The Nigerian state has been bedevilled by some negative phenomena which has had an effect on its progress as a nation. This has come in the form of corruption, absence of patriotism, general restiveness, unstable economy and above all; negligence on the part of the youths. All these are inimical to the growth and development of a nation. They would be extensively discussed, in a lucid manner, as we move on in this write-up.
Stagnation is a process or level of inactivity; when one is neither moving nor progressing,for a long period of time. Using the Nigerian state as an example, it is easy to conclude that the country lacks the necessary drive to be in tandem with the advanced countries of the world. Failure is defined by the Oxford Advanced Learners' Dictionary as the inability to meet up with an intended goal or objective. Relating this to the Nigerian youths, the questions are: Have we been able to proffer solutions to the country's economic problems? Have we been able to initiate innovations that would aid the advancement of the country? Sadly, the responses to these questions are rarely in the affirmative. We have failed to realize that the youths are the major stakeholders in any nation and therefore;their input would, to a large extent, reflect on such setup.
It is pertinent to note that the Nigerian youths constitute about 60% of the total population (according to the National Bureau of Statistics). Thus; they occupy a large chunk of the dependency ratio. Pathetically, the youths have deployed their strength in a way that is inimical to the advancement of the country by engaging in corrupt practices, partaking in social vices, causing unrest and serving as a tool for politicians to project their selfish agenda. When those that constitute the dependency ratio have failed, a nation is bound to fail. The youths have failed to consolidate on the achievement of our early nationalists. Instead, we have succeeded in making ourselves readily available to politicians and, in the same vein, serving as elements of destruction.
Using current situations as an instance, I start with corruption. Corruption is a major bottleneck that has impeded our growth as a nation. The general belief is that the politicians are the brain behind corruption but have the Nigerian youths come to terms with the fact that they have been gullible, negligent and self centred when it comes to challenging what is wrong and doing the needful? If you ask a Nigerian youth what he or she would do when given the privilege to serve in any political capacity, the reply would be astonishing but sincere; "I'm going there to get my share of the national cake". Imagine the mentality! That is why I am skeptical about the "Not too young to run bill" that was passed recently by the National Assembly. This is because there is no assurance that if we are governed by the young ones, we will not experience what we are passing through in the hands of the old and recycled politicians. We have seen situations where the youths were given top political appointments and they failed us. Let us take a look at Salisu Buhari (36 years) and Dimeji Bankole (37 years), who were both speakers of the House of Representatives in 1999 and 2007 respectively, but they failed woefully. In fact, they brought shame to the youths. The former allegedly falsified his certificate and the latter was alleged to have siphoned about 50 billion naira. This shows that the youths have been given the platform in the past but they failed!
Another aspect where the Nigerian youths have failed is our inability to be innovative. The youths have failed to think outside the box. I would place the blame on the system of education practiced here in Nigeria as it is structured in a way that does not allow for bringing in ideas. Academic excellence is overrated! The euphoria that comes along with students' CGPA is too much. We tend to place emphasis on excelling on paper forgetting the need to excel in practice. The Nigerian youths derive joy in lamenting about the evil ways of our politicians. We are heavily reliant on them. An average Nigerian youth would always lament about the poor state of the economy, unemployment, display frustration and the likes, but we have forgotten the word of John. F. Kennedy where he said; "Do not look at what a country can do for you but what you can do for that country". Nigerian youths, have we thought of what we can do for our county? No! We love being spoon-fed and that has stunted our growth over the years.
Another issue is our lack of patriotism. Patriotism denotes "Love for one's country". It is a general belief that where the love of a country is not at heart, abuse and stagnation becomes inevitable. I believe participating in politics is not the only way to contribute our quota to the Nigerian state. Abraham Miller said "Those who love their country never wish to rule". That means our inability to get political appointments shouldn't serve as a yardstick for us to suspend our brain. We have to start showing the spirit of patriotism by following the words of Charles. C. Jefferson; "A man is a patriot if his heart beat for his nation". The zeal must be shown!
I have observed that the youths are beginning to behave and are towing the path of the older generations in their ways. We have propagated ethnic, tribal and religious sentiments, that has long polarized us and endangered us as a nation. We have not demonstrated the vision to take the country forward. Rather than being the hope of our nation, we have become the hopeless generation. The Nobel laureate; Prof. Wole Soyinka said that "My generation is wasted" but, from my observation, ours is a lost, confused and disillusioned generation.
We defend, praise and support leaders who are corrupt just because they are of our ethnic stock. Youth restiveness is now the order of the day. We derive joy in facilitating violence, lawlessness, insurgency, oil bunkering, kidnapping, to mention but a few. All these have become permissible in our society. We seem to have lost focus, we seem to be lacking vision, we seem to be clueless and moribund. I wonder why the Nigerian youths cannot act like the youths of Egypt who came out en masse at the Tahir square to bring an end to the Mubarak rule. I wonder why we cannot emulate our counterparts in Tunisia who demanded an end to Ben Ali dictatorship. Instead, we revert to our ethnic and primordial cocoon when our voice is needed to end impunity, corruption and incompetent leadership.
In J.K Rowlings words; "Everything has an expiry date". Nigerian youths, the time when we blame our politicians has come to an end. The time when we blame our parents has come to an end. The time has come for us to take the destiny of this great nation into our hands and rescue it from palpable collapse. The time has come for us to deploy our strength in a way that would project Nigeria and Africa in good light. Nigerian youths, where is our Vibrancy and Articulacy?
Thanks for reading.
Shotunde Oladimeji
Student;
*LAGOS STATE UNIVERSITY.*
*©Excel Minds*
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