The impact of Christian Association of Nigeria on the Development of Christian Youth in Nigeria

Abstract

Youth have been described as strength of society, simply because they are usually stronger and constitute about 65% of a society’s  population. They are expected to be backbones of society for their strength and agility. Every responsible society tries to educate, train,  and equip its youths, who are referred to as “the future” of society. However, events in the last two decades show that most of the youth  in Nigerian society are incapacitated due to massive impoverishment, collapsed economy, and financial imbalance caused by various acts  of the ruling class and the privileged elites. Most of the youth that ought to be financially independent are not. Christian youth are not  exemption from the economic hardship facing the nation. Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), the umbrella body of Christian Churches  in Nigeria (CAN), being a religious body which was formed to oversee the wellbeing of Christians in Nigeria has been at the forefront of ending the financial and economic incapacitations among Christian youth through its various programmes. This paper takes  a critical look at the impact of CAN on the development of Christian youth in Nigeria. It also tries to assess the level to which these  developmental programmes have helped the youth in solving most of their problems. Historical, descriptive and empirical methods were  adopted for the paper. The findings of the paper showed that CAN has introduced various developmental programmes for Christian  youth in Nigeria, but financial limitation has not made the efforts to yield much success.