My Challenges as a Nigerian Youth

Friends, colleagues and comrades I salute you all.

Growing up in Nigeria has been challenging, challenges day in, day out and as it appears we have all come to adapt to the challenging situations and this has built our resilience.

 As I remember my younger years, the song we always sung when we marched into our humble classrooms “……parents listen to your children, we are the leaders of tomorrow….”   clearly rings in my head, and I wondered in puzzlement at the boisterousness of those innocent days vis-à-vis the realities of our present days, ‘are we indeed the leaders of tomorrow?’

We were implored to study in school, obey the teachers and civic rules and thereafter the jobs would be waiting, the prescience in us believed those words readily. We all went through the pubertal period of secondary education which culminated in the Senior School Certificate Examinations and the eminent JAMB, those who were fortunate enough went at it once and made-the-grade, some had to go twice or even more – we must say kudos to those our fellow compatriots for their never-give-up attitude.


Scaling one challenge precedes the onset of another, tertiary education had its own twists, in the process of being shaped from adolescence into maturity, we had to grapple with the changes that were taking place inside us as well as in our external environments and we did manage, forfeiting comfy sleeps for the brash colds in the lecture theatres and the numerous delicious foods we gave up in place of cassava flakes( we dey call am garri (sic) ) and concoctions, those of us who preferred the as-it-dey-hot went for it, in all we were serving as an avenue to meeting the economic needs of our fellow strong colleagues in the foods business who were supporting their education from the profits, some of us forfeited our holidays to meet tasking academic demands.

 The grades are then released and suddenly the law of inverse proportions we learnt in secondary school that looked uninteresting begin to make some sense and look practicable, it appears that the more we study or read, the lesser grades we get, what can we do? maybe our Ivy league schools think bloating our egos with grandiose grades will augment our complacency, so they result to applying the laws of inverse proportions, can we blame them? Maybe not, those who groomed them thought so too.

After the hustles, bustles, intrigues of school life, we finally sit for that final exams in matching hoods, we write our final exams in gladness not necessarily borne out of perfect answers to all the gargantuan questions lying in front of us but out of pure joy we aren’t going to be in such similar situations ever again – tensed examination conditions. Our joys know no bounds as we cheerfully sign-out in grand style, dance in exhilaration, wine and make hearty toasts to the end of a rather enthralling period, we celebrate our invincibility at the faces of numerous tertiary educational challenges and we are literally on top and ready to go conquer the outside world.

The National Youth Service call need be obeyed, we are excited to wear the imprinted white tops, khaki trousers and the brown boots, we savour the moments of the three weeks’ camp, mixing and interacting with our fellow friends from all regions of the world representing their prestigious institutions, we are grouped into a more smaller platoon network where mutual joys, cooperation and unity are expressed fulfilling the goal of the program. The youth service also brings with it its twists, some of us get to encounter that special boy or girl we’ve be waiting for all this while, some of us are blessed with bouncy babies and some make good personal discoveries, in all making the experience a fantastic one. Since what has a beginning must surely have an end, the stipulated three weeks is over and we have to part ways and report at our primary points of assignment, suddenly, the winds of adulthood come blowing into our faces with full force.

What is Next?

          Adulthood will come whether we’re ready to receive it or not, while one of its blessings include a decrease in intense desire for social acceptance and approval, we must sooner come to terms to the truth that our life solely lies in our hands as we reap the results of the choices we make daily.

 Here comes a time when suddenly our besties are prone to been snatched away by Prince Handsome(s), our guys and buddies are suddenly relocating to begin their lives elsewhere, it then begin to occur to us that our cherished friendships built over the years appear to be crumbling down, but maybe sometimes, some things have to crumble so it can give way for new things to build up, and yes twenty kids can’t play together for twenty years!

The truth be told, time flies away as fast as the speed of light, the hazy winds of adulthood brings to our faces that reality is here, when we were much younger and innocuously enthusiastic about life, we believed we could all be medical doctors, surgeons, lawyers, engineers, special thanks to the appealing and alluring appearances we were exposed to about these hallowed professions, but now that reality is here before our eyes, we take a look at our abilities, knowledgebase, skillsets, talents and see where they are applicable, we begin to see things for what they truly are.

While our life paths are now becoming clearer, we begin to process and understand the feelings and emotions we experience day in, day out, we process the feelings attached to our friendships, relationships and the benefits they give to us, our personal lives become  main focus, we want to have good financial head starts, we are also concerned about our health, work and overall well-being, we might not have fully prepared ourselves for what adulthood has suddenly thrown in our face but we will surely learn at the job.

At a time where the uncertainty of jobs face us, the older generation at the center of power gave us the advice to pursue entrepreneurship, we wonder at the intention of such advice giving that we were initially told to school and acquire requisite education while the rest would simply take care of itself, many of us have spent a minimum of 16 years in study while following the nationally accepted 6-3-3-4 template for education, entrepreneurship tales coming at a time when we should already be in cozy offices sounds a bit absurd. Should we even accept the advice, how many years could it take us to rival the entrepreneurship giants, when will our soaps rival those of Proctor & Gamble or our paints rival Portland’s, we are left to wonder if our leaders truly have the holistic picture of things.

Not all of us are suited for entrepreneurship duties, the self-starters have kick-started their businesses long ago and we are happy they are doing well, we are also pleased with our fellow comrades in the entertainment industry who keep us energized and sustain the laughter on our faces, even our colleagues in the sports industry  both home and abroad keep the smiles hopeful on our cute faces, we have learnt resilience and adaptability and not only have we learnt it, we have mastered it so well, these qualities have definitely kept us optimistic and sooner or later, the pretty dreams we have nurtured in our minds would become sweet realities for we will be in good states of mind to experience them all.

My friends, it is very true that our feelings have been hurt in matters pertaining to learning and studying by virtue of the angst, pains, disgruntlement that we might have experienced while going through the Nigerian educational system, we have then sworn to dump books and by extension the essence of learning at our university gates after our convocations, my fellow comrades, let us not do so. The future is brighter than ever and the sun is newer each day, a lot of opportunities lie on the streets and only by continuous learning through reading of enriching books, listening to good podcasts can we live up to the weighty expectations required of us, examples of these opportunities before us include blissful marriages and families, healthy jobs and careers, good children, enjoyable personal lives. Amassing as much knowledge we can on all these areas will open our eyes to the luxurious opportunities we had been oblivious to, our life journey is easily navigated when we are in knowledge and self-education will further brighten up our paths to everlasting greatness.

As I end this open letter, I ask myself again ‘are we the leaders of tomorrow?’

Yes we all are indeed the leaders of tomorrow!  Industries are seeking well-qualified captains, states and comity of nations are seeking visionaries and men of industry, world-class corporations are seeking clearheaded Chief Executive Officers, our people are seeking premium restaurants to feed their bodies with healthy foods, our countrymen needs good and enviable services in all sectors, who will rise up to these magnanimous challenges if not us ?

At times, we might ask ourselves what our place is, our place is secured and grounded, we are a species not found elsewhere on the earth, we are as peculiar as we came and we must remain encouraged.

 We must keep alive the Nigerian dream in our hearts and minds for the torches of making the Nigerian dream a reality lies in our hands and we cannot afford to fail the generations coming after us.