Democratic Leadership and Youth Empowerment in South East Geopolitical Zone of Nigeria from 2015-2022
This study investigated Democratic leadership and youth empowerment in South East Geopolitical Zone of Nigeria from 2015 – 2022. The scope of the study cover; to examining the effect of democratic leadership in south east in Nigeria, the study covers only two states in south east, namely Enugu and Ebonyi, and the study is disposed to find out; effect of democratic leadership on youth employment in south east geopolitical zone of Nigeria, the effect of democratic leadership on youth participation in governance south east geopolitical zone of Nigeria, the effect of democratic leadership on youth acquisition of entrepreneurial skills in south east geopolitical zone of Nigeria. The total population for the study is two thousand eight hundred and seventy six (2876) youth. A sample size of three hundred and fifty one (351) youth was drawn using Yaro Yamen sampling techniques. This study made use of both primary and secondary data as method of data collection. Primary data are those data which have been collected for the first time by the researcher, while secondary data are those data that has been collected by someone else and exist somewhere such as journals, encyclopedia, newspaper and other authoritative documents relevant to this study. Data elicited from the respondent was analyzed using simple percentages, while the chi-square was used for testing of hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed that democratic leadership has little or no significant role in youth employment in South East Geopolitical Zone of Nigeria, democratic leadership played significant role in youth participation in politics and governance in south east geopolitical zone of Nigeria, democratic leadership played significant role in youth acquisition of entrepreneurial skills in south east geopolitical zone of Nigeria. Based on the findings, the following recommendations were made; democratic leadership should create more job opportunities for the youth as the high rate of insecurity and insurgency in the country could be attributed to the idleness of the youth, democratic leadership should include the youth in planning and execution process of programs aimed at empowering the youth, as this will enable the program to address efficiently the myriads of problems facing the youth, democratic leadership should endeavour to give the youth opportunity to hold political position, this will help boast their morale and productivity instead of resorting to political violence to register their discountenance with the system. Finally suggestions for further studies were made..