I shed hot, bloody tears for the future of Nigeria. It is a pity that the so called 'Giant of Africa' is gradually becoming a grave.
Thank God for the squabble between the PDP and APC; at least, one thing that was achieved was the realization that we youths of this country have been totally sidelined from the most important things.
The average age of the Leaders in these two parties is sixty (60). According to one of them from the APC camp, the National Youth Leader of the PDP camp is seventy (70) years old; yet we say we are the future of Nigeria.
Continue Reading After The Break..
A country where age-old industrialists are still in charge, holding key positions; even with terminal diseases ravaging their bodies, they still hold forth like Military Dictators. A country where virgin brains who graduated from various higher institutions of learning are made to open phone call centers in the name of entrepreneurship. A country that has confidently put its future on hold; as ASUU and Federal Government continue the fight to see who is stronger.
Is the future of Nigeria not bleeding..? Can you count how many secondary school leavers have lost direction and focus in life due to lack of admission..? So many young boys and girls have become yahoo boys and runs girls, as a result of sitting at home for so many years waiting to get into school with no avail.
A woman I talked with some days ago had to do her best to hold back tears, as she explained the sufferings she had to endure while fighting for admission for her daughter. After writing UME for the third successive year without anything coming out of it, she carried her grouse to Mofe Oyatogun's Talk Back on Star fm. It became a trending topic, as Nigerians called in to vent their spleen on a system that has totally failed us.
Talk to any young Nigerian in a higher institution, he/she has an emotional admission story to tell you. I, you humble writer was unfortunate to write UME an interesting five (5) times. I became a tourist during this period, travelling from state to state in a bid to write Post UME exams in several schools. I can't count the numerous accidents I was involved in, or the armed robberies I encountered on my journeys.
We should not forget in a hurry the multi-million naira scam perpetuated by one of the new universities established by President Goodluck Jonathan in 2011. Hundreds of thousands of students across the country each paid N3,600 as fee for a supposed Post UTME exam at the Federal University, Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE). I personally know about 25 people who wrote that exam. Students who had been greatly frustrated by lack of admission, saw this as an opportunity. They all rushed the forms with hope of getting into school. The days of the examination was something else; bus drivers, seeing the massive crowd hiked bus fares unreasonably. So many students were robbed, there was a case of a girl that was raped, so many were stranded, injured and disillusioned. Now, you ask yourselves, are these the youths that will come out tomorrow and want to serve Nigeria with all their hearts..NEVER.
Our students are at home, our poor lecturers are hungry, yet it is the least of worries for those in power. How can the education of our future leaders be important when there are other important issues like the Rivers State Crisis, PDP, APC and the others, a permanent secretary on sabbatical leave calling for a debate with a professor...I laugh in pidgin.
Our future was murdered sometime last year, when four university students were butchered to death in Aluu, Rivers State. We cried, shouted and argued. We prayed that it will never happen again. But, that's a big lie, our future is still bleeding. Just recently, two young men (one of them, a student of Delta State University) were also beaten and stoned to death in Bariga, Lagos State.
Our future in Nigeria is being married of to old men, with pot bellies and wrinkled sexual organs, yet we say we have a bright future. Where are the four girls that invented the generator that runs on urine..? Should we allow that dream die like all the others..? These are teenage girls, who defied laws of physics to do something extra-ordinary, but no, our constitution says its okay, if they are married off and become bed warmers to shameless paedophiles.
Our future leaders have lost value for hardwork, so they pray for a big breaks and sudden money. They do not see the value in going to school. Why should I go to school, when I can wait for 2015 and get enough money from election thuggery to buy a car after the elections.
They want quick money, fame and success; so they bombard reality shows; from the movie star who is next to the 'X' that becomes a big 'factor' in the 'Project' that brings 'fame' when they become 'Idols' to those who got talents to those who can have sex on continental tv for a 'brother' who is 'big' on the sex ish.
Our youths are disillusioned. Frustration has eaten deep into so many.
Our future is indeed bleeding. May God help us...
I earnestly pray for a Nigeria that will pay attention to its future.
-----» Akan Imoh is a Journalist/Socio-political Observer. He has a burning passion for Youth Development/Advocacy in a Nigeria with unique political intricacies. Talk with him on twitter - @ovasabii
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