A Paper Presented By Prof Mrs.
Victoria Adaobi Obasi, Acting Vice-Chancellor, Imo State University, Owerri On
The Occasion of The Commemorative Lecture & Awards On Imo At 40 by GCFN
Consult & Nigerian Eye Newspaper at Imo Concorde Hotel on 18th day of June, 2016
Protocols
Today marks
a turning point in the annals of the history of Imo State that we are assembled
to Analyze the Sociopolitical, Economic Persuasion in Nigeria and to proffer a
lasting solution on the way forward and I am nominated to present a paper.
I have been enslaved by the organizers to talk about the YOUTHS in relation to the theme of the discourse.
Who are the youths?
According to
dictionary the youth is the quality or state of being young. The
part of life following childhood; the period of existence preceding maturity or
old age. The whole early part of life, from childhood, or sometimes from
infancy to manhood.
Just as the
family is the bedrock of any nation so also the youth is in the shaping of the
politics and Economy of any nation.
Nigeria as a
nation has not been fair to its youths, tell me is it in education, employment
etc. Has the youths ever taken the front stage in our policy formulations?
Our
educational system is begging for attention from those whose responsibility it
is to do the needful. From public primary to Tertiary institutions, it is one
sad story to another because funding has been its Achilles heels, and in the
absence of this; the products from these institutions will become half baked
and may not challenge their counterparts from better equipped and well funded
institutions in other parts of the world.
It pains me
as a mother to note that the only period our youths are “gainfully” engaged is
during electioneering when opponents of their sponsors and perhaps elope with
ballot boxes all in the bid to showcase their excessive exuberance. The Nkpor
episode and Niger Bridge-head brouhaha where youths of south East extraction
were unfortunately mowed down by security Agents who misinterpreted an harmless
procession to connote an affront on the authorities, is a case in point where
our youths were left vulnerable without proper guidance.
If our
youths were gainfully employed, their employers would never have allowed or
given them permission to engage in any procession else they will loose their jobs,
is that a way to treat the youths of any nation?
Has it
really troubled any of our distinguished personalities here seated, that there
is a high male drop-out in schools in the South East because our so called
Guidance Counselors shirked their responsibilities in advising our youths that
seek you first the kingdom of education and all other things will be added unto
you.
Other sane
climes are always proud of their youths who also excel in all their chosen
career and in return, pay back to their country for giving them a good lease of
life, not in Nigeria.
That is the
more reason our youths perish in the desert on their way to Spain for greener
pastures, move into Malaysia either to join drug rings, become drug couriers or
get involved in the kidney trade all in the bid to become super rich and come
back to Nigeria after “hustling” to flaunt their ill-gotten wealth.
But let me
ask have our youths been given the platform to showcase and actualize
themselves, if the answer is yes, how and if no, why?
Do you know
that our youths are exploited, abused and left in a state of confusion?
As leaders
and opinion moulders it is high time we brought our youths together to inform
them that war of intellectualism is better than the war of brawn. We should not
pretend that all is well with the youths because, an idle mind is the devil’s
workshop and if you give the devil a parking space, he will convert it to a
garage. Have we pondered over the high incidence of robbery, kidnapping, cultism,
pipeline vandalization, drug abuse, rape and other indecent and juvenile
behaviours. Prostitution is on the rise because parents have failed in their
sacred duty to counsel their children on the virtues of living a Godly life.
Though it takes two to tango, all patrons of these female students who engage
in prostitution should hide their heads in shame as the lady you are
patronizing is someone else daughter while you shield yours from others, utter
hypocrisy.
I don’t want
to sound indecorous from the speech I am presenting today, but I am
pontificating from the aspect of a mother, a foremost educationist, an opinion
moulder, a counselor and a Christian.
If we leave
our youths quite vulnerable, the society stands to loose because, I told
somebody that the way things are going, the crop of youths of this generation
may one day invite foreigners to bid for Nigeria and sell the country to the
highest bidder as they are gradually loosing confidence in this country called Nigeria,
something fast should be done.
I will sound
a note of caution to those who are superintending the affairs of this country
that they have continually taken the youths for granted and should avoid what
happened in the Maghreb Region of North Africa called the Arab Spring, I am not
a prophet of doom, but I still repeat that
as a mother I feel the pulse of the youths more than any other being.
Let us
rescue them before it is too late.
THE WAY
FORWARD
All
concerned, educationist, technocrats, civil society groups, opinion molders,
Captains of industries etc should do the needful and act in ways related to the
areas they cover to assure the youths that all is not lost.
The youths
should also denounce all misdemeanors which places them in a bad light before
the society so that the trust expected will be rekindled by the publics.
The youths
should be counseled on the tenets of self-sustainability which is the hallmark
of the trail blazing achievements of some South Easterners in entrepreneurship,
Banking, Information Technology, Politics etc
Let the
youths know that hard work, respect, innovativeness, inventiveness, is what
Igbo is known for, there is short-cut to success.
The clear
message for us all is that any nation that neglects it youths is doing do at
her own peril as the child is the father of the nation. Those who swing our
destiny in their hands as puppets should know that there is always a day of reckoning.
God is Watching!
I thank the
organizers (GCFN Consult & Nigerian Eye ) for the wonderful space granted
me to speak and wish them a fruitful and most rewarding event.
To fellow
speakers God bless you all.
Congrats Imo
State at 40!
Prof. Mrs
Victoria Adaobi Obasi MNAE, FCON
Ag. Vice
–Chancellor Imo State University, Owerri
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