Lagos’ Vision for Youth Safe SpacesBy the Co-Chair, Technical Working Group on Youth – THISDAYLIVE

Engagement MYSD, Femi Balogun
Across Lagos, more than 35 youth centres have been established as important community assets for young people. These centres represent a significant public investment in young people and provide an opportunity to create spaces where youth can learn, connect, innovate, and access the support they need to thrive. While these centres provide a strong foundation, there is now an opportunity to reimagine and strengthen their role so they can better respond to the evolving aspirations, needs, and realities of today’s youth.

The Lagos State Ministry of Youth and Social Development (MYSD), under the leadership of the Honourable Commissioner, Mobolaji Abubakre Ogunlende, and the Permanent Secretary, Pharm. (Mrs.) Toyin Oke-Osanyintolu, is advancing a different vision for youth development in the state. Through the newly established Technical Working Group (TWG) on Youth Engagement, the Ministry is moving beyond occasional programs toward supporting community-based centres where young people can gather, learn, access opportunities, build relationships, and transition with dignity and support in safe spaces around their communities.

At the center of this effort is a simple but powerful idea: young people in Lagos must feel that they belong to the state, and that the state belongs to them. This matters deeply in a city as large, and fast-moving as Lagos. With more than 70 percent of its population under 35, Lagos is one of the world’s youngest urban centers. Yet many young people continue to navigate unemployment, insecurity, exclusion, mental health pressures, weak support systems, and limited access to trusted institutions. Too often, young people encounter government only through regulation, policing, or political rhetoric, not through spaces of care, opportunity, creativity, or co-creation.

The MYSD, in collaboration with the TWG, is attempting to shift that relationship. Working within the framework of the Lagos State Youth Policy and its six pillars — sustainable economic engagement, healthy lifestyles, inclusiveness and equitable opportunities, supportive environments for youth development, partnerships and collaboration, and climate and environmental sustainability — the TWG is narrowing its focus toward activating the youth centers across Lagos as safe spaces, learning spaces, innovation hubs, and transition pathways for young people.

Importantly, the Lagos State Government has already laid the infrastructural foundation. The buildings exist! The opportunity now is to optimize and activate them. This is where the private sector, civil society organizations, development actors, and community leaders play an important role. Rather than creating entirely new structures from scratch, Lagos now has an opportunity to leverage what already exists. The youth centers can become platforms through which organizations deliver services, implement social impact initiatives, support skills development, provide mentorship, offer healthcare outreach, incubate businesses, and engage directly with communities. The vision is practical and community-centered.

In some centres, young people should be able to access employment readiness programs, vocational training, digital and gig economy skills, entrepreneurship support, and career fairs that connect them to actual opportunities. In others, there should be spaces for creative expression, innovation, technology, sports, and recreation. Some centres can become hubs for climate action, environmental education, recycling initiatives, and youth-led sustainability projects. Equally important is the social infrastructure these spaces can provide. The centres are envisioned as places where young people can access health and wellness services, including sexual and reproductive health support, mental health awareness, and health education. They can host legal aid clinics and civic education sessions that help bridge distrust between young people and institutions such as the police and justice system. They can also become spaces where vulnerable and marginalized youth — including those working in the informal economy or living in underserved communities — are reached intentionally rather than left behind.

At its core, this effort is not simply about buildings. It is about rebuilding trust. That is, trust between young people and the government, trust between communities and institutions, trust that opportunities exist within neighborhoods and not only in elite parts of the city, and trust that young people are not just recipients of policy but active citizens capable of shaping the future of Lagos. This is also why the TWG is emphasizing co-creation. The intention is not for the centers to become government-controlled facilities that young people visit occasionally. The goal is for these spaces to be shaped, programmed, and ultimately owned by young people within their communities. Young people must see these centers as places where they can organize, collaborate, solve problems, create enterprises, build networks, and contribute meaningfully to society.

But the government alone cannot fully activate this vision. The scale of Lagos requires shared responsibility. Private-sector actors considering social impact or corporate responsibility should see these centers as existing platforms for direct community impact. Nonprofit and civil society organizations should see them as decentralized spaces for service delivery and grassroots engagement. Development organizations should view them as community infrastructure capable of supporting scalable interventions.

Parents, guardians, traditional rulers, religious institutions, and local community leaders also play an important role in mobilizing young people, protecting these spaces, and ensuring they remain trusted community assets. Lagos has already built the foundation. What comes next will depend on whether institutions, communities, and citizens are willing to collectively fill these spaces with opportunity, dignity, creativity, support, and hope. The question now is whether we are prepared to make them work for the young people they were built for.