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Continued from Part 2
C. B. Langston, in the book "Youth" wrote:
"Oh happy youth! Life's oasis of beauty!
What time in after years so pure and sweet?
Free from the lab'ring progress of great manhood,
It treads life's pathway with elastic feet!"
eing a youth is a mindset as well as an age factor, but, whoever remains proactive throughout his or her life, remains a youth, his or her real age notwithstanding. Sophia Loren (1934) wrote that "There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of people you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will truly have defeated age." Also, Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) wrote "Youth! There is nothing like youth. The middle-aged are mortgaged to Life. The old are in Life's lumber-room. But youth is the Lord of Life. Youth has a kingdom waiting for it. Every one is born a king, and most people die in exile".
The adult Nigerians understand the inequality in the country and have agreed to live with it without any serious attempt to change things, meaning that they (adult Nigerians) have failed, but, the youth, in this computer age, find it hard to understand why Nigeria is "upside down" despite all it has. Abraham Lincoln (1809 -1865), in the "letter to Fanny McCullough", Dec. 23, 1862, wrote "In this sad world of ours sorrow comes to all, and to the young it comes with bittered agony because it takes them unawares. The older have learned to expect it". Doris Lessing (1919), in her book "Shikasta" wrote "The youth do not see the old. They are not programmed to see the old, who are cancelled, negated, wiped out". If successive Nigerian rulers have been leaders, they would have tapped the youth to correct the ills of our society. The youth are unspoilt initially and a great leader can build on that, but, unfortunately, Nigeria has never had a leader. Henry Ward Beecher (1813 -1887), in the collection, "Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit", wrote "There is in youth a purity of character which, when once touched and defiled, can never be restored; a fringe more delicate than frost-work, and which, when torn and broken, can never be re-embroidered". What happens in Nigeria is that the youth are wasted and some are forced to engage in despicable activities due to greed they imbibed from their elders, politicians and government officials. That's why Nigerian youth are not motivated to help take the country to greater heights. No wonder that everything about the country is moving backward, while some other countries have learnt to move forward. The youth of today would grow old without contributing meaningfully to the growth and development of Nigeria, the way it's supposed to be everywhere. Charles Caleb Colton (1780-1832), in his book "Lacon", wrote "A youth without fire is followed by an old age without experience". Exactly as Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850 -1919), wrote in her book "You Will Forget Me" that "This dream of our youth will fade out as the splendor fades from the skies when the sun sinks to sleep". This column regrets to write that the Nigerian rulers have made our youth failures before their lives have even begun; our leaders have mesmerized our youth and left them confused, just as Thomas S. Monson (1927), in his book "Pathways To Perfection: Discourses Of Thomas S. Monson" wrote "Some are young people who don't know who they are, what they can be or even want to be. They are afraid, but they don't know of what. They are angry, but they don't know at whom. They are rejected and they don't know why. All they want is to be somebody". Hesiod (700bc) also wrote "I see no hope for the future of our people if they are dependent on the frivolous youth of today, for certainly all youth are reckless beyond words. When I was a boy, we were taught to be discrete and respectful of elders, but the present youth are exceedingly wise and impatient of restraint." This column is sad, because, J.B. Priestley (1894 -1984) was right when he wrote "Like its politicians and its wars, society has the teenagers it deserves."
Nigeria offers no succour to its citizens in distress: no regular pension, and, in few cases where it's obtainable, one official or the other embezzles the whole money while the old people who worked all their lives are made to starve, and, many of them have died while on queue to receive the "peanut" approved as their pension; there's no social security, there's no unemployment benefits, there's no financial help for parents to raise their children etc, and, that's why nobody cares for the Nigerian youth. Nigerian politicians and senior government officials have stolen enough to last them and their families for a life time, so, they give no damn about who will pay for their own pension when they are old and grey. Dave Barry (1947) wrote "I care about our young people, and I wish them great success, because they are our Hope for the Future, and some day, when my generation retires, they will have to pay us trillions of dollars in social security", and, Dr. Robert H. Goddard (1882-1945) wrote "Resolve to be tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant with the weak and the wrong. Sometime in your life you will have been all of these."
Nigeria does not give a hoot about its youth, has no plan for them, and, is not empowering them to be productive, so we don't have to look any further to know why the country is where it is today. Irish Proverb has it "Praise youth and it will prosper". In some other climes, the youth are pampered because the future of any country depends on them, but in Nigeria, it is different. Confucius (551-479 BC), in the book "The Wisdom of Confucius" wrote "A youth is to be regarded with respect. How do we know that his future will not be equal to our present?" In countries where things are better organized, the leaders know and do better, afterall, they were once youth, now adult, and, would soon hand over (to the youth sooner or later), and then disappear from the political scene, as "the young shall grow and the old shall die". So, those countries do protect their youth and would never want anything to hurt them, because, they are their greater tomorrows, just as Alfred North Whitehead (1861 - 1947) wrote that "The deepest definition of youth is life as yet untouched by tragedy". But in Nigeria, things are not done the normal ways, that's why Nigerian political elite and government officials never loosen their strangulating grip on power; they keep recycling themselves and their children, and the poor Nigerians are left forlorn. Babangida, in the heat leading to the last presidential election, issued a blanket statement against the youth of Nigeria, saying that they're incapable of taking over the leadership positions of Nigeria (read more in tit bit section) .
The greater percentage of our youth spend years acquiring education, but, will never get a job. What the ruling elite does is to make Nigeria "uninhabitable" for the youth that many are forced to leave the shores of Nigeria for greener pastures elsewhere, even in countries worse than Nigeria in the real sense of it. The ruling class is happy when many Nigerian youth leave so that nobody would challenge their misrule and corruption. Those remaining in Nigeria have been flattened out and are now more pre-occupied with how to merely exist, rather than on how to challenge the government's high-handedness and recklessness. Kurt Cobain (1967 -1994) wrote that "The duty of youth is to challenge corruption", but, the youth who should have challenged those misruling Nigeria left for abroad. Many have fallen by the wayside, many died on the way, while their relations in Nigeria are still hoping that their son or brother, or sister or daughter is somewhere abroad. Many ran foul of the law of the country they found themselves and are in jails; many have failed to make it; while few have succeeded against all odds to integrate well in their new country of abode. Many Nigerian professionals are wasting abroad, while many are contributing meaningfully to the economy of their new found home land. All these skills (of the Nigerians abroad) those foreign countries are enjoying should have helped to uplift Nigeria to greater heights, assuming the ruling elite plans well or has done everything possible to make Nigerian youth feel at home in their homeland. Some of the children of those Nigerians the Nigerian rulers drove out of Nigeria due to the bad policies they initiated and implemented, are now almost adults and are representing and winning medals for the countries where their parents ran to (where they themselves were born or taken to).
To be continued!
TIT BITS
*The Guardian Editorial of Wednesday, May 12, 2010 wrote:
"The recent statement by former military president, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida (rtd) in which he said that the youth are incapable of leading the country is most unfortunate, coming from a man of his calibre. It is not surprising that many young persons feel insulted by this and have chosen to take the former military leader to task. His statement seems to dismiss, incorrectly, the entire youth population as worthless. But the underlying message is that there is a need to correct this anomaly if it exists, and introduce policies and measures that can empower the youth. Nonetheless, even if it is true that the youth are incapable, it does not lie in General Babangida's mouth to say so, for he may be guilty of self-indictment. As a former military leader, he was in a position to make a difference in this regard, which he failed to do. Twenty-five years ago when the country's economy was buoyant and Babangida was in charge, it was a helpless populace that watched as his administration frittered away opportunities and mortgaged the future.
The General reportedly made the statement during an interview with the BBC Hausa Service. He was asked why he didn't step aside and give the younger generation a chance to lead since they are fresh and strong. He replied: "Because we have seen signs that they are not capable of leading this country and so we feel we should help them. Maybe they are not given the proper education that is why..."
When the reporter pressed further that the younger generation is supposed to be in charge by now, Babangida said: "A country like Nigeria cannot be ruled by people without experience." He went on to cite Barack Obama as having the experience, "having started from the state House of Assembly to the House of Representatives and to the Senate".
The Nigerian population is predominantly youthful. The youth alone comprise over 60 per cent of the electorate. General Babangida says they have not been given proper education. As President, what exactly did he do to ensure that the youth received "proper education?" Many Nigerians in fact, trace the beginnings of the collapse of the country's once vibrant and qualitative education sector to the Babangida years with his administration's insistence on the removal of subsidy on education. The cafeteria system was stopped, exposing many students to hunger; university funding suffered; academic freedom was violated; the situation was even worse at the secondary and primary school levels.
If General Babangida's perception of the Nigerian youth is based on his perception of the Nigerian youth currently in politics, he needs be reminded that the real problem lies in the skewed leadership recruitment process that has been imposed on the country by successive administrations, including his. Most persons gain access to power not because they are capable, but due to the influence of seen and unseen Godfathers who insist on hijacking the political process for personal, religious or ethnic reasons. Babangida is considered a major exponent of this brand of politics. Its driving logic is that of exclusion and it is this same logic, sadly that Babangida now espouses.
This is unlike elsewhere where politics is based on issues and ideas. In many other countries, young persons are specially groomed to assume leadership positions and they are encouraged in every possible way. Some of the most powerful countries in the world today are led by young persons. When U.S. President Barack Obama assumed office as President in 2008, he was 47. Dmitry Medvedev became President of Russia in 2008 at the age of 43. Before these two, former British Prime Ministers John Major and Tony Blair, and former U.S. President Bill Clinton had demonstrated the potential and power of youthful imagination in public life. David Cameron who assumed office yesterday as the new British Prime Minister was born in 1966. Former President Ibrahim Babangida is under the illusion that youth is the province of incapability; he is wrong. How old was he himself, when he assumed the leadership of Nigeria in 1985? He was barely 44. Nigeria has also had other young men and women in positions of authority.
It has been rightly observed that Nigeria is one of those few countries in the world where the leaders are older than the country! America with over 200 years history is ruled by a 40-something year old. So is Russia. But Nigeria, which is not yet 50 years old, has been ruled by people in their 70s. At 69, shouldn't Babangida take a bow and allow young brains and blood to take charge of the country? There is need to provide the right environment for the youth. The truth is that the future belongs to the youth".
*This column wishes everyone a great week:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-uXgcXpYVY&feature=related
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=iFlnaz2-KS4&NR=1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDkF2kVVAZA&feature=list_other&playnext=1&list=AL94UKMTqg-9BwMYFBj7FgtZ_SrsOwWIQw
THE THANX IS ALL YOURS!!!
Continued from Part 2
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