"Youths are leaders of tomorrow", a statement initiated to psyche out Nigerian youths when in reality, the Nigeria's political atmosphere is yet to accomodate such assertion in all ramifications. To further corroborate the reasons which connote the words as cajoling expression, majority of the youths ought to have been financially independent and enjoying a sustainable standard of living as obtained in some other sovereign states but unfortunately the reverse is the case in the Nigerian state.


You will rarely find a Nigerian youth who wouldn't have encountered one of these challenges or currently belong to one of them.

1. A youth who finished schooling with no single bursary payment or merit scholarship award,

2. a graduate who finishes National Youth Service, NYSC and returns back to his/her parents' home for survival,

3. a youth with no self-reliance or entrepreneurship background to thrive,

4. a secondary or grammar school graduate who stays home for years searching for admission into University ( Polytechnic and monotechnic discrimination),

5. a student whose school curriculum doesn't give room for adequate practical experience and likewise carve time for reliable part-time jobs during the course of study (for full time students of Tertiary institutions).

All those aforementioned categories are the sorry state we find Nigerian youths and such encounters are capable of knocking out average Nigerian youths from dreaming let alone attaining the corridor of leadership in all tiers of government. Once there is freedom, food, shelter, clothing and income-work then the path to leadership will be easily accessible without thorns. At least we expect that if the status quo can't be improved then it should have been maintained instead of depreciating the standard of living of the youthful citizenry for decades now.

Young Nigerians have been ridiculed to suffer and keep smiling while many of the Older generations, given the mandate of leadership, keep siphoning Nigerian's wealth, meant to cater for the young and coming generations, in order to takecare of themselves and their family lineage (born and unborn).

Most of the older generations enjoyed busary payment when they were schooling, got scholarship awards to proceed their studies abroad, intelligent ones (with first class or second class upper) got jobs on the completion of their first degree or the end of Higher National Diploma while some on the convocation days. This ancient development will hardly be found in play today.

They tell us technological advancement (like internet, smart phones) have blind-folded us and occupied our time but they have failed to realise that the Chinese and other foreign states enticed younger generations, by flooding the market, with cheap internet-enabled phones and gadgets (initially called "chinko" ) having discovered that many of the youths are idle and the cure to our poverty infection is yet to be applied. Nigeria's Minister of Information, tourism and culture recently reiterated and confirmed it in a statement, disclosing that "social media is the greatest nightmare of Public Relations Practioners and the government".

The United States (USA) 2016 general election fetched a 21-year old full-time student of University of Michigan-Dearborn, Jewell Jones, a victorious election into Michigan House of Representatives an equivalence of the Nigeria's State House of Assembly. He studies Political Science and Finance, previously served as Inkster City Councilman and now laying a record of the first ever elected young Lawmaker in Michigan. His swearing-in ceremony has been slated for 10th January, 2017 as unveiled by his Facebook page named "State Representative-Elect Jewell Jones".

A 21-year old Nigerian student still hustle to support the parents in financing his/her academic career or the parent hustling to fund his studies, leaving some parents with no choice but to ring warnings into the ears of the kid to "face his or her studies" and do away with distractions of leadership responsibilities.

The workload in school is enough to occupy your 24 hours and if you intend to be actively involved in school politics then you must be willing to forfeit a first-class, second- class upper and lower or even third-class honours chances of being awarded when graduating likewise polytechnics and mono-technics.

The most obvious of all is the discriminative notion already planted in the mind of the graduates of highschool or grammar school or secondary school that University is more superior to polytechnics and monotechnics whereas in sane societies where education is a major priority in the agenda of the government, these tertiary institutions have their individual values with no one inferior than the other when they are all in good shape.

Our institutions are not well equipped that a typical Nigerian youth, who has talents capable of making him self-reliance and contribute into improving our economy, have limited and sub-standard medium of learning to develop his or her technical skills which polytechnic and monotechnics were established for. On graduating from poly or mono technics, they discover that university qualifications are more valued and praised than their own qualifications. The path to gaining admission into universities have now been turned to a bottle-neck where less than 20% of applicants of some institutions are admitted.

An hungry youth will only think of one thing, how to hustle and feed his/herself and family while a striving parent has no dichotomy in vision for the kids other than admonishing the offsprings to get them out of their poverty status and not get involved in the dirty game of politics.

All the above stated facts have adverse psychological effects posed on the thoughts and deeds of Nigerian youths by the poverty infection in our system and the inconducive environment established by greedy leaders in the realm of power. And with these ridiculous happenings still in existence, our naturally endowed creative thoughts and talents will remain boxed while the path to attain the corridor of power will keep growing thorns to slow down average youths from possessing the mantle of leadership.

...writes from:
https://ibadanelite./2016/12/07/%e2%80%8bwhy-young-generations-will-thread-thorny-paths-to-leadership/

ourema:
The following 3 pervasion of the mind are the reason a black African leader will continue to hold on to power
1 greed
2 lust
3 vanity

mountlarry:
The regressive programming of Nigeria youths by our leaders makes it difficult to look beyond our subsistence life. We just want to get a pay job, get something small to take care of ourselves. How do you look above that when you might lose it the next morning by some old, greedy, lustful and vanity hungry men?

Atiku2019:
Observing......