It is often said that the future belongs to the youth. Yet when a growing number of young people lack education, employable skills, or a clear and positive direction in life, an urgent question confronts us as a community. What then is the future of Umuseti?
Across Umuseti today, many young people are trapped in cycles of internet fraud, cultism, drug misuse, and other forms of criminal activity. This reality places not only their lives at risk, but also threatens the peace, safety, and long-term stability of our community. The days when families could focus only on their own children are behind us. If we desire a peaceful homeland, secure country homes, and a safe retirement in our ancestral land, then we must deliberately include the children of the poor and vulnerable in our vision for the future.
This challenge is not unique to Umuseti. It reflects a wider reality across Ukwuani and beyond. However, Umuseti has chosen to act.
In response, we proudly announce the launch of the Umuseti Vision 2035 Project: Empowering Futures, a bold and transformative community initiative designed to reposition Umuseti through people-centred development.
Vision 2035 is built on a simple but powerful belief. Sustainable community growth begins with individual capacity development. The project aims to empower at least one person in every Umuseti family through access to education, skills training, and clear pathways to productive and positive destinations.
The mission of Vision 2035 is to empower the people of Umuseti by providing relevant skills, education, and opportunities for personal and professional growth. Particular attention is given to young people still in school and youths who currently lack skills, employment, or direction.
Through this initiative, individuals will be equipped with practical, market-relevant skills aligned with real economic opportunities. Vision 2035 seeks to build a sustainable talent pipeline for Umuseti while restoring dignity, responsibility, and purpose among its youth. By investing in people, families are strengthened, crime is reduced, moral values are renewed, and a community that works for everyone is built.
The mandate of Vision 2035 is clear and measurable.
By the year 2035, the project aims to ensure that at least one person in every Umuseti family has a skill or decent job capable of supporting their household. Every young person completing secondary school should leave with both an academic certificate and a practical, income-generating skill. Between now and 2035, the project targets the empowerment of 1,000 Umuseti youths across different skills and career pathways.
The initiative further aims to support at least 70 per cent of young people and youths in Umuseti with hands-on skills leading to employment, entrepreneurship, or other positive outcomes. Well-to-do sons and daughters of Umuseti are encouraged to support at least one individual into employment, skills acquisition, or completion of a viable career pathway. Ultimately, Vision 2035 seeks to ensure that at least 70 per cent of Umuseti youths are productively engaged, with every family having at least one financially responsible individual.
Speaking on the vision, Ambassador Chuks Ododo, the visionary behind the Umuseti Vision 2035 project and Co-ordinator of the Umu Ezeti Virtual Town Hall Platform, called on all well-meaning sons and daughters of Umuseti to seize this opportunity to give back. He emphasised that a peaceful community and a secure retirement life depend on collective responsibility.
According to him, the children of the less privileged must be supported into positive destinations with the same commitment given to our own children. This, he noted, is the only sustainable path to long-term peace, safety, and prosperity in Umuseti.
Ambassador Ododo further appealed to all branches of Umuseti family meetings across Nigeria and the diaspora, as well as unions and associations, to align their strategic priorities over the next decade with the Vision 2035 Project. He stressed that empowering the next generation of Umuseti is critical to the survival and progress of the community.
He also called on government at all levels, corporate organisations, and non-governmental organisations to partner with and support Umuseti Vision 2035 to ensure its successful delivery. Such support, he said, will help guarantee that every Umuseti family has at least one person capable of standing financially for their household.
The success of Vision 2035 depends on collective ownership. Every individual has a role to play. Contributions may come through volunteering time and expertise, partnering to deliver a training workshop, providing employment opportunities, offering financial support, or amplifying the message within personal and professional networks. No contribution is too small when directed towards building a shared future.
We are committed to building an Umuseti where no child is invisible, where talent is not wasted because of poverty, nor dreams are buried because of hardship and where those who have succeeded make it their duty to lift others by building ladders of opportunity.
Together, the story of Umuseti can be changed. By empowering individuals today, the community secures peace, growth, and prosperity for generations to come. Vision 2035 is not just a project. It is a call to responsibility, unity, and action.
Let us rise together to build a future for Umuseti that we can all be proud of.
Reimagining the future of Umuseti for sustainable growth and development
Chuks Ododo
For and on behalf of
Umu Ezeti Town Hall Platform
About the Author
