Oluchi Chikezie,18 years old, is my cousin. Her mother who ran her family's fruit selling business suffered a serious sickness which since the beginning of this year has kept her indoors unable to trade. Oluchi had to take over the trade and surprisingly she has done a wonderful job of it. Sales have more than doubled even with the recession, more fruits have been added and the family now affords a higher standard of living. She has done all these even though she is merely an 18 year old child!!!.
My Cousins story is just one example of how the youths of Nigeria have proven themselves remarkable and unique, doing things even their parents would not have dreamt of doing or have been unable to achieve with remarkable ease. From the entertainment and fashion industry to the area of information technology to even academics Nigerian youths have blazed the trail and have put our elders who claim supreme wisdom while telling us that " we are the leaders of tomorrow" to shame by achieving what they with all their "knowledge" and "experience" could not.
Take a look at the music and movie industries. For years our forebears always held "conferences" and "discussed" reasons why our songs and films were not doing as well as that of the western world. They propounded "well-thought-out" solutions which ranged from the grandiose to the absurd but they could not achieve nada. But then came Nigerian youths like Tony Tetuila, D banj, 2face, P square and others. What our "educated" scholars could not achieve these youths some of them barely educated and without any government support accomplished with relative ease thereby putting Nigerian culture firmly on the global map as an area to be reckoned with. The goal of pan-Africanism which our forebears with all their foreign degrees and philosophy could not get off the realm of mere sloganeering is now more entrenched by the inter- African music and movie collaboration which has exposed us to the cultures of our African brethren.

What about our fashion industry? We the youths were born after the era of colonialism so we were already heavily immersed with western culture and their fashion codes. Our traditional attires became something to be despised, worn only by the aged,government officials or the unsophisticated. Anybody who talked about the day when the west would admire African fabrics was seen as a dreamer who could not think right. But then came Nigerian Youths and every thing changed. The Nigerian fabric is now a staple on global fashion runways and as the days go is becoming more established.
What about the field of IT? With minimal governmental support and lack of reliable electricity supply which is taken for granted in other IT hotspots around the world, Nigerian youths have created maybe the most sophisticated IT industry on the whole African continent. An industry which was interesting enough to attract the attention of the founder of facebook and the world's 5th richest man, Mark Zuckeberg who had to visit for about a whole week to familiarise himself with the Wonder being orchestrated by Nigerian Youths all on their own.

If one is to pour out all that one wants to talk about, this piece will start looking like an academic thesis rather than a short article. All I want to say is that we Nigerian youths should believe in ourselves and our convictions and not listen to those Who tell us that we are too inexperienced or poorly- educated to make choices for ourselves and our societies. After-all we have done what those who are "well-educated" could not.
Shalom!!![
Tonye Barcanista, Temi-Temi, Modath, Laveda etc.