Nigerian Youths, Charting a New Nigeria

By Chuks OLUIGBO

The role of the youths in the process of building a politically and economically viable nation cannot be overstressed. The youths are, so to speak, the strength-base, the cream, and the future of any society. They constitute the major work force. The role of the youths in the development of a nation can be better appreciated when one takes a trip to rural communities in Nigeria where the bulk of the youths have migrated to the urban centres in search of sustainable means of livelihood. Such communities often appear deserted, ghost-haunted, and consequently wallow in underdevelopment because the youths who should be in the fore-front and champion development efforts have fled to the cities in search of greener pastures.

What this means is that any society without youths has absolutely nothing to look forward to, has no future. For, who will sustain such a society when the elders are dead and gone? It is perhaps in recognition of this pivotal role of the youths in nation-building that many organisations in Nigeria establish youth wings. For instance, there is hardly any political party in Nigeria that does not have a youth wing.

All through Nigeria’s history, Nigerian youths have played a great role in nation building. When Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, and the other nationalists won independence for Nigeria in 1960, they were mere youths in their prime. Most of them were just fresh out of school. When Major Chukwuma Nzeogwu staged the first ever military coup in Nigeria on 15 January, 1966, along with four other Majors in the Nigerian Army, he was less than thirty years old. General Aguiyi Ironsi became the first military Head of State of Nigeria at a very youthful age. General Gowon, General Murtala Mohammed, General Obasanjo, and the rest of the military rulers were youths when they assumed office. Chinua Achebe, foremost African novelist, was 28 years old when he published his classic, Things Fall Apart, which has been translated in over 50 world languages.

But today, many youths have taken to gangsterism, cultism, armed robbery, prostitution, thuggery, sexual violence, and all sorts of social vices because they feel that the older people have schemed them out. There are, however, a handful of young Nigerians who are doing Nigeria proud in their various chosen professions (writing, music, etc) both in Nigeria and across the world. Prominent among them is Chimamanda Adichie, author of Purple Hibiscus, Half of a Yellow Sun, and The Thing Around Your Neck. Many more Nigerian youths are ready to contribute positively if only they are given the right atmosphere and support. Needless to stress, no nation can make any headway where the youths are excluded from the scheme of things.

For the youths to effectively play the roles expected of them in the process of nation building, therefore, they need the right education. They also need the right examples from the elders. If the youths are not properly tutored, if they don’t get the right orientation, then the nation is automatically heading for doom. Whatever the youths learn as they grow up, they tend to live with them for the rest of their lives. Old habits die hard. No one learns to use the left hand in old age. It is for this reason that the Bible admonishes parents to “train a child in the way he should grow, he will not depart from it when he grows up”. In other words, whatever role the youths will play in nation-building will depend largely on the kind of morals inculcated in them by the parents and the elders of society.

As Nigeria marks the 50th anniversary of its Independence from British colonial rule, there is need for all stakeholders to sit down and critically reassess the role this country has assigned to its youths. It is very painful when the older generation of Nigerians mouth the slogan: “The youths are the leaders of tomorrow”. The youths keep asking: “When will tomorrow come?”
But again, the youths should realise that freedom is never given; it is taken. They should rise up to the challenge and take the bull by the horns if the dream of a new Nigeria is to be realised. Ghana remained in the doldrums until Jerry Rawlings stood on his feet and said enough was enough. In the same vein, Nigeria will not make any headway until Nigerian youths decide to take their destiny in their hands. Until this is done, and until the youths begin to assume their rightful place in the scheme of things in Nigeria, the country will continue to drag its feet lazily behind other nations of the world, and we all will be the worse for it.