A former Director General of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Major General Johnson Olawumi (rtd), has urged youths in Nigeria to hold political leaders accountable with facts and not social media handouts.

The retired major general spoke in Ekiti State on the occasion of the 2025 International Students’ Day event in Ekiti State during the week.
Maj-Gen Olawumi spoke on the theme, which centred on the role of students in 21st-century governance.

According to him, students as a subset of the youth population or the organised wing of the larger youth population, have a responsibility as watchdogs in how decisions are made and resources are managed, and not just spectators.
He said, “In the 21st century, three forces shape governance: data, networks, and trust. Data guides who get what, where, and when. Networks mobilise people and ideas at speed. Trust holds the system together. These are crucial ingredients, and young people increasingly command them.”

The former NYSC boss said Nigeria’s youth bulge of half its population is an advantage that should be fully utilised for nation-building.
He said students play eight major roles in nation-building, which include studying national issues by reading budgets, audit reports, policy drafts and understanding how bills become laws.

“If you can read a spreadsheet and a memo, you can hold power or leaders to account and use it responsibly. Don’t drown in shallow social media stories; bring facts to the conversation,” he said.
Maj-Gen Olawumi urged students to use technology for civic problem-solving through community mapping, crowdsourced reporting, campus budget dashboards, oand pen-data visuals, among others.

For him, unionism must be with purpose, principles and policies. “Protest has its place; negotiation has power. Choose evidence over noise, proposals over slogans, timelines over threats.
“As students, you can aggregate your voice into a powerful, coordinated lobby to push for policy reforms, monitor government projects and hold officials accountable,” he said.

He enjoined students to use dialogue to build bridges, embrace the ethics of integrity over malpractices, and commit to volunteering work.
The former NYSC boss also urged students to track the implementation of government projects.

“Policies fail at execution. Check the follow-through: Is the borehole still working after six months? Is the ICT centre powered? Publish simple project report cards. Accountability can help to build trust,” he said.