Nigeria’s yearning youth

The entire Lagos neighbourhood was sleeved up in darkness. Perforating and piercing noises from portable and standby generators splintered the early morning serenity. The lame-duck power-and-electricity company was predictably missing in action. It couldn’t have been comfortable cuddling up under the blanket with 34 degrees Celsius outside. But the stubborn few who dared the sweltering state perspired copiously as monstrous mosquitoes had free access to bite more than they needed to stay alive for one more day.  Then came three loud bangs on the entrance’s huge steel door followed by a deep and brutish bellow; “Open the door”!!! The voice, intense, coarse, scratchy, and wiry could wake up a Lazarus who’s been dead for four days. The din stabbed through the subconsciousness of the snoozing occupants of the 3-bedroom apartment like a fiery dart with a chemical and biological weapon warhead. Sweet dreams suddenly cut short and were about to unfurl into acrid nightmares. The occupants woke up realising it was not a piffling or piddling matter. A legion of armed robbers was standing at the door. It was 4.20 am.
The robbers’ verbal command was not heeded for about 15 minutes.  Residents peeked through the window, and contemplated running into the toilet or creating a hideout on the roof.  Panic in the atmosphere instantly provoked delirium in the unprepared hosts. What do you do in that kind of situation when mean men of the underworld come knocking? Say your last prayers. Call the cops? Strive to defend yourself and your properties? Or just let them in for a free ride?  As the occupants looked outside they saw at least a dozen robbers, but finally, they opened the door. The commander of the menacing group jauntily strolled in with four lieutenants behind him while others took their strategic positions outside. The oldest among them couldn’t have been over 23 years old; all young people and all bold, bad, and ready to turn into devouring beasts if necessary. “Sir, please cooperate with us. We will not hurt anyone if you cooperate”, the leader in his late teens or early twenties warned the head of the family. He began telling his story. “I am a University graduate and for 3 years I have looked for a job. This is all I can do to survive and I have nothing to lose. If you prove too stubborn I will kill you”.  This kind of gory story is a daily occurrence in all of Nigeria today because Nigeria’s young people are yearning for help that’s not coming.
 With an estimated population of 206 million in 2020, Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa and ranks seventh globally. The demographic structure presents significant economic potential, especially given the country’s youthful population. With a median age of 18.1 years, she has the largest youth population in the world. Approximately 70% of Nigerians are under 30, and 42% are under 15. This young population could be a substantial economic asset, offering the potential to enhance Nigeria’s role as both a regional and global economic hub. Youthful populations, when combined with urbanisation, are often linked to economic development. Moving Nigeria forward is focusing on these young people who are yearning for help. These young men and women are the crème de la crème and corps d’elite of the engine that drives a nation. They are recruited into the Police and our military to protect our streets and fight our wars. They are also contracted to build our roads and labour in our businesses. No glorious thing has happened to Nigeria that our youths did not help bring about. When we win laurels in sports, it’s because of them. When we win wars at home and abroad, they are readily on hand. Grating economic conditions have forced them to become prostitutes, killers, kidnappers, thugs, and armed robbers. It is projected that by the year 2030, Nigeria will be one of those nations in the world whose youth population will form the heart of abundant and blossoming young workers. About 70 million young people who should be assets to our nation are now asses over which the powerful ride roughshod.
To escape the misery unleashed on them by an uncanny system, thousands travel on foot through the scorching and unbearably rugged terrain of the Sahara Desert on the way to countries where they hope pastures will be greener. They are determined to abandon the nation that has deserted them. In their expeditions and adventures, many have died; in pursuit of fulfilling destinies, many have drowned in oceans and seas abroad.  They are profiled, tortured, jailed, and even killed immediately after they touch down on the soil of these nations that detest Nigeria and Nigerians. For drug barons, Nigerian youths are the go-through group who deliver on the evil transactions of drug trafficking. For Nigerian politicians, they will never ask their children to hold machetes, cutlasses, and guns to kill political opponents; the available catchment cache is the hungry, hapless, and abandoned Nigerian youths who are neglected by a very rich country like ours. The system has stripped them of their dignity, and survival instincts motivate them to do the unthinkable. A nation that hopes for a glorious future must focus on her young people yearning for help.
The vision of The Federal Ministry of Youth Development established in February 2007 is to empower Nigerian youth to become “self-reliant and socially responsible”. Nigeria will be building a mirage of a dream if she does not build the lives of her youths. We will always go to bed with one eye closed; vices and threats to lives and properties will go through the roof if this issue does not become a priority of those who lead us in both State and Federal Governments. We brag that we are the biggest economy in Africa, but the country cannot be big while its people are shrinking in knowledge and opportunities to get ahead. Placing priority on these children is creating an atmosphere of peace, prosperity, and joy for everybody. Some men among us give guns and machetes to our young people, but that’s not what they need. Give them books and pens and knowledgeable tutors because good education helps a nation rewrite its ugly stories. Young people who have enlisted in armed gangs do so because we have not armed them with what will profit. I hope that the government will focus on these young people for once. Abandoning the youth base is abandoning the present and future.