WHO SAYS AGE IS ONLY A NUMBER?

I strongly reject the stereotyping of our youths, theirs is a large constituency underutilized till date. For starters the average Nigerian youth is innovative and competitive, everywhere you turn, you can’t miss their enthusiasm, charting newer causes in entertainment, sports, on our screens are the reality shows-project fame, Maltina dance hall, the entrepreneur, and you name it, there is so much to celebrate about them. Governance connotes development; if therefore the youths of today can’t get jobs it simply means the government’s policies on job creation aren’t effective. What are these young ones demanding for? Simple, a clear cut agenda from point A-Z involving them, about them and putting the required resources in to make their recommendations implementable. It is a cry for help when u see some youths turn to robbery, or see them at night joints spread out across the metropolis idling away, it is in consolation for their lost dream of what could have been. In their thousands, is that unrivalled loyalty to the skilful foreign football clubs of the west. Remember the comments of renowned activist and Lawyer, Mike Ezekhome on his release from the kidnappers den months ago, according to him, he was stunned to find out his kidnappers were graduates of higher education doing this for survival. Now, that is a shame to be shared by all, not just the boys. It’s a national tragedy. Young people of course should be knowledge seeking, so throwing money at them like a recent policy of the federal government to pay unemployed graduates the sum of N16,000 monthly won’t solve the problem, my question is what do the youths give in return? They should earn that money through various employment geared schemes; we do not want to create a dependency culture even with this purported good gesture. Raising societal aspiration is a deliberate policy, a comprehensive early intervention just like the 1942 Beveridge report/law in the UK which set a living standard tagged, “a minimum no one should go below” – It argued that by tackling the ‘5 giants evils ” of squalor, ignorance, disease, idleness and want, their society will be transformed. This led to the Social Insurance and Allied Services scheme, like the NHS service, social housing, job centers and skills acquisition training, education etc, we admire in developed countries today. But they were deliberate to be where there are today. If the views of the youths of our country do not count in our national laws and policies, the older generation should not live off their strength, their youthfulness, vigor and vitality either and since we have 65year olds as a youth leaders, then let us have octogenarians, pensioners still active as footballers, drivers, security guards, administrators, conductors, bus drivers and yes lets have 80yr old political thugs too! The old do not retire, nor pass the baton to the young ones, the next generation. It is more prestigious to become a statesman at 60, being a great source of wisdom to the coming generation, that is what the House of Lords in the UK is all about, where the older ones are honored to bequeath their wealth of knowledge and experience to matters of national concerns and the next generation of leaders after them. Every one of age 65 and above should have successors they have mentored over the years, if they do not have a protégé, they haven’t left their foot prints in the sand of life, even if they have built castles. My advice to the over 40’s now would be to start planning well in advance for that retirement, so that desperation does not set in. “Start building the minds of as many men/women as soon, as possible”. Catch them young!