Date Published: 08/04/09
DO WE HAVE A FUTURE?
By ARINZE ALINNOR A.
I have always heard that youths are the future leaders or the hope of tomorrow. Most countries invest a lot of their resources for the welfare of the youths. And many believe that the future of any nation is determined to a larger extent by the quality of her youths and not even mineral resources. But I do not believe that many understand or believe that the quality of our future can be evaluated by the quality of our youths today. If we do believe or understand this fact, our actions and inactions do not depict that we do.
Good leaders have intuition; they ‘see it’ when others don’t; they get it. There are those who naturally have this gift. They instinctively understand people and know how to move them from point A to point B. Even as children they act like leaders. The youths can be nurtured to see things other people cannot; they have the raw material and can be mentored. The youths just need someone to inform, instruct, and inspire them, and they will become good and great leaders. Without intuition we are condemned to be blind sided by events and opinions all of our lives.
It is very unfortunate that we have people who may not be gifted in support roles taking leadership roles. Putting these people into leadership roles is like putting square pegs in round holes; you can keep hammering and driving them in, but they would not fit. This can stifle or not guarantee any reasonable future for us as a people. Karl Max said that to conquer a nation you just have to block the transfer of values, morals, and beliefs between generations. What a father says to his children in the privacy of home is not heard by the world, but it is clearly heard by posterity.
How we spend our time and resources reveals our real values and priorities. How is the government of the day spending our resources? The government of the day is busy spending our time, strength, and resources extinguishing fires that if left alone would burn out on their own. May be they are expecting to reap the wind. Their actions and inactions point to the fact that there is scarcity of ideologies amongst the political elite. People who set goals accomplish much more than people of equal education and ability that do not. Two former lecturers do not even have set goals for education. What an irony?
The truth is that the political elite wants to conquer this nation. And they are succeeding by their blockage of transfer of values, morals and beliefs through education. They are making sure their stronghold on this nation does not cease even with their demise; their wards, children, and siblings are all in the best schools abroad. Their lifestyle had been very questionable because of lack of character in all they do. While the basic infrastructure and many other things are begging for attention, they are busy on frivolities; giving their daughters out in marriage, celebrating birthdays, taking titles here and there. They want to hand over a party before business attitude to the forth coming generation?
Authority without accountability leads to disaster. One nefarious monster that would haunt this great nation is corruption and the leaders are neck deep into it. We do not have role models in the polity because of unquestioned authority. What are the priorities of government? Priorities have a way of sneaking out of position when we are not paying attention. Too many of us only become successful at the cost of broken homes or failing health because our priorities shifting somewhere along the line. We just need to get our priorities right if we have a future as a nation.
From all I have observed which you may have observed also, without sounding pessimistic we do not have a future, if we do - a bleak future. There is little or no investment on the youths which form the fabric of the future. Education must be a priority if there is to be any future for this nation. Thoughtful, loving, productive, happy children do not just evolve, they are trained. How can they be trained in non-functional school system and with parents living pseudo lives in the polity? Let the government of the day not be anxious about the next lap, but should focus on the next step. Great future is a product of great investment on the education of youths!
ARINZE ALINNOR A.
P. O. BOX 17985 , IKEJA - LAGOS .
08033001782, 07029447342
arinze198@gmail.com
www.arinze198.wordpress.com
