By Obiotika Wilfred Toochukwu
The whole world takes delight in Nigerian Youths even black people. We often get news, reports of excellence from young people in diaspora having distinguished themselves in scholarships, technology, military, politics and other services to mankind. Unfortunately, the leaders of black nations do not have young people as their favorites.
They have all the time debunked the ideas of strength, wisdom of the younger generations. Opportunities and chances are denied these set/class of people due to the fact that wisdom lies with the aged and understanding belongs to the wealthy. Thus, the strive for excellence became completely dampened or eroded from the mind of youths.
At every stage in the life of young people, they have clear targets that would catapult them to the next level. If setting goals have worked for everybody; it’s not the young people in Nigeria. Their targets are often truncated by technical glitches, electronic and human errors, unstable economy, political crisis, farmer-herder clash, or a change in government.
We have become very much aware of the truth that people change people as much as ideas change people. If we talk about the powers that be; the personality of whosoever is in power is a strong motivation/control. That tells you that the personality is stronger than the idea. Who will wipe the tears and remove the rebuke on young people in Nigeria.
How would young people embrace excellence besides the personalities of mediocrity all around them. Nigerian youths who made their marks in distant lands became matchless because of the personalities they encountered. The face of a man sharpens, and shines that of another man. We can’t have an inkling of excellence if our minds are not illuminated by the sense of it.
We commend the Federal Government for setting up NELFUND – youth investment platform and programs. States like Anambra have an empowerment program on skill acquisition. Aside these, the trend of events and the mounting tides of evil are enough to bastardize the minds of young people. They have become like a stick in the mud. Protests, revolts from young people in the ’80s, ’90s recorded breakthroughs.
Fast forward to 2018, young people were referred to as “lazy people”. Hence, our youths have the arteries of their brains tortured. Their lungs, kidneys and liver are pressured. In the North, it’s codeine or tramadol; in the East, it’s methamphetamine.
Their religion is humanity and majority have gone down to their ancestors who could not save their pregnant wives while alive. The youth wing of major political parties is drudgery; that of churches, communities is a drab.
John Williams was an awesome, upcoming star of American NBA in the ’90s. But he crashed out because he became 6′ 8″ and hovered around 300 pounds. Life could be hurting and the social environment filled with rejection, abuse, ridicule, disappointment, betrayal, loss but there’s a freedom of choice left for young people.
You could have been misread as a neurotic perfectionist or a snooty sophistication; it was so in the city of Babylon. The entire government officials were compromised, corrupt, but Daniel came. There is a need for a change in lifestyle, friendships in the pursuit of distinction. We have become like an arm falling off from the shoulder blade but there’s a cause.
Depending on the age or time in which you spent your youthful vigour, we all had something to contend with. But the dynamics have been mutated and mutilated. The ‘ENDSARS, ENDBADGOVERNANCE’ protests are testimonies. Labour leaders vent and social mobilisation for positive change had all dwindled. Titles are being taken even in the villages; everyone of them would like to be crowned without a cross. Condemning the youths will not inspire them to do great things. Sidelining, ignoring, or idly exploiting them can never bless their lives.
If we must make our nation a haven of peace and prosperity, it’s very dependent on our leaders. Discipline paves the way for character that would aid young people in the fulfillment of their destinies. There could be forces clamping down the efforts of young people.
The information, and ideas sold to them could be an impingement to their success and growth. Everyone in the country had expected the teeming unemployed youths to revolutionize the bleeding nation but they were weighed down by hunger, uncertainties. Food insecurity is a veritable tool to make young people loyal, abiding and yielding to the dictates, policies of the government.
The only thing that can threaten salt is sitting in a shaker so long that it gets damp, loses its flavour. Young people ain’t getting off the treadmill of perfection but are studded in the bastion of cheap popularity. They neither pause nor reflect, instead there is a mounting pressure to join the bandwagon. We have seen greed clutching and clinging to the desires of young people.
There is nothing wrong with making a nice living nor is there anything wrong with being eminently wealthy, but the examples of luxurious lifestyle, acquisition and entitlement crawls draws and daints the logic of the youth. It’s time for the young people who have absorbed so many years of mediocre thinking to change. There has to be a transformation from being a caterpillar to a fully developed butterfly, enjoying the sweet nectar of flowers, instead of dwelling on the dirt.
Courage is absent in a country ruled by cynicism. The strong muscle of character that gives a nation its pride and gives a person the will to excel is gone. Young people are hereby challenged to be different, to stand apart from the crowd, with inner fortitude and strength of character.
Obiotika Wilfred Toochukwu
Living Grace Restoration Assembly
Nkono-Ekwulobia. Anambra State.
