditure represents the collective sweat of taxpayers, the hopes of graduates roaming the streets without jobs, and the potential of a generation waiting to be unlocked. Osun youth deserve a commissioner who measures success not in press releases but in transformed lives.

The Governor of Osun State must take a hard look at the performance of his youth ministry. International Youth Day should have been a celebration of success stories, graduates turned entrepreneurs, digital skills graduates securing remote jobs, young farmers breaking into export markets. Instead, it was a reminder of lost opportunities. If Hon. Olagunju cannot pivot, embrace innovation, and deploy the ministry’s budget toward tangible, transformative programs, then he should make way for someone who can. Leadership in youth affairs is not for those content with mediocrity; it is for those who can ignite ambition and create pathways for prosperity, inject fresh vision and energy into the Ministry of Youth.

Femi Adesola

adesolafemigab@gmail.com