The Sad Tale Of A Nigerian Youth -By Segun Ogunlade

As many are the afflictions of the righteous according to the Good Book, so also are the myriads of challenges facing a Nigerian youth. Different challenges always crept his way at every stage of his life. Everywhere he turned, he had fresh challenges to surmount. Some are self–inflicted but a large portion by the type of environment to he finds himself. If he had been born in other climes in other continents, many of his problems would not be a problem because the leaders have fashioned the environment to suit him even before he was born to aid his development as a human being. The people before him would have included him in their plans and he wouldn’t have to worry about many things so far he acts right. But for the Nigerian youth, he is first a victim of his environment at birth before anything else. As he begins to grow, many problems are activated in his life. Many of them he might never be able to surmount before his days are over. So many times he had wished he was born in another country. But once he’s here, he’s been conditioned to live with the harsh realities of his environment from education to economics to politics.

From the time he was about five or six years old, the Nigerian youth was told about the good things that comes with being educated. One of such is that it would enable him to be a future leader in the country. Because he was born in an environment where there is a considerable premium placed on education, he didn’t attend classes under the tree nor did he sit on the bare floor to learn ABC unlike many like him in other places where secular education is not given an elevated status. His state government often boast on television that it had equipped all schools, elementary and secondary school, with computers to aid computer literacy from an early age. But he never set his eyes on any set of computer, not even in his headmistress’ office. When his young mind asked why he was told the government are sometimes like that. They lie to the directly under them so they could appear good to those outside their jurisdiction. He thought that was the last of the lies he would get from his government. But he never knew they are professional when it comes to manipulating data to appear as being capable of governing well in the eyes of the world.

When he was old enough to go to high school, he was told unity schools are better than many that are under the authority of the state government. He was persuaded to apply to a unity in part due to the economic status of his parents. When it was time for the entrance examination, he found out he would have to score 65 out of 100 to get admission while others like him with poor elementary education had to score only 20 to get admission to the same school. Yet, if he scored 65 he’s not guaranteed because there are many like him in his environment and quota system might be unfavourable to him. Thus, whilst his mind is being trained to embrace hardworking so that he wouldn’t be a victim of quota system, others like him from the other side of the country are being trained to do little as the quota system would favour them because they are not many that are seeking admission. Young minds like him from the same environment who are trained to embrace excellence and others like them from the other side of the country who are being trained to embrace mediocrity because the state government wouldn’t place premium on education, are being trained for the same future and same job opportunities. Later, he would find that those whose minds are being trained to do little to get more would have better chances at positions of leadership because that get quality education albeit little are respected. He realised his struggle for excellence wouldn’t be against those from the other side but with those around him because majority of them are the same intellectually and otherwise.

When he wanted to apply to the university of his choice, he was told something about catchment area. He was also told about some students that are from education less developed states comprising the same people he had had to struggle with for admission to the unity school. Again, they have reduced cut off marks because of where they are coming from. Even if he scored higher than all of them but didn’t score the required mark for his catchment area, he would not get admission. He had to work hard at getting a very high score so his environment wouldn’t affect his admission chances. Even though he managed to get to the university, he soon realized that the country don’t know what it wants to do with education whether it would be for scientific research and technological innovation or just for people to say the citizens are educated. To his chagrin, the most educated and the most enlightened ones are being ruled and governed by people with undesirable traits going about with questionable credentials. He found out that great minds are not regarded and their exposure didn’t count for anything. Where key decisions that affects the citizenry are made, they are made not by people that are well informed by current economic and social realities but by people who are quick enough to show their tribal and religious affiliations.

To make things worse for him, the federal university he attended was poorly funded. His friends attending state universities are not in in anyway better. The laboratories have old equipment that are grossly malfunctioning. The classroom where he’s being taught were far from being conducive. Afternoon classes are like torture in hell because there are no air conditioning system. The curriculum they’re using to teach him are old and have long been due for revision. But nobody cares. The lecturers that should have been irritated because they’re teaching expired knowledge are many times unhappy with their jobs because they are paid less to do more. Their situation is worsened by the humongous salary and allowances that people with less educational qualifications are collecting in the National Assembly. Politics is better remunerated than education. The knowledge which his lecturers put into research works don’t get anywhere near where policies are formulated. And when the lecturers are called upon to participate in electoral activities, they responded in their numbers.
More disturbing to him is the way his lecturers often go on strike intermittently. Oftentimes the government would just watch them and go on with its business of not placing premium on education. That has implications for him. The more the strike action lingers the longer his days of pursuing an academic degree are prolonged. Yet, he’s not guaranteed employment after graduation to compensate him for his ordeals in the university that his government funded. Worse still, there are many like him that are not assured of gainful employment after school because they outnumbered the available jobs. Besides, many employers limit the employees they would be needing to some age bracket as if they are not aware that strike action is a fact of life if one attends a government school. Besides the age bracket that cuts off some people from getting employed, many employers are looking for the type of experience that a fresh graduate could not get. Things are not going according to the plan he had in his head as put there by his parents that good education would get him a good job. They didn’t tell him several millions of youths would jostle with him for employment when the time comes.

Getting a good job he found out doesn’t require good grades but good connections where it matters. Where he doesn’t need connection some other factors such as religion and ethnicity are militating against him. Where he could have been considered because of his good grades, he was rejected because he only focused on academics in the university that he didn’t do anything extracurricular or even volunteered for anything. His inability to explore other areas of his strength limits him. They told him job would only be given to people who had held positions that made them student leaders. With his ‘good’ education, therefore, he found out many things are hindering him from being gainfully employed from a limited number of jobs to religion and ethnicity to his inability to do anything else but only go to class as an undergraduate. Thus, he becomes an economic liability. Yet he is not alone. Many like him are unemployed and have no hope of being employed. Even those that were employed were being retrenched because the economy of the country is failing and corporations need to maintain their turnovers.

Out of frustration and to meet their economic demands, many in his age group, male and female, resorted to gangsterism, terrorism, bandits, cybercrime, kidnapping, armed robbery, prostitution, betting, etc. His background wouldn’t let him do any of such even with mountain of pressure from his friends who are now enjoying a modicum of economic buoyancy. He set up a business along his street. Due to the failure of his government to provide stable power supply, he fuelled his own generator, at home and in his shop. Every adult around him is doing the same, making up for the failures of their government by becoming government to themselves by pro their own amenities. Yet, the people in government that made the environment unconducive for his business to thrive constantly preach to him about the importance of paying his tax. The government that could not help him are now seeking a way to get from the little he is making to help himself in the name of tax. Many of his friends that are doing illegal things see him as pusillanimous and described his economic state as lachrymose. But like every other youth that i trying to survive in their own without help from government, they could now see reliance on the government would mean a bleak future and a deplorable present because his government has no plan for him. If the government failed him, he vowed never to fail himself. Thus, he put his own destiny in his hands to make himself better while the people in government continue to enjoy their loot, sharing it around and not minding the state of education or the future of youths in the country.

Since he was young, he was told he was the leader of tomorrow. But as he is a grown up, old enough to tell his right apart from his left, he discovered the lie that’s embedded in the statement. It’s all a charade. He has only been govern by the same set of political leaders all his life, either actively or inactively. They have perpetuated themselves in power. Even when they reshuffle, they still pick some of their puppets so they wouldn’t lose control of government. At every election year, they come with different set of lies to get recycled and jostle for political power and supremacy within their closed circuit. The political leaders of his country don’t have human capital and human resources development at heart. Rather, they tend to old political wounds inflicted on them by political opponents and often laced their decisions with religion and ethnic prejudices. Though they are far removed from the reality of the current century and lacking the nuances to govern a modern country, they wouldn’t relinquish power because they want their secrets buried forever in the sand of time.

Everywhere the Nigerian youth turned to, he is met by a bevy of leaders who don’t understand his needs in the world that is fast changing and tilting towards scientific advancement and technological education. As nations in other climes are promoting science and technology, the leaders of his own country are promoting politics of ethnicity and sponsoring religious programmes. While leaders of other countries are striving to make their country good and spoken well about, his own leaders are described as being fantastically corrupt and they are living up to that by siphoning government funds for private use. When leaders in other climes are working at everything that would create wealth for their citizens, his own leaders are carting away money from the country’s coffer stashing them in foreign bank accounts where they are not needed. Political leaders in his country lack ideology and are only in office for self aggrandisement and to enrich their selves. The wealth that could be used to make the country better were stolen and the youths were called lazy because they couldn’t get jobs. The Nigerian youth is indeed a victim of where he was born. Worse still, when some people are investing in their people so they could become better, his own leaders are spurring him on to pray to God so that the could get better yet failing in what it is supposed to do. The leaders of his country are unable to chart a course of development for the country and the fate of the country is left hanging in a state of comatose. Yet when these youths find themselves where the environment is conducive, they are at their best, proving they’re not lazy as their leader tagged them.

The Nigerian youth, even though a citizen of the land that is flowing with milk and honey, has his future sabotaged by many things around him. Each time, he ponders on running away from his fatherland to a place where things work, where talent is appreciated and where citizens worth more than a penny. Many like him facing uncertainty in their fatherland would do anything to get out and be part of another system where they wouldn’t be sandwiched between actions of bad leaders and a future without hope. Even with the education that was called good in his country wasn’t the type he should be getting in this generation because they are not in the way of solving problems. When people are sent to school, the government has no purpose in mind for encouraging them. What should have been done by his government are committed into the hands of God as if there is the only country He created. Even as the Nigerian youth recounts his own ordeal in the country of his fathers, he could only wish everything would change for the better even as the leaders began to realize how retrogressively the country is marching far away from being a place where there is an investment in citizens. The challenges of Nigerian youth are indeed many but this much he is able to put down.

May God bless Nigeria.

Segun Ogunlade writes from the University of Ibadan, Ibadan. He could be reached via email at ogunlade02@gmail.com or his number +2348085851773.