One of my friends, after his national youth service, decided to spend his vacation in the United States. Sharing his experience after his return, he first told me that we are suffering here in Nigeria. His American host was 25 years old and married. The young couple lives in a plush house with every comfort you can imagine. They didn’t pay a dime before they moved in, courtesy of the American mortgage lifestyle.

One day, while he was still with them, his host got tired of his car – he just needed something new. The young man simply visited a car dealer and returned home with a brand new car. He didn’t pay a dime again! By now, I was thinking about the moribund state of young people of his age in my beloved country, Nigeria, the self-acclaimed Giant of Africa.

Is being a Nigerian and staying in Nigeria a curse? What hope has a Nigerian youth who is still grappling with the problem of lack of basic infrastructures (poor power supply and access to stable internet), poor learning environment and the stigma of being unemployed and unemployable? What hope does Nigeria hold for her teeming youths with her oil-based economy when the world is about to dump crude oil for a better cleaner alternative? What promise does Nigeria hold for her ever-increasing young population when her common wealth is being plundered by rapacious few?

Truly, our situation is depressing. In comparison with global world, our future looks gloomy. Some of us are psychologically brutalized. Securing admission into universities was a war many youths fought with 2 to 4 years of their lives. Going through the school itself was another suffering at a higher level.

We attended lectures in our over-crowded lecture halls with majority standing while making their notes. Students still receive lectures under the shade of trees in some of our public universities today.

At end, NYSC is another stressful one year in which you are constantly reminded that there is no job waiting for you after here. ‘After NYSC what next?’ is and has been the most dreaded question, no serving Corps member wants to hear.

Our young graduates and students are living in fear of the unknown because it is clear that the society in which they find themselves did not make provision for their arrival. In most cases, the message is that youths are not wanted. As I am talking to you now, most corps members have received their rejection letters from where they have been posted to serve, especially in the FCT where I served.

With more than 40 million Nigerian youths unemployed and under-employed, we are more like victims of our society. The employed ones have no mind of their own – mere office puppets. You are offered peanuts and yet you are threatened with a sack every now and then. You are constantly reminded that there are millions of youths roaming the streets who will be eager to take over your job. Our self-esteem has been squashed. A middle-aged woman was giving a testimony in a church and was sobbing and shedding tears. What happened? She had just received an appointment letter after 15 years of roaming the street in search of job.

The situation is that of hopelessness. It is not just a crisis situation but a hopeless one. It is very discouraging and heart-breaking to see political touts riding on horses while responsible graduates are roaming the streets of our major cities. The innocent crying blood of our young citizens who were stampeded to death during 2014 immigration job saga still haunts us as a nation.

Despite the man-made mess we find ourselves, I have good news for you, brothers and sisters. All hope is not lost. We are the real hope and the future of Nigeria.

The future doesn’t belong to those who were born in the aristocratic mansions, who received world-class education from the Ivy League universities of this world, though that would help greatly.

The future of Nigeria doesn’t belong to those who have looted our common wealth nor do their children stand in advantage over the rest of us, they are likely to spend their wealth on frivolities. continue reading https://powersystemandrevolution.com/youths-the-only-hope-nigeria-has-today/