“A Frustrated Youth Has Nothing TO Lose”
AN OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT YAR’ADUA
By
Chika Obiakonwa

Dear Mr. President,

        Permit me to congratulate you on the SUCCESS of your Amnesty Programme to Niger Delta militants.  I pray that the success be permanent and that none of the disarmed commanders and their boys go back to arms.  I hope too that the government will keep its own part of the bargain by continuing the daily subsistence allowance and providing the promised rehabilitation and jobs to these youths.

        Dear president, is it true that in Nigeria , goodness and positivism do not pay?  That no youth can attract your attention unless he is vicious and violent?  Would you have met these commanders if they were enduring their predicaments like GOOD NIGERIANS or roaming around the streets in search of non-existent jobs?  What message have you sent out to the millions of law-abiding but jobless Nigerian youths?

        Dear president, you live in the exotic Aso Rock and you are surrounded by flamboyant and affluent ministers.  But I hope you are aware that there are graduates in this country who sell sachet water along the road?  There are many who roast corn and many who hang around for day-pay jobs.  Most of these youths were above-average students and some of them have been doing these for years as they pray and wait for proper employment.  Some of them have submitted more than one thousand CVs and many of the ladies are still unemployed because they have refused to open their laps for your ministers and other political appointees.  Maybe if these youths can organize themselves and become militants, you will notice and settle them.

        Your Excellency, if you can take a time-out from the sycophants around you and put your ears to the ground, you will hear the cries of the millions of unemployed Nigerian youths.  You will understand that this is the only country in which jobs are given to people who never showed up for an interview at the expense of those who stood in the sun for days.  Can you tell these marginalized and frustrated youths to stand up and recite The Pledge, or to join your Rebranding Campaign?

        Dear President, a man who heaps gun powder inside his house invites disaster.  A huge unemployed and frustrated youth population is gun powder.  When they are made to understand that they must do drastic things to be noticed, it becomes double tragedy because a frustrated youth has nothing to loose.  Who will blame an intelligent graduate who has remained unemployed for ten years for joining a militants group, armed robbery gang or kidnapping syndicate?  If he succeeds, he will become a millionaire.  If he is caught, he will be killed.  But if he does not join them, he will continue with a wretched life.  You will agree with me, Mr. President, that a wretched life is worse than death.

        It is an act of wickedness that in a country where millions of youths are unemployed, members of the National Assembly collect more than two hundred million naira in a year as allowances and some governors give themselves up to two billion naira as annual security vote.  Because a frustrated youth has nothing to loose, those who complain about kidnapping have seen nothing. “No peace for the wicked”, is a common saying.  Very soon our selfish, greedy and wicked leaders, who have confiscated our common wealth, will have no place to hide themselves or members of their family.  The only solution is removing the gun powder called youth unemployment.

        Dear President, I agree with you that government cannot employ everybody but bring in technocrats who are truly committed to the development of Nigeria and you will see the employment opportunities that will be created in this country.  Read our history without any of your sycophants around and you will see that you have not done enough to harness the natural resources and scientific/technological endowments of our people.

        Your Excellency, it is not enough to bring youths to Abuja , give them branded T-shirts and make them sing slogans.  It is not enough to employ them as thugs and praise-singers.  It is not enough to flaunt Emaegwali and Chimamanda Adichie because if they were in Nigeria , they would have been like other neglected talented youths.  It is not about issuing employment waivers which will be hijacked by randy cronies and party loyalists.  It is not enough to create a Ministry of Youth Development.  You can reserve the choice jobs for your friends and relations, but please, you must create more than one million jobs every year.  Talented and creative youths must also be encouraged and given the resources to be self employed.  Grants must be given to our local scientists and inventors and no matter how crude, their works must be appreciated and utilized. 

I urge you, Mr. President, to reduce the size of your cabinet and the jumbo allowances of elected and appointed officials.  Our various trade unions will then have no basis to ask for jumbo salaries too.  The money saved should be put into job creation programmes and projects.  You should not wait for another uprising and another amnesty. Do not remain in the euphoria that Nigerians are the happiest people and allow the gun powder to remain in the house.  The next explosion may consume the whole compound.  A frustrated youth has nothing to loose.

May God give you the wisdom and courage to save Nigeria from this gun powder.

CHIKA OBIAKONWA
        President
CREATIVE YOUTHS EMPOWERMENT AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT NETWORK
No. 72 Njemanze Street,
Owerri, Imo State .
08035609766, 08023774402.