Bassirou Diomaye Faye , President Of Senegal Republic.
WHY AM ANGRY WITH NIGERIAN YOUTHS?
By: Idris Isah Itopa.
I’m not a youth, but I am angry for the Nigerian youths. I wonder why they are not angry even as all available statistics indicate that the youths of this country are not making much impact. Unlike the youths of the first and second generations after independence who produced the heads of state, governors, ministers, captains of industry and first-class technocrats, today’s youths are extremely docile, uncommitted and uninformed about their expected role in the society.
Today, many of the people in this age bracket called youth (18-35 years) have been isolated from leadership. They rather spend their prime age on drugs addiction, political hooliganism, violence, fuel Hawking, yahoo-yahoo, social media propagandist and other criminality-minded activities.
Why are the youths of this generation scared of taking on responsibilities and serving as change agents in their communities and the nation at large. And why are the elders not worried about this negative development?
Recalling my youth days and how I combined schooling with community service and other entrepreneurial activities, as enough to gauge the waning youth activism in the country.
At a prime age of 14 years, some of us were operating profit-making ventures that helped us raised funds to take care of our personal needs without disturbing our parents. But the youths of this generation fall back on their parents for everything.
In order to be self-reliant, every weekend, we did go to nearby pond to till and collect loamy soil, dried it and sold to people who used it to reinforce their mud roofs.
On some other days, we would go to farm which were not far from our homes to buy sugar cane and cut into slices for sale. We were doing all these not because our parents were not well enough to take care of our needs, but exploring opportunities and interpreting life in our own ways to support efforts of our parents. All of these experience and exposures later manifested in our personality and defined how we handle challenges. We never waver to face our fears, find solutions to life challenges and move forward with life.
I must admit that the experience emboldened us to be resilient, assertive, self-reliant and meticulous in our approach to life. It helped in shaping us to resist the temptation of joining the clique of get-rich-quick that this new generation youths have become.
As parents, religious leaders and members of the academic community, all have our part of the blame for the retrogression that the youths in Nigeria are going through. The parents have refused to allow their children to grow, to think critically and provide solutions to simple family issues. A youth of 30 years is still pampered and treated as a child.
The schools have shut their doors to children who wanted to showcase themselves as leaders and often reprimand them for being bold, as a result of incessant strikes. Little attention is paid to character building and skill development even as they have it on the students report cards.
Only few faith-based organizations in Nigeria have counseling programmes where young people are exposed to societal challenges and taught how they can assist in overcoming them.
There is a common assumption that since the holy books are unequivocally teaching these values, every child is expected to have naturally imbibed them. But that has not been the case for majority of followers.
Despite the rampant corruptions in the country, the high maternal and infant mortality rates, poor health and infrastructural decay in the country, the Nigerian youths are still not angry.
If all these cannot make our youths angry, what else can? I cannot decide for them, but all I know is that there are some basic tools that our youths need in order to become the active citizens we want them to be – change agents.
I will take on three in this piece, which are consciousness; involvement; and action.
First, they need to be conscious of what is going on around them and in the larger society. How do they become aware of the details? It’s through reading, listening and talking. There must be an organized and united student unionism in the country, like in the past of early 80s.
Secondly, After, awareness comes involvement, which is a stage when youths get angry and decide to do something about it. By being angry, I am not prescribing the $EndSARS kind of rebellion we witnessed in 2020. What I mean is that they need to feel agitated to change the situation by getting involved in community issues and develop a repulsive mind.
The tool they need is action! It’s not to complain or lament over issues. It’s not even enough to have an action plan. They have to implement it. The youths must define, analyze and take concrete steps to solve the problems they encountered.
These actions can be in form of speaking out, refusing to do something when they know it’s wrong to do so, asking probing questions, mobilizing their community members or educating them on some burning issues, such as in health, education, security and bad governance.
Thirdly, to be active citizens goes beyond campaigning for candidates and casting votes. The youths must maintain close contact with those elected into offices to ensure that they keep their promises.
They must also present themselves for elections since they have the advantage of population, time and energy. About 60% of Nigeria population are youths.
The ball is in your court, our youths! You should start this prime time emulate the youths of Republic of Senegal, where they came out enmass, mobilized and voted for the 40 year old youth to win the Presidential election in Senegal, deviod of unnecessary sentiments.
Idris Isah Itopa
Media Practitioner
Abuja.
(08035130045)