[Story] Youthfulness, a beautiful story of a tragic fall...
To live an independent life has been my desire since childhood, which is inspired by a simple story of the Igbo entrepreneurs, who are fearless, limitless and determined. As captured in our most popular Nollywood movies,
they travel to Lagos which is the centre of commerce and never come back till they make a mark. They are eager to explore the opportunities in the world, gain competence and acquire the capacity to affect the world with their contributions. But today am at a cross road, between the contemporary situation and the past deep wounds of perceived moral structure I had and held unto to make a mark as well.
Like me, many young people are challenged with the situation of balancing what is which and how is what. We are ravaged with a serious identity crisis that our loud mouths and lust eyes has denied us the sight of our own reality. We are buried in stagnation and beyond any shadow of doubt; our pursed purpose is gradually unveiling. I could see youths in the latter as a period fraught and hazards and cannot disagree in truth that they are the potential problem that must be straighten up.
“One of the legacies of tradition has been the way young people have been portrayed in the mass culture and hence, the popular mind in a consistently negative fashion “-William Damon
My point;
Youthfulness is lost. The meaning, purpose and energy in it has all sank into the shadow of the older world particularly the interest and narcissistic desires of the social and political class. Young people don’t know who they are anymore, the inert strength and latent power they posses. They own a self disbelieve and believe in the superficial tangible edifice of opportunities created or search; mostly a 21st century political cage or a dead end. I am concerned, burden and bittered that the most valuable resource the earth has ever had and have is now a creature of circumstance, than the creator of fact as it was initially designed. Youths leak feats to make feast and leave the field to catch feels, honestly youths are lost. We put the big frog in a small pond and assume the water is enough for the subject to flourish. The youths make conclusion out of a bird eye view premise, because we were stripped off what true wisdom is and how to make informed decisions by the people we tire our hopes to. If anyone accuses me of all the above, I will say am guilty as charged, knowing that I have severally also acted beyond the pale.
But sequel to this situation that embraced our lives today, I mean the decaying usefulness of youths and its compounding effect on humanity; young people were responsible for the technological, economic, social and political reforms we have today. They engage their minds in worthy ventures that added value to their communities and the summation of the various contributions around the planet gave birth to our beautiful and digital generation. What I understand here is very simple; they first found what drives their lives, the essence of living and a romance with humanity. Like the Igbo entrepreneur who never tire’s his dream of success to anyone, but to a culture of handwork, determination and focus. Not to be just tokenized, marginalized or to be a reduced group. Not to be a political or ethnic tool for negative advocacy’s or oddity. Not to be like chameleons picking color from the environment and can’t add color to it. Not a world of young people that are never decent from within and as a result their tongue becomes sharper than a shaving blade and their poor actions visible to the blind. Youths need a structure to be productive in the future, not a gift or handouts to be a productive failure.
Youths must be a problem centered vision in every professional and non professional fields, but most importantly youths must be themselves and not anyone or anyone’s interest.
Gambo Hassan Bissu.
