23 April 2018
When we talk like these before foreign press, we expect them to hail us, we fail to acknowledge that they laugh at us. Majority of our youths are half educated not because they do not admire good education, but because they cannot afford it, those who happen to go to school have no incentives for hard-work because the less brilliant ones and those with resources to sort get better grades and better jobs, the poor upon graduation end up with jobs good enough for those who never went to school. I can’t remember the number of times hotel cleaners tell me they are university graduates and I should help them with job, some upon graduation in their late thirties and forties cannot afford to marry and rent an apartment, not because they don’t want to, but because their best is not good enough to give them a head start, yet we blame them for asking for housing support. Moreso, you would be amazed how many young people die silently daily from illnesses and situations that require surgery, we still blame them for asking for healthcare. When our own children are sick we fly them overseas, yet call the poor-man's kids lazy.
We complain to the Whiteman and expect an applause or a pat in the back, yet we fail to understand that we make a mockery of ourselves. How do you expect foreign investors invest in young people you call lazy and seeking free support? We only end up making a mockery of our country at the detriment of our incapacities.
Bill Gates visited Nigeria recently and cautioned, invest in human capital development, we abused him and called him names. We fail to understand that in developed climes, government provides grants for education, housing to the poor and free subsidized healthcare. We behave like a young man who called his mother my aunty because he is ashamed of her poverty situation. Our problem is not so much the people as it is the government that has failed but prefer to shift responsibility to the governed.
It is different when you caution young people to work harder, it’s a different thing when you run down your own children to outsiders to make you look good.
Unfortunately my biggest surprise is that some young people accept the tag that they are lazy and not prepare to lead and would even attempt to challenge those who push for a better Tommorow for them.
Maybe you now see what the older generations think of you and why they must continue to lead until old age with retirement not being an option. They call you inconsequential and lazy, yet you sing their praise.
I believe our educational system has been corrupted, but I don’t blame the youths, I blame the government for destroying the sector, politicizing and ethnitizing the sector.
What our youths need are opportunities, with good opportunities most people you define as failures in life, most people you define as nobody’s, with the right opportunity and encouragements, even kings will seek audience just to meet with them.
No one should be tagged failures, just give them an opportunity.
Princewill Odidi is a social commentator writing from Atlanta USA.
