Why Young People Will Continue To Run Away From Nigeria | By Yusuff, Uthman Adekola
If there ever is anything we can call the backbone of any nation, the youth population undoubtedly remain foremost in the scale of ranks.

The essence of the youth, in national development, can neither be overlooked nor belittled. An immutable truth, as can be observed through the realities of life, is that every new generation of the human race tend to be more open to new ideas as well as newly arising phenomena. Thus brimming with natural energy, enthusiasm, ambitiousness, foresightedness, vigour, talents, inventiveness and openness to new trends of life, the youth remain immensely significant in any nation that must attain its full potential.

All that the nation needs then is to simply ensure to make adequate use of the youth’s inherent potential energy waiting to be tapped.

However, the lingering questions are: have the youth always exerted their roles towards contributing to national development? Does society even provide enough enabling environment for the exertion of these roles? These questions and many more remain of great concern in the world at large, in Africa as a continent and, much more pressingly, in Nigeria as a nation.
However, the ugly reality hitting us in the face in Nigeria precisely is the fact that the potential resourcefulness of the youth is often rendered impotent and, thus, not well utilised. There are a number of young people in Nigeria who have proven their mettle across different fields or spheres of life. Shall we talk of art and literature, or science and technology, or leadership, entrepreneurial and problem solving skills, or even more? In these areas and many more, a number of Nigerian youth have shown excellence beyond a doubt. They have proven to be invaluable and priceless and very much possessive of development-spurring acumen.

Nonetheless, the sad story here is that, instead of the youth to be encouraged and further nurtured in the country, their hopes, aspirations, talents, passion and creativity are greeted with disillusionment. Then, they travel to other countries of the world to offer their brains for money. Hence, the other lands’ economy takes a ride up the slope while ours bends for a drink that is non-existent.

Perhaps we even need not talk about the neglect of the youth’s impact in contributing to Nigeria’s national development since even the exceeding human resources of the country are not tapped into as expected. And all these only keep Nigeria further dipped into the cesspool of underdevelopment.

"Rather than utilise their brimming energy for decision-making purposes especially as regards areas concerning the youth themselves, egoistic politicians devilishly take advantage of the pervading unemployment or lack of good living amongst the youth. The youth are therefore turned into agents of crises upheaval, instead of catalysts of developmental ideas."

Read more:
https://newpostng.com/2019/01/11/why-young-people-will-continue-to-run-away-from-nigeria-by-yusuff-uthman-adekola/