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The disinherited By GROWING up in a depressed economy can be traumatic. Growing up in a country, that has been laid prostrate with a philistine stamp, by its rulers, can be terrible. Growing up in a country where the future is uncertain can be tragic. This is the plight of the Nigerian youth. As is common with most developing countries with high fertility rates and reduced infant/child mortality, demographic indices indicate that the youth i.e. those within the age bracket of 10 years to 24 years form a very high percentage of the national population. The youths are estimated to constitute 39 per cent of the world population, with 80 per cent of this in the developing, emerging and transition economies. This demands a very high sense of responsibility from national educational, health and developmental planners. The United Nations General Assembly in 1984, recognised "the profound importance of direct participation of youth in shaping the future of mankind and the valuable contribution that youth can make in the implementation of the new international economic order based on equity and justice," and, convinced "of the imperative need to harness the energies, enthusiasm and creative abilities of youth to the tasks of nation building..." emphasised that the United Nations should "pay more attention to the role of young people in the world today and to their demands for the world of tomorrow." Many countries have taken the cue and taken steps to chart a development course for their youth, with emphasis on the enhancement and actualisation of their intellectual, social, emotional, moral/ethical, physical and cognitive potentialities. In short, their sense of self.
For example, Barbados' division of Youth Affairs, with the motto 'building tomorrow today," set up the Youth Entrepreneurship Scheme in 1991, to: 1. "harness the energies of the youth into the process of nation building; (2) provide harmonious relations between its citizens and develop a more caring society; (4) create an environment which will promote confidence in... culture, and (5) redirect the lives of young people who manifest negative attitudes and dysfunctional social, emotional and behavioural trends." America enacted The Younger American Act (YAA) to fully prepare its youth to become adults and effective citizens. The YAA is an instrument establishing a national youth policy for America, and identifies "five core needs" that need to be addressed to achieve the objectives. These are (1) Ongoing relations with caring adults, (2) Safe places with structured activities; (3) Access to services that promote healthy life-styles, including those designed to improve physical and mental health; (4) Opportunities to acquire marketable skills and competencies; and (5) Opportunities for community service and civic participation.
These examples are to show that no government leaves the flower of its youth to waste away. Unfortunately, the Nigerian youth are victims of national economic and moral decays that have characterised the national life in the last 20 years. As governments become less willing to spend more money on education and youth development, as a result of squander-mania and corruption, later worsened by IMF imposed conditionalities the Nigerian youth are exposed daily to a variety of events that attack their psyche and affect their personalities. From crime to cultism, sexual and labour exploitation, generational gap anxieties, unemployment, sexually transmitted diseases, and escalating drug and alcohol abuse. Concomitantly, as household incomes reduce, due to debilitating poverty, parents spend less time attending to the needs of the youth, at the crucial turning point in their lives; the period when they are most impressionistic and susceptible to external influences from role models, peer groups and significant others. Community based youth activities are decayed if not extinct. Where they still exist, they are hijacked by undesirables to perpetrate anti social acts. The tragedy of the Nigerian youth lies in the sacrifices and deprivations they have to contend with. Abandoned by the state, exploited by society, they become increasingly alienated from society. They live on the fringe of society and decency, suffer cultural dislocation, and adopt foreign cultures, the ruffian mode of foreign dressing, languages and intonation. Today, the Nigerian youth are growing up in a milieu of contradictions. They know the prices of most foreign items, but not the value of anything Nigerian.
We watch dismayed the despondency of the Nigerian youth. Education, the assumed instrument of escape from poverty, and backwardness is failing to yield the desired results. Teachers are on strike most of the time, libraries lack books, and laboratories lack equipment and chemicals. Curricular are not in conformity with world requirements. Academic calendars are distorted. Students spend double the required time to acquire education. Even then, the quality of such education, received is suspect. They cannot compete internationally. They suffer "trained incapacity." Increasingly, they are being left behind. Life is even worse for the uneducated, whose means of livelihood are characterised by artisan skills and job dilution. The advantage of youth is the burst of energy and ideas, which have formed the nucleus of innovations world wide, but denied expression in Nigeria. Citizen participation is about allowing all citizens to contribute to national growth. Here, the ruling party is the substitute for mass participation. Worse is the emasculation of youth participation, except as political henchmen and hirelings. The plight of the out-of-school, out-of-work youth is a major concern for researchers in the field of youth development. Where government has failed, the youth turn to religious organisations for survival in health, job provision, recreation, creativity, welfare and the like. Others take refuge in violence, alcohol, gang memberships, drugs and prostitution. Those who could, have left the shores of this country, to return no more. They lose their inheritance as members of the nation state; they lose their inheritance of benefiting from the resources of the nation. They are disinherited as their sense of cultural identity is eroded forever. It is not too late to reverse the ugly trends, make the youth belong, encourage them to contribute to national development. If the country frustrates its youth, the disaster that will follow in the wake will be of monumental dimensions. What we are trying to argue for here is an establishment of a credible national youth development policy, to re-integrate the Nigerian youth from the bank of disinheritance to regain their status as veritable heirs to the assets of the nation. We need to change the ways we see and take care of our youth. We need to see them as assets with long-term implications for nation building, instead of seeing them as unavoidable inconveniences. Society creates its own deviants.
The challenges are enormous, daunting and growing. They include, among others, provision of secure environment in which to grow, access to adequate learning and health, and economic opportunities. The lives, of the young people, their needs, their potential, levels of satiation or deprivation will shape the future of the country. The vast resources of the country should normally guarantee satisfaction of these requirements, as their legitimate rights, because the most fundamental duty of any government is the protection and promotion of the well-being as well as guaranteeing the future of its children.
A UNESCO poster on Development and care of the children shows an African child being asked what he would like to be when he grows up. "ALIVE" was the child's answer. This summarises the agony of the African and indeed the Nigerian child. The fear is real that he might not be alive when he grows up. Alive as a living being, as a member of society, as a human being, and with a future. The value of being alive lies in hopes and aspirations. Instead of seeing the youth as problems, a positive youth development approach should be articulated, to help them build their confidence and competencies in addition to empowering them to become successful adults. Parents, government and society have very important roles to play in enabling the Nigerian youth see himself as an asset to his country, community and society, not the negative feeling of frustration, abandonment and disinheritance. January 2002
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