Chairman of the Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC), Prof. Tunji Olaopa, has given insight into how to attract youth to public service, whom he identified as Gen Z and Zoomers.

He spoke yesterday at a conference organised by the Citizenship & Leadership Training Centre (CLTC) on “Nigeria at 65: Reviving Values and Volunteerism Amongst Nigerian Youth” in Abuja.

According to Olaopa, in his keynote address titled “Value-Driven Leadership: Bridging the Gap Between Youth Aspirations and the Realities of Public Service,” even though the youth occupy a significant portion of the nation’s population, they have not wielded much political influence.

He said that was the trend until the administration of President Bola Tinubu began its intentional enlistment in significant leadership positions through appointments.

The FCSC boss said before then, they were almost politically irrelevant, only good as a mass body for violence, and electoral malpractices.

His words: “This desperately and helplessly unemployed army has developed and perfected the art of begging and dependency, with a huge sense of entitlement.

“Although they are highly educated, qualified, cosmopolitan, and exposed, the bulk of the members of this demographic are mostly employed in heinous vices as cultism, drug abuse, and cybercrimes, focused unduly on entertainment and easy life.

“They disdain nationality, only desperate to escape the country, in what has been disdained as the ‘japa’ and brain drain syndrome.”

But for Olaopa, instead of the youth being seen as a problem, they can be harnessed for national development.

He said this could be achieved through their employment in public service. But he noted that the public service had to be made attractive for them.