-Toyinbo Olumide
It is interesting to note that as at the 14th October, 2018, not less than seventeen elected executive members have been suspended by the legislative councils in their various quarters- Halls of Residence, Faculties and even Departments in the space of eleven days, for allegations wandering around negligence of duty, mismanagement of funds, misappropriation of funds and embezzlement of funds. Presently, University of Ibadan student bodies can be said to be undergoing an era of suspension. Executives elected to manage few persons and funds within whatever the jurisdiction they belong being guilty of what elders are guilty of at the political corridor of governance in the country today, how ridiculous? A hand that cannot manage around just a million of naira at this stage without settling himself or lacking the coordination to account properly on how it was spent, what will such person then do when he gets access to the bigger ones? Sure, you know! No one is a saint but how saint are you in the areas where people need saints who they can trust with their money without fear of if being tampered with without no proper accounting.
Owei Lakemfa, a former journalist who had worked with Nigeria’s The Guardian and Vanguard and once the Acting General Secretary of the Nigeria’s Labour Congress made a statement in 2015 as a moderator at the National Students Retreat that held at Bayero University, Kano (BUK) and to the extent of its relativity, the statement is still very much valid today, as it is just the reality. He said “if the youth be corrupted, the nation is finished”. He further pointed that ‘…when the youths merely echo the songs of the past; especially when the songs are badly composed and awfully rendered, then the nation has a problem. A nation cannot advance if these youths are compromised”. He further added that “if youths be morally and socially bankrupt, what future has their nation? If youths are corrupt or corrupted like virus, how can the nation develop? …If Nigeria is to be great, as it should be, there must be youths willing to make sacrifice (at the detriment of their own evil pleasure)”. Such is the view of the writer as well. If youths with the mind of responsibility and the heart of national interest should emerge in various citadels of learning at this point in time, then, we can gainfully say that Nigeria will be great again.
Generally, youths are now best qualified as the set of people who live in glass house and still throw stones? The only people they complain about every day are the corrupt legislators in the National Assembly who instead of making law, continue to make titles over the shared Ghana-must-go bag filled with cash. The only people they amount so much blame to are the fellow ‘human-beings’ who have been infested with giving-and-taking of bribes as they head one government agency or the other. They can as well see that Minister who diverts public funds into his own pocket with so much comfort, knowing the criminal implication of it. But is this not Nigeria, sure they know the way out asides those that their doom-day has come. They can see the President who instead of using money to protect his territory- a national interest, he rather use the money, diverted it to his own pocket and for his our purpose- personal interest. They can see all that, in fact, we can see all that but we cannot be so careful to be free from any anti-moral act associated with the older generation in governance.
It can be said that every societal vices develop too like babies. From Zygote to the Foetus to the Embryo and finally the baby, the stages some youths are can be alarming. Some might have graduated and got inducted to the baby stage, some to the embryonic stage, some to the foetal stage and some are just showing the traits. If care is not taken, there comes progress day by day till it becomes the issue of ‘in the blood’. It then becomes so hard to defeat, such as in the corridor of power today. We, youths will soon get to our turn whether we like it or not, the youths of yesterday are the old ones ruling us now and what they have done in the past seem to be reflecting in the political corridor today with every of their unpleasant acts. Their past reflected the present and presently, it is scary to say that the future is yet again showcasing itself again in the present.
The onus rests on us all to prevent the looming defects in the future of this country, as derived from the present happening. It takes personal sacrifices by refraining strictly from inglorious acts, family involvement with parents being the focus, parents training their wards is the good way to go, and this goes a long way as family is the first stage of socialisation. The society should do her best to frown at any corruption-like acts of young ones, youths and the elders and as well reprimand any act of such appropriately. Various institutions and bodies like the varsities, colleges and others should as well rise up to fight the menace with full force and not cover anybody found guilty of any unworthy act for anything. In short, all hands should be on deck to attack the viruses spreading widely all around and which can have adverse effect on us as a people, from the present till the future…
