Indeed, it is the consensus of some Nigerians that the youths of today have failed this nation. They have been unable to engage the authorities to bring about the kind of society that will be favorable to Nigerians
Their roles in nation building have been jettisoned for self aggrandizement. They are unlike the vibrant youths of the past who stood their grounds to achieve their vision of emancipating the country from imperialist rule and slavery from colonial masters.
The youths of any nation are the pivot on which the engine of development revolves, therefore without such important segment of people, there is retardation and such nation is heading for doom.
The youth movements of yester years saw the emergence of great patriots and nationalists who put their lives on the line for the survival of the nation. But today, it has been identified that one of the major problem of Nigeria are the youths.
Apparently because the number of uneducated youths are so much and with the harsh economic situation, coupled with lack of jobs to engage them, they have compromised their role for the stomach sake.
That is why politicians have capitalized on their weakness to use them as tools. They have made the youths to lose confidence of themselves. During elections they become willing tools deployed to do their dirty job.
These set of youths who are easily cajoled with few naira notes are used and dumped eventually. This is not to say there are no serious minded youths, but they are few, and are busy with their vocation, trade or profession.
These category of youths have a sense of direction, they are not easily swayed by the sweet tongue talking politicians. Though some are in politics or working for politicians they are the educated youths who have focus and know what they want.
They are not what you find today especially at most political rallies or campaign grounds who are satisfied with just N2, 000 to cast their votes or cause mayhem for their benefactor. It is obvious that these are the youths which President Muhammadu Buhari was referring to as lazy.
There is no doubt that every nation has its own youth problems, however, certain features are common. But in the same breadth, the Nigerian Youths that I know are not lazy; they are hustlers, who have been able to use their talents to make ends meet in the absence of Job opportunities. Our youths are largely socialist in their ideology, international in their outlook, pacific in their aims and humanitarian in their actions. They have been pushed to the wall by these older people to accept new methods and ideals and to dismiss the prejudice of narrow – mindedness.
These so called lazy youths have translated everything in terms of politics, rather than being leaders of progress. For this reason most of their efforts are directed at engineering conflicts and engaging in short cut means to make money. That is why they are thriving in Yahoo, 419 and other criminal tendency to survive.
This no doubt was responsible for the consequence of the growing irrelevance and irresponsibility of some Nigerian youths. But it should not be generalized. The president should be able to tell us those he was referring to as lazy youths.
But the shortcomings of some youths should not blind the prejudiced critic to the good works of some hardworking youths in the country. It is easy to conclude that the statement by Mr. President was a diversion of our attention to the serious issues in the polity, such as the wanton killings going on by armed militias by whatever name they are called.
The nation is no doubt sitting on a time bomb that may explode any moment if we continue to concentrate on trivial issues to divert our attention for political reasons, instead of nipping in the bud the growing violence and loss of innocent lives.
To be candid, this is not the fault of President Buhari but those writing the scripts and plotting the graph for him to come back 2019.
Eubaldus Enahoro is Assistant Editor with the Nigerian Observer
