Unemployment, Poverty Fuelling Brain Drain, Fetish Practices among Nigeria’s Youths: Catholic Official

Even for the lucky few who manage to secure employment, the situation remains grim.

“The pay that comes from these jobs is so small because of our bad economic situation right now, especially the Dollar exchange rate,” Mr. Ekene said.

This harsh economic reality, he said, is forcing many to abandon reputable roles in Nigeria for low-skilled labor abroad. 

“You see someone working in a reputable organization in Nigeria resigning just to go abroad and do menial jobs,” the Abuja Archdiocesan Youth leader said. 

For Mr. Ekene, this is a “national tragedy, young Nigerians fleeing their homeland not out of a lack of patriotism, but because they can no longer see a future in it. “

He urged authorities to address both the unemployment crisis and the economic instability. 

“If the economy of this country is good, young people are ready to work. They have the knowledge, they have the skills, they have the energy, and they will stay back home to do the work because there will be nothing that would attract them to leave their country,” the Catholic youth leader said.

Mr. Ekene acknowledged that while the Church may not have the industrial capacity to employ young people en masse, it can contribute in meaningful ways.

“The Church can create that enabling environment, I know the Church does not have the resources to employ young people, but what the Church can do is to engage in skill acquisition, reorientation of the young persons, and also engage with the government to help the young people get meaningful employment,” the CYON President said. 

Mr. Ekene believes that Church leaders must step up their advocacy.

 “They can keep doing more to pass this message to the leadership of the country... give them the statistics on the ground... and show why the government needs to do more to make sure that the economy is better,” he said.

Turning to the troubling resurgence of fetish practices and idol worship among youth, especially in the southeastern parts of Nigeria, Mr. Ekene pointed to desperation for quick wealth as the root cause.

“The major thing responsible is money. Quick money, a lot of young people feel that this is the only avenue for them to get quick money and escape poverty. And this is a lie. This is a very big lie,” he told ACI Africa

The Nigerian Catholic Youth leader identified social media as a powerful and dangerous tool that has fueled this trend. 

“Social media has created a whole lot of false narratives on how wealth comes and how prosperity is gained. People are going on this platform to carry out false teachings, false narratives, and show false money that they do not have. And it is driving other people to do what they are doing,” he explained.

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Mr. Ekene lamented the growing perception among young Nigerians that rituals and fetish practices offer a shortcut to wealth. 

CYON, under Mr. Ekene’s leadership, has taken an active role in combating these harmful beliefs. From parish faith clinics to youth debates, the organization is working to debunk the myth of money rituals and redirect the focus to legitimate means of success and faith in Christ.

bring people to the right path, we have debates, and we have faith clinics in parishes where we discuss and talk about these things — are these things real?” he said.

In a separate interview with ACI Africa during the same event, the National Coordinator of Young Missionary Movement (YOMM), one of the organizations under the Pontifical Mission Societies (PMS) Nigeria, Mr. Peter Adubi encouraged the youths to not to get carried away with the distractions around them but develop missionary spirit and use their youthful age to serve God. 

“If you look around our society today, you will see a lot of young people wasting their youthful age when they can deploy their energy to serve God. They can imbibe the missionary spirit and propagate the work of evangelization in their area of influence because as a youth you cannot be a young person forever,” Mr. Adubi said.

He added, “Our youths must rise beyond just being churchgoers; they must become true missionaries, on fire for Christ. The Gospel needs to be taken to the streets, schools, and social platforms. It’s no longer a task for tomorrow, the mission is now that the Church depends on its young people to sustain the missionary mandate of Christ in a world increasingly in need of hope and truth.”