THE BURDEN OF LEADERSHIP ON NIGERIAN YOUTHS By Dr. John Idumange

Yesterday,  I sat quietly by the balcony, gazing helplessly at the skies. It was a bright Sunday morning when the mass of humanity emptied into worship places.  A great number of them were taking tricycles to worship places but most of them to the Pentecostal variety.

For a moment,  I shuddered to conjecture that if all the people in worship places were real  Christians with some quantum of morality,  the world would have been a more commodious place to live in.  I have always taken solace in the motley of Christians who show good examples -I mean practical Christians. The conundrum is made a bit simple as to why sin is  growing in geometric progression in society such that the average Nigerian lives in prison even in his residence? Where did we get it wrong?  What could possibly be the way out of the labyrinth of dire uncertainty?

I turned attention to the leadership challenges the youths have had to contend with: increasing unemployment worsened by low quality graduates who are products of corruption, drug and substance abuse,  immorality, cultism,  crime and criminality. Where did these societal ills come from,  I soliloquized!

There seems to be consensus that the older generation of Nigerian leaders has failed.  Every one clamours for generational shift in leadership in favour of the not-too-elderly. The sad reality is that a curious peep at society shows that the youths may not be better of. especially with their bloated expectations, self-aggrandizing tendencies, bereft of any philosophical ideological grounding.

I fear,  yes,  genuinely fear that Nigeria's tomorrow cannot be entrusted into the hands of the youths I see today,  and of course,  we cannot clone the likes of Awolowo,  Diete-Spiff,  Harold Dappa Biriye, Tarawa Balewa, Aminu Kano,  Nnamdi Azikiwe, Melford Okilo,  and the likes who were fanatically patriotic,  exhibited tremendous humility in service and proactive on issues verging on development.

I am yet to find ten youths in the Niger Delta,  including the " newly baptized brown envelop activists" whose patriotism will be infectious enough to command some semblance of followership as exhibited by   Aminu Kano who had less than N5,000.00 in his account even after serving as governor for years. We have a congregation of youths who respect thieves,  people who have no respect for public funds,  people who lure them into unedifying endeavours in the name of materialism.

Youths whose sworn affidavit is to make easy money by any means necessary, cannot verily produce the kind of leadership required as catalyst for change in a fifth wave economy.  Never! These are the youths gyrating after influence and leadership in all spheres of life. 

to be contd.