UMUSETI/Nigeria: Concerned by the growing challenges facing young people and the implications for long-term peace and stability, the Umuseti community has unveiled a far-reaching human capital initiative aimed at securing its future through deliberate investment in its youth.
The initiative, tagged Umuseti Vision 2035: Empowering Futures, was announced as a people-centred development agenda designed to confront rising cases of internet fraud, cultism, drug misuse and other social vices that have increasingly trapped young people in destructive cycles, threatening both their lives and the collective wellbeing of the community.
Community leaders noted that while the challenges confronting Umuseti mirror wider realities across Ukwuani and beyond, the community has chosen a proactive path anchored on empowerment, inclusion and shared responsibility. The project is premised on the belief that sustainable growth begins with individual capacity development and that a peaceful homeland can only be guaranteed when the children of the poor and vulnerable are given the same opportunities as others.
Vision 2035 seeks to empower at least one person in every Umuseti family through access to education, practical skills and clear pathways to productive livelihoods. Special focus is placed on students still in school as well as youths without employable skills, jobs or clear direction, with the aim of restoring dignity, purpose and responsibility.
Under the programme, beneficiaries will be equipped with market-relevant skills aligned with real economic opportunities, helping to build a sustainable talent pipeline for Umuseti. The initiative is also projected to strengthen families, reduce crime and renew moral values, while laying the foundation for inclusive growth that benefits the entire community.
The targets of the project are clearly defined. By 2035, at least one person in every Umuseti household is expected to possess a viable skill or decent job capable of supporting their family. All secondary school graduates are expected to leave with both academic certification and a practical, income-generating skill, while no fewer than 1,000 youths are to be empowered across diverse skills and career pathways within the project timeline.
The vision also aims to ensure that at least 70 per cent of Umuseti youths are productively engaged in employment, entrepreneurship or other positive pursuits, with well-to-do sons and daughters of the community encouraged to directly support at least one individual into skills acquisition, employment or a sustainable career path.
Speaking on the initiative, Chuks Ododo, the visionary behind Umuseti Vision 2035 and Coordinator of the Umu Ezeti Virtual Town Hall Platform, called on all well-meaning sons and daughters of Umuseti to embrace the project as a collective duty. He stressed that lasting peace, safety and a secure retirement life in the community depend on shared responsibility and deliberate inclusion.
According to him, supporting the children of the less privileged into positive destinations with the same commitment shown to one’s own children remains the only sustainable route to long-term peace and prosperity in Umuseti.
Ododo further appealed to Umuseti family branches across Nigeria and the diaspora, as well as unions and associations, to align their strategic priorities over the next decade with Vision 2035. He also called on government at all levels, corporate organisations and non-governmental bodies to partner with the initiative to guarantee its successful delivery.
He emphasised that the success of Vision 2035 rests on collective ownership, noting that contributions could come through volunteering expertise, supporting training programmes, offering employment opportunities, providing financial backing or amplifying the project’s message within personal and professional networks.
The organisers reaffirmed their commitment to building an Umuseti where no child is invisible, talent is not wasted due to poverty, and success comes with a responsibility to lift others by creating ladders of opportunity.
They concluded that Vision 2035 is more than a project, describing it as a call to unity, responsibility and action, aimed at reimagining the future of Umuseti for sustainable growth, peace and prosperity for generations to come.
