On The future of Nigerian Youths
Hadiza Wada, DBA
...April 30, 2011
Introduction:
In the upcoming 2011 edition of our annual publication [book], we had aimed,
even before the elections and what presented itself as its aftermath, to find
three of the most formidable challenges of the nation. We have spent considerable time
trying to find that out through interviews, research, investigations as well as
rummaging through various other publications including books, journals,
magazines, newspapers and columnists opinions.
As the quest unfolds and as we continue to find out, one of the three
challenges reared its head during the recent elections; i.e. the issue
surrounding shortchanging our youths of their basic and inalienable rights. The
issue of the youth’s right to find meaningful ways and avenues of contributing
their quota to national development utilizing that bubbling energy and youthful
skills, must be addressed. That
dream and ambition that has been effectively interrupted and muted by
contemporary political, economic and social systems, as practiced by the older
generation will have to be realized.
The typical young Nigerian is generally shortchanged by elders who are, in
short, self-centered. The trend is
national, regardless of region, ethnic or religious differences.
Problematic Youth Upbringing Culture
On contemporary
upbringing and its effect on Nigerian youths, I will like to refer my readers to
an email I received recently from a member of a non-profit organization I
subscribe to, who had lived in London, England and has returned to the country. He shared his observation on the
upbringing part of the challenge.
Incidentally, in my recent trip to Nigeria during which I gathered some of the
data to be used in our 2011 book [edition], I addressed students at a local
private school in Abuja, Fouad Academy, where I motivated them to get involved
in hands on skills training as well as entrepreneurial activities early, and
move away from the way we were taught in my days, where education is all
theories and the mind-set is that at the end of that university degree you would
graduate while a job, a house and car loan awaits you after graduation.
I told them the realities are much
different today, as graduates with first and even second degrees are roaming the
streets without job. Being raised
with a mind-set where you learn everything including vocational skills, the
value of hard work etc. is the answer for their generation. That does seem to coincide with some
of the observations from the email.
The writer of
the email explained and awoke the whole Nigerian nation to these facts by saying
that it is the norm (in England) - regardless of how wealthy parents are - to
push their children to earn for themselves their upkeep early in life. He also
added that actually he discovered that “virtually all other foreign students did
the same in that environment - the exception being the status-conscious
Nigerians. He also added “I also
watched Richard Branson (owner of Virgin Airline) speaking on the Biography
Channel and, to my amazement; he said that his young children travel in the
economy class -even when the parents (he and his wife) are in upper class.”
The writer’s
observation of the British culture as practiced by grown-ups and most especially
those at the peak of power is also noteworthy, when you compare that to their
counterparts in Nigeria. For example
he writes: “There is no aircraft attached to the office of the prime minister in
the UK - he travels on BA (British Airways). And the same goes for the Royals.
The Queen does not have an aircraft for her exclusive use.” But if you remember no sooner than
Former President Olusegun Obasanjpo got into the Presidential seat in 1999, one
of the first order of the day was his purchase of a luxurious executive plane,
and he made a whole fuss over it to the national assembly.
The commentator
believes charity begins at home, and the way one is raised becomes his hallmark
later in life. For that reason he
continues “If we want our children to bring about the desired change we have
been praying for on behalf of our dear country, then please, please let’s begin
now and teach them to work hard so they can stand alone and most importantly be
content, and not having to "steal", which seem to be the norm these days.”
The email writer
appears to count his blessings for having been sent abroad to school at the age
of 18 and learning how the reality of life is.
After coming back to Lagos was when he wrote the email. He continues to say he was more
surprised by such parents’ attitude even then.
Working as a job consultant, he says, he was amazed to find that even in
the area of job hunting, after such youth that were mis-bred have stayed home
for years without a job, appears to be the job of the mums and dads and not the
child himself. “I often get calls
from anxious parents, my son graduated 2 years ago and is still looking for a
job, can you please assist!” Oh really! So where exactly is this“child” is my
usual question. Why are you the one making this call? I am yet to get a
satisfactory answer, but between you and me, chances are that big boy is
cruising around Lagos with a babe dressed to the nines, in his dad’s spanking
new SUV with enough “pocket money” to put your salary to shame. It is not at all strange to have a 28
year old who has NEVER worked for a day in his or her life in Nigeria but
“earns” a six figure “salary” from parents for doing absolutely nothing.”
The writer
really seemed to have taken the issue seriously.
He wrote at length, saying he believes that the issue in particular is at
the root of Nigerian problem. “We
have a youth population of tens of millions who are being “breastfed and
diapered” well into their 30s. Even
though the examples I have given above are from parents of considerable
affluence, similar patterns can be observed from Abeokuta to Adamawa! Wake up
mum! Wake up dad! You are practically loving your children to death! No wonder
corruption continues to thrive. We have a society of young people who have been
brought up to expect something for nothing, as if it were a birth right.” “ I want to encourage you,” he writes
“to send your young men and women (anyone over 20 can hardly be called a child!)
out into the world, maybe even consider reducing or stopping the pocket money to
encourage them to think, explore and strive. Let them know that it is possible
for them to succeed without your “help”.”
I would like to
personally add my opinion here, however, in addition to the email writer that;
anyone who has experienced life in both the North and Southern part of the
country will tell you the problem of protectionism towards young children is
usually confined to the privileged and some upper middle class parents. The
typical life of the underprivileged Northern and well as the Southern youth is
grounded in reality from day one.
While still a child of six or seven, the child does not stay home after school,
but may just throw down his book in the afternoon after school, pick up some
commodity to hawk in the neighborhood, or go to make some money doing some petty
work for grown-ups. They start
supporting themselves from a very early age, and are taught to learn the hard
way what the value of money is and how hard it is to get it. While the Southern youth will still
maintain enrollment in school while he struggles, it is not uncommon for some
parents up North to keep such children completely away from school.
From the above,
you can get the real picture as to some of the recent values that probably
emanated from the affluence that petro-dollars brought along with it. That negative effect is popularly
referred to as the curse part of the crude exploration and exploitation in
Nigeria, as many intellectuals will conclude whenever you talk about what
Nigeria became after the discovery of oil in commercial quantities in Nigeria. That parental deviation from their
major responsibility of rearing a strong and dependable adult, has affected the
youths motivation and abilities, generally, from the coastal tip of Southern
Nigeria up North to its bordering dessert states.
Northern Nigeria's Unique Challenges
But research and
other experiences as will be revealed in this chapter will demonstrate that the
inability to quickly adapt to the changing nature of various communities have
negatively impacted the Northern youths in other unique aspects. Unlike their counterparts down South,
their centuries old oral tradition, has translated into their relying more on
radios and television [spoken word] for information, and mobilization, than the
press. And the transient word is not
as effective as the written word in capturing and preserving educative as well
as informative issues. Not only
that, they also suffer from a distorted image painted by a partisan media that
is not local, nor sympathetic to their values.
Their views therefore are neither heard nor solicited. And as commonly misconstrued one of
the main reasons for disparity in the widespread adoption of western education
and press is the Southern part of the Nigeria, is that Lagos especially has a
forty years head start in contact with the British (1860s) and therefore adopted
its ways, including its style of education four decades before the North came
under the influence of Britain, that date being 1901.
Furthermore, the
Northern youths are trying to define ways to deal with centuries old
institutions that have perfected the art of leadership and control of their
everyday behaviors. Until recently,
the youth hold no grudge against such political as well as religious and social
institutions. They have for all
these years protected the sanctity of those institutions against all perceived
enemies, local and far. For example,
when the former Progressive Governor of Kano State the Late Alhaji Abubakar Rimi
uttered what was seen as disrespectful to the Kano Emir in the civilian
dispensation of the 1980s, the mob turned against his government, and Rimi who’s
following at that time was mainly the youths, saw his political influence suffer
significantly.
These
institutions
political and religious [i.e. including the Sultanate], in themselves however,
continue to face challenges in trying to work hand in hand with modern
institutions of government. An Emir
may find himself at odds with a recently elected governor or legislator who for
personal and not official reasons may feel threatened by the Emir’s overwhelming
influence, and may therefore try to depose him.
The political as well as religious institutions and even judicial ones
have been run for centuries and have hitherto provided the much needed
stability, and as such should help provide alternative ways of complementing
governmental efforts everything being equal.
While they do sometimes have their problems, our view is that ways have
to be found to harness the positive attribute of both systems, instead of the
antagonistic posture that sometimes become the way governments insist on
following, thinking they have to do away with anything cultural, in order to
mimic the Western nations “perfectly.” Any
government or political leadership that does not take the time to study an
adopted political system in order to make the system not only adoptable but
adaptable to the realities on the ground will face numerous challenges.
Another issue
raised by a Senior Educational Research Management official at our March 2011
interview at Arewa House, Shuaib S. Aliyu, is the issue of
Almajiranci. Almajiranci is a
centuries old system of learning to read and write, memorize the Quran and gain
general religious knowledge by leaving home early in life at about the age of
five to seven for another city or village to be attached to an Islamic scholar
for lessons. The system is generally
a non-profit one, where the teacher is not paid, but the child would have to
fend for himself in a strange community from where he was born. Generally therefore, the child is not
enrolled in the contemporary educative schools (modern schools), and may grow
into adolescence and sometimes into full adult life without receiving any formal
education upon which many jobs acquisition processes are based, books are
written, and the exchange of knowledge and experiences are channeled . That cuts those kids almost
completely off from the mainstream of life.
To my shock and
surprise, the Senior Researcher mentioned the issue of Almajiranci as the
leading one, when I asked him to identify for me three main issues that are
priority in regional development. I
was surprised at his picking Almajiranci. So I asked him what percentage of
Northern youths does he think are involved, and how reliable is the figure. He said the most recent research done
on the issue put the figure of such children that are kept away from the
mainstream through Almajiranci as 9%.
And of course I could see where he must be coming from. 9% is a significant percentage, if we
take into account that in statistical analysis, the minimum percentage at which
significance is noted is five (5%).
But that is not his only particular measure of the seriousness, as he explained
further. In a country of 140
million, where the youths constitute a greater percentage of the general public,
you have to come to a realization that the number of such people who are still
undergoing the ordeal are also coupled with those that may have gone through it
who today have become adults but without adequate avenues of earning a living
for themselves and their families.
For the past
decade, Mallam Shuaib disclosed, some local governments have agreed to the
recommendations from some prominent non-profit organizations to establish an
educational system called the “tsangaya,” but other challenges have also
surfaced, such as how do you track a scholar with his youths over the years when
they are sometimes constantly moving around.
How do you keep an eye to make sure the youths are well taken care of, in
a society where they are still supposed to fend for themselves at an early age
in a strange community far from their home of birth? Otherwise he says, such tsangaya
schools try to work around the traditional system of acquiring religious
education not obliterating it, while they also incorporate along with that
contemporary education i.e. learning how to read and write in Latin characters
and also acquire vocational skills such as carpentry, pottery, welding,
blacksmithing, irrigation etc. for the disenfranchised youths.
Mrs. Hadiza
Bulama is a former Director for the National Directorate for Employment at
Abuja. Hadiza Bulama agreed to the
assessment of Mallam Shuab, adding that the pace at which the almajiri issue is
being addressed, as well as other social neglect of teaching children
entrepreneurial skills in the Northern part of the country leaves much to be
desired. It has definitely impacted the rate of youth unemployment in the
country. For years some non-profits
have focused their attention on free skill acquisition sessions for youths on
both sides, i.e. on those who have taken the path to traditional religious
education only and those who for some other reasons have not acquired formal
education or have dropped out of formal schools on the one hand, and on the
other hand even those youths that are in school acquiring the regular curricular
education. She believes sincerely that for the nation to see any positive
change, it has to embark on a mass campaign for skill acquisition and
entrepreneurial training that will move the younger productive members of the
society into creating markets for the skills they are gifted in, instead of
focusing on getting someone to employ them after they conclude their education.
There are lots
and lots of services required by communities that are not being met presently. The youths just need the motivation
and strong moral support from their parents and their elected leaders to
confidently move in and begin providing the services. The assistance does not have to be
monetary, but moral support from parents and the establishment of the right
policies and environment by the government to support such efforts. Actually
funding should not be made the priority in such programs, or most of such youths
will come through the door so much so that it may be quite difficult to sift
through them to find the real serious ones among them. The politicians will have
to be watched closely also, because as the community has learned the hard way,
the politicians will rush into anything connected with money, so they will vote
millions from community funds to the program, then turn around and give out a
very small fraction of the voted amount posing for pictures, and consequently
whisk away the largest portion of the money to their personal coffers.
Conclusion: To sum up, the nation should not play
the blame game on the issue of what was witnessed after the election in Nigeria. We have witnessed enough examples of
nations who took that path of lying to themselves in the name of ethnic and
religious differences, just to end up with no nation, no people, no wealth,
nothing and nothing to show. Even
Somalia that is literally homogeneous in language lost it all with its
inter-clan rivalry. If that is the path the Nigerian leadership is taking the
nation with the ultimate motive of jumping the boat with their loot when things
get worse, then Our Prayers is May God expose their plans for all to see, and
provide a channel to credible leadership.
For those who
jubilate on the streets by continuing to kill the vulnerable “Muslim
Northerners” and turning places like Zonkwa who have maintained peace for years
into Yelwan-Shendam etc. as a result of past governmental neglect to punish, the
world is watching to see if the government will issue strong words and actions
against the continuing brutality and insecurity.
For no oppression will last forever.
And for the Northern Youths who took to the streets, who for the most
part expressed genuine frustration against a political system that continues to
tie up and strangle all other facets of life for them, we call on them to seek
positive avenues of gaining lasting progress and solution. And we stand by our words that the
press did them no justice, as their expression of frustration was not partisan;
it spared no one based on ethnicity or religion.
The records are there for any objective mind to see and assess.
And as reality
displays, that boxed segment is the majority of the population. The youths may be the ones who first
take to the streets now, but we may logically assume, that is because in any
typical setting they are the first to vent, thinking they do not have much to
lose and thereby venture out to face the full force of the security forces and
any other people who they may meet on the street.
The adults also have issues, and explosive ones for that matter, but may
have restrained themselves for now due to deeper contemplation and familial
responsibilities. But they also have their limits.
Our
recommendation is that all governments, Federal as well as State and Local, will
have to wake up and find genuine ways to deal with such realities or the game
may not continue to be played the way the leadership expects. The wise say, you
may light a simple fire to divert attention away from other issues and use it to
your liking, but when it grows out of your control, no one knows what it may
ultimately consume. God is Just and Patient, but His retribution against
injustice when He chooses to apply it, is overwhelming. A word is good for the
wise.
(c) The Optimist Voice. All Rights Reserved.
