Where is and how can we unearth the hidden paradise in Nigeria Youth? Perhaps the Nigeria Youth is grossly misunderstood? What went wrong? Are they really lazy? Definitely not.
The
broken dreams of the Naija Youth today translate into: perpetually queuing for
Visas to anywhere far away from home at all costs; enslaved to street trading
for life? Having water and food everywhere but none to drink nor eat; Crossing
the ferocious Sahara desert accompanied by death as only hope; Captured and auctioned
and sold as 21st Century slaves in Libya; Crossing the Mediterranean
sea of death to Europe without a life-jacket; Abandoned by JAMB after many
result-less attempts; Arrested and forever awaiting trial for wandering by day
and night for inability to trade-in with 20 Naira by the men in Black - flicking
funny torchlight in their faces and finally thrown to the Shark in the nation’s
deepest ocean of corruption to be mercilessly devoid addicted by drugs in
search of Yahoo-Yahoo! There is an urgent need to engage on a national project
on recovery of the troubled mind-set of millions of Nigerian Youth who are
predominantly hooked on the Internet Cybercrime as gateway to wealth through
fraudulent means.
“The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a
heaven of hell, a hell of heaven. Almost all painful feelings have their source
in an incorrect way of looking at reality. When you uproot erroneous views,
suffering ceases." John Milton,
Paradise Lost. Are we loosing the hidden paradise in our
youth? This write-up is initiated after purposeful analytics by
concerned interest group - undertaking a surgical analysis of the
subject-matter. It is an urgent call to embark on a national psycho-sociological
project to re-engineer and save the eroding mind-set of many of our Youth who
are currently addicted to Internet scrams as the only way to progress
and indeed their last hope in life, in the face of the blatant neglect and
abandonment of the fundamental responsibility of leadership for sustainable
youth development, And by extension, the survivability of our collective
future. Our position is that the core of the problem under discussion resides
in human attitude and crass neglect of critical child-case by leadership.
Relevant studies have shown how unrestrained
youth-centered negative thinking form chronic attitudes which cumulatively
derail and destroy concepts of nation-building, patriotism and sustainable
development – especially when psychological and sociological development dimensions
are neglected overtime. Is this the case with the branded “Yahoo-Yahoo Boys” of
Nigeria? How long has this been going on and how long will it take to recover and
heal this mountainous army of our derailed youthful minds which are critical
for national development? What will become of the children and grand-children
of the Yahoo-Yahoo Boys and it’s cultish impact on the future of our nation?
Are our current Youth development programmes responsive and strategic enough to
attain the desired goals?
Conventional
wisdom informs that attitude is everything. However, attitude in its structural dynamics consists of the acquired
state of mind, consisting primarily of environmental state and space-of-things,
feelings, love, thoughts and propensity to codify appropriate responses towards
to challenges we are confronted with. Indeed, our responses are mostly dictated
by our conditioned mindset.
This conditioned mind-set ultimately drives us to attain either
a positive or negative character in our relation with other objects and special
set of things we come across. Therefore as we forge along, it is instructive
that we explore the attitudinal value-chain and conditions-of-things within the
Nigeria development environment – particularly our leadership, family values, inconsistent
policy-construct, education, merit assessment, child care and fundamental human
rights and above all youth development programmes within the context of
globalization.
Great minds such as Professor
Emeritus Wole Soyinka had many decades ago observed and warned us on the
emerging decay of values in leadership, economy and development with great
impact on the Youth, when he advanced the hypothesis of the ‘wasted generation’ of Nigeria. Also, Prof. Patrick Okedinachi Utomi - founder of Centre for Values and leadership
had delivered the same warning topped up with a proof-of-concept – validated
through CVL.Programme/Projects.
These critical warnings were taken for granted and not heeded
by the leadership who failed to advance proactive strategies and programmes for
sustainable Youth development while the population growth surged dramatically
in the last fifty (50) years after the civil war. This abandoned responsibility
cumulated into the breakdown of the value-chains for equitable nation building
and fuelled corruption-of-things like a wide fire in the Harmattan.
Globalization
is often misunderstood, when we fail to translate it as another word for the
internationalization of interests, trade and commerce in pursuit of sustainable
development – guided by specific standards. However, empowered by the audacity
of the Internet (ICT) as the new tool of life, the norms and values of the
Internet have been grossly misinterpreted at the most basic levels. The
Internet is here to stay and its mission and activities will be further tested
and intensified by the demands for globalization-of-things and the critical
adventure of each nation perching to controlling the human mind by harnessing life-activity
data at all levels. That after all, is the purpose of Big-data, related algorithm and
analytics!
For
many decades, the Nigeria nation state has been dishing out mind-blowing
figures of stolen money and wealth from our collective national resources and
continues to display such outlandish data in the face of the swarming Youths
who are angry and hungry for food, knowledge and visionary adventure but
experience the mirage-of-things at almost all development stage. Does that not constitute
a significant part of the formation of the mind-set of our Youth?
Nigeria’s e-readiness index status is abysmal
low (119 out of 134 in 2016) in terms of enabling Networked environment and
national IT spend, while the Youth population growth continues to surge with
alarming stampede for access to everything for survival – throwing ethics and
values to the dogs.
Currently,
the age of top leadership base of many nations of the world are getting younger
between 30-50 while Nigeria’s is ballooning from 70-80 years – further
disillusioning the youth and their dreams. With limited and/or non-existent
enabling environment, fragile infrastructure, abandoned classrooms, zero
Knowledge Park, the goal-post for trustworthiness and competitiveness continues
to shift by the nano-second and the centre can no more hold. The resultant
effect is that we cultivate, operate and live in a non-creative Ecosystem
devoid of innovation and best described as Okada economy.
Pathetically,
as the tape of the nation’s Youth apathy film continues to roll, politicized by
blatant policies which remain blinded by capital and employment flight,
conspicuous consumption with preference to third-class foreign goods, glorified
squandermenia culture and insatiable consumption mentality – a
product of who you know instead of what you know!
All
said, the activities of Yahoo-Yahoo Boys are nothing to be glorified. The YY
syndrome is and should be seen as national scourge and the Youth Community must
be called to order to dialogue and recover the hidden paradise of our youth. In
other words the Youth of Nigeria must have a rethink about life and re-code
their destiny. To achieve this, they must also be ready to pay a price for
sustainable success and happiness – knowing that they can do a million times
better that YY. The price is retooling the mind-set, consistency, endurance,
humility, audacity of hope and rekindling the can-do positive attitude of the
real Naija Pikin and ultimately shames the devil.
The
long-term damage to Society is monumental, The Recovery Roadmap and Mechanism
incorporates psychological and sociological healing incorporating: the critical
application of the essential pillars for productive Youth Development:
Policies, Strategies Legislations, Institutional Framework, Regulations and
Fiscal Incentives on Child care, Education, Recreation, Entertainment and many
more.
We
are a nation of about 200million. So, what indeed does the Youth want form
Nigeria. Tell me now now now! Kilo
sele gangan???
*Contributed by Chris Uwaje, former President of
Institute of Software Practitioners (ISPON)
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