The social media has been on a serious buzz following the ridiculous claim that the Nigerian youths are lazy. The claim has been vehemently opposed by many Nigerians who believe that the reverse should be the case.
Be it as it may, the Nigeria’s IT Oracle, Chris Uwaje doesn’t subscribe to the school of thought that says Nigerian youths are lazy; instead, calls for an urgent need to engage on a national project on recovery of the troubled mind-set of millions of Nigerian youth who are predominantly hooked on the internet cybercrime as gateway to wealth through fraudulent means.
“Where is and how can we unearth the hidden paradise in Nigeria Youth? Perhaps the Nigeria Youth is grossly misunderstood? What went wrong? Are they really lazy? Definitely not.”
In his work titled “The Internet: Re-engineering Broken-Dreams of Naira Youth“, Uwaje, emphasized the growing surge of internet scam (Yahoo Yahoo) amongst the Nigerian youths who have perceived it to be the only means of livelihood.
The trend of Yahoo Yahoo has been on the rise for many years and still recording more rise as the youths continue resort to it as a form of trade which brings money in exchange
Chris noted: “It is an urgent call to embark on a national psycho-sociological project to re-engineer and save the eroding mind-set of many of our youth who are currently addicted to internet scams as the only way to progress and indeed their last hope in life.
“All said, the activities of Yahoo-Yahoo Boys are nothing to be glorified. The YY syndrome is and should be seen as national scourge and the Youth Community must be called to order to dialogue and recover the hidden paradise of our youth.
In other words the youth of Nigeria must have a rethink about life and re-code their destiny. To achieve this, they must also be ready to pay a price for sustainable success and happiness – knowing that they can do a million times better that YY.
The price is retooling the mind-set, consistency, endurance, humility, audacity of hope and rekindling the can-do positive attitude of the real Naija Pikin and ultimately shames the devil.”
The long-term damage to Society is monumental, The Recovery Roadmap and Mechanism incorporates psychological and sociological healing incorporating: the critical application of the essential pillars for productive Youth Development: Policies, Strategies Legislations, Institutional Framework, Regulations and Fiscal Incentives on Child care, Education, Recreation, Entertainment and many more.
The root of this societal damage by the youth is rooted and exacerbated by human attitude and crass neglect of critical child-case by leadership.
Chris laments that it’s unfortunate that Nigerian youths are delving to internet scam in the face of the blatant neglect and abandonment of the fundamental responsibility of leadership for sustainable youth development.
He therefore advocated that it is instructive that Nigerians begin to explore the attitudinal value-chain and conditions-of-things within the country’s development environment.
He harped specifically on Nigeria’s leadership, family values, inconsistent policy-construct, education, merit assessment, child care and fundamental human rights and above all youth development programmes within the context of globalization.
The IT Oracle recalled that great minds such as Professor Emeritus Wole Soyinka had many decades ago observed and warned Nigeria on the emerging decay of values in leadership, economy and development with great impact on the youth, when he advanced the hypothesis of the ‘wasted generation’ of Nigeria.
He also mentioned Prof. Patrick Okedinachi Utomi – founder of Centre for Values and Leadership had delivered the same warning topped up with a proof-of-concept – validated through CVL.Programme/Projects.
Chris said those critical warnings by the great minds were taken for granted and not heeded by the leadership who failed to advance proactive strategies and programmes for sustainable youth development while the population growth surged dramatically in the last fifty (50) years after the civil war.
He added that this abandoned responsibility cumulated into the breakdown of the value-chains for equitable nation building and fuelled corruption-of-things like a wide fire in the Harmattan.
