Toxic ‘Youthsphere’ : Building True Legacies (1) -By Oluwamayowa Lala

What can we do with these social media jokers whose condescending mien is becoming more unbearable as they keep badgering lives out of almost every meaningful discourse with their ill-mannered approaches, They feast shamelessly on almost every news item to satisfy their ego as if they are a horde of hungry locusts on rampage to eat up a grain field, their approaches are at best insipid and at worst boorish. Since these disruptors, egbirin-otes, et cetera. are becoming something else, I think their case merit some essay intervention.

Today, I’ll take on those in the ‘youthosphere’ in which I belong, with the level of toxicity among these people in the cyberspace, it’s evident that we have a lot to deal with apart from the dysfunctional political system. A bulky fraction of we youths have our minds fixated on those erroneous logics of how things work. Many of us are quite lethargic, undisciplined, complacent people and it shows in many departments of our national lives, many youths in this country love to defy the law of process, it shows in our academic environments, work places, etc. we just want things to work fast, We follow that illusion of easy money, fast money, lotto money etc.etc. many hate to invest enough discipline and hard work in our enterprises but instead we go on the social media venting our anger and complaining of how the government had been failing us, agreed! We’ve suffered inept leadership over the years. But, what about these youths who cheer superstars of pleasure businesses? Especially, now that we have a proliferation of bloggers and those who promote these superstars of pleasure businesses. If you ask them why they support these fast money advocates, they’ll reply you. Who u epp? But in reality, “Who you epp?” is a good question they should save for those guys they call superstars, those guys spilling and pouring Champagne, Hennessy and other exotic wines worth a lot of money in nightclubs, They need to ask them what contributions they are making towards our society?

You begin to feel despondent when you see the unruly display on social media, one will be forced to ask that- what has happened to the culture of civility and respect, that’s for long lost in the way these neophytes conduct activities. They don’t care whose reputation is destroyed, not caring what happens to discussions that should have brought about great things. caring less about the cataclysmic effects of their words in the long run. I must confess that few times in the past, I drifted into that direction, but at a point, I did wonder within myself… Can’t we at least maintain civility? Can’t we raise salient issues or present dissident points systematically and strategically while ensuring that we do not pollute the atmosphere with vituperations and acidity of tongue? if my words will do more damage than good, why not just keep quiet?

What’s the problem with we youths that we can’t even organise ourselves, we just want to bring things down, a lot of people have been calling on youths to rise to build up this country, but with this culture, (no be curse ooo) we may never succeed in making our points clear enough let alone build good legacies, many of us are not using the social media for building something authentic for ourselves but we are building up this avalanche of misguided vituperations and childishness which is fast bogging this generation down into the cesspit of obscurity and I pray have something left to be remembered of than this boorishness.

In this is a generation of unprincipled youths, Very few moral balance sheets we are seeing around, it’s evident in the way they truncate almost every meaningful discussions ethnic and other forms of bigotry, when I see such lackluster public display, I do ask what these people are doing in their so called universities for four/five years. Did they graduate from the department of fancy? fanciful graduate who go only by appellation of a graduate but their acts betray the whole essence of spending 4/5 solid years in school. Squandered?…The quality of minds these graduate youths still carry around makes you wonder what they still teach in our universities?
Though, I once raised this issue of crassness on social media among a few contemporaries but in remonstration and self-defense from what they perceive as an attack from me– they told me that Americans and Europeans also do likewise, and I ask why should these whites be your standard, some of these whites are loving some portions of our culture if you don’t know, you lend yourself to the subservient thinking that Americans and Europeans should be the standard against which you measure your progress as successful human beings. Wrong! I think this is another philosophical low prevalent among youths, Can’t we build something they can also emulate from us.

However, in the sea of online faceless commentators, nom de plume outfits and their fellow partners –those propaganda machineries, most times rented to distort public opinion that constitute this acidic cyberspace we currently have, You and I know that there are still few Nigerian youths who are hardworking and disciplined, such are guys that deserves respect, they want to leave a great legacy by employing strategies to come up with something solid and authentic. In that same ‘dysfunctional’ education system, they have chosen to break beyond the limits of course contents in universities, they further expand their cerebral horizons so as learn what they need to build that all-round toughness needed to succeed in life. These are the men and women with whom we can align our efforts in building up the nation.

Genius is erroneously seen a rare occurrence over the years, Every Child is a genius in his or her own portion of life, Let young people learn prudence, Let them learn bravery and self-worth, Throes of our land can be made groundless when we have prudent persons. Oluwamayowa Lala (2013).

I would suggest that youths save those youthful energies and redirect it from these ignoble trends of cursing, ethnic bigotry, mudslinging, et cetera but rather invest it in building something solid that will outlast us. A true legacy.

These examples will suffice before I pause, Larry Ellison (as a young programmer) built upon Dr E.F. Cobbs (a computer scientist) work – on Relational Database System to birth that global company called -Oracle. Strive Masiyiwa (as a young man) built that company Econet, I learnt he’s organising youths for serious corporate life ahead.

However the aforementioned examples are just but a few to mention, we have many more of such persons in Nigeria but we still need more . At this point when there is a seamless clamour that young Africans begin to build up legacies in different walks of life, when there are calls for a need for us to break the frontiers of knowledge. Can’t we- youths start building some true legacies?