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IS THE NIGERIAN YOUTH PREPARED FOR THE FUTURE?
The tomorrow of every nation lies in its youths.But the nature of such
tomorrow depends largely on how a nation develops,nurtures,and
harnesses the bubbling energy of her youth.
In other words,a nation that fails to make youth development a top
priority will surely have bountiful harvest of gangsters,drug
pushers/addicts,prostitutes ,criminals,drop outs,unemployed youth and
ultimately gloom and perdition.
But sadly,Nigeria is currently threading this perilous path.Our
nation is not only threatened presently,her future is also bleak
because there is no discernible effort to develop the potential of the
youth. Nigerian youths are not primed to face challenges of today
not to talk of tomorrow.Rather,most of our youths engage in vices
hitherto alien to our society.
Nigerian girls are renowned as prostitutes in developed nations e.g
Italy,while our young men are kingpins of financial scam both at home
and abroad.About 20percent of foreigners arrested for drug offences in
India are Nigerians.A young Nigerian was at a time the second most
wanted in the U.S by the American security institution.
Today,entrepreneurship,honour,dignity and excellence mean little or
nothing to most Nigerian youths,whose main concern is survival in the
face of very limited opportunites in all spheres of life.
But why our youths find themselves in this sorry state is not
surprising to many.The nation’s educational system.which should have
moulded the youth into responsible and productive adults and equipped
them for the challenges of nation building,has been bogged by
incessant closures.Besides, there are also grossly inadequate places
in tertiary institutions to absorb millions of high school leavers
passing out every year.
Less than 20per cent of high school leavers get admission into the
nation’s universities and other institutions of higher learning.As a
matter of fact,the total intake of all Nigerian public universities is
less than or slightly above 100,000 as against over 1.3 million high
school leavers seeking university admission yearly.University
admission in Nigeria is “a rat race” and only the children of the rich
often sail through,in some cases,financial inducement rather than good
performance in university matriculation examinations ensures admission
into the universities.Even with the introduction of private
universities,placement spaces have not matched demand for university
education.
Many of the high school girls who cannot get admission into
institutions of higher learning end up in prostitution,even while they are in school some of them still engage in runs just to survive,while the males
join robbery gangs or other sinister groups that pose danger to the
society.It is also not uncommon that politicians employ these
frustrated youth as thugs to terrorise political opponents.
The other fallouts of perversion in our educational system are
examination malpractices,certificate forgery,very high school
fees,high drop out rate and low enrolments of infants into primary
schools.
A first time visitor to any of the foreign missions in Nigeria
,especially US embassy will be shocked by the number of able bodied
youth seeking visa to travel abroad.
Another shade of the problem is the fact that the emerging Nigerian
university graduates cannot be said to have had functional
education.Our school curriculum is not structured to make students
self employable upon graduation.Rather ,the only evidence to show that
these young graduates passed through the university system is the
certificates they obtain at the end of the studies..
When they graduate,theres hardly enough employment opportunities for them.
As the saying goes an Idle mind is the devils workshop.
The earlier the government starts making constructive plans towards
the development of our youths and ensuring that those plans
materialize,the better for the future of our Nation.
The youths of this generation are clueless about the future and it
is so obvious in their “living in the moment” mentality.
The government should put the right structures in place.They should
also appoint the right people,those who can really connect with the
youths,not some bunch of self serving old men or women who were
politically appointed, just to please a geopolitical zone.
There Is a saying that those who fail to plan,plan to fail and am not
sorry to say that the sirens of failure are echoing all around the
corners of the nation due to the insensitivity of our leaders towards
proper planning,we are always fond of waiting for the injury time.we
fool ourselves in our various churches and mosques screaming untop of
our voices to the heavens,expecting God to wave his magic wand over
our problems. But if the quote which says “heaven help those who help
themselves” came from this planet,then it wont be out of place to say
that Nigeria belongs to another planet because we always expect a
miracle even when we are basking in indolence.
The journey to the future starts today


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