INTERNATIONAL YOUTH DAY — LAZINESS: ARCH PROBLEM OF CONTEMPORARY NIGERIAN YOUTH

Robert Kennedy once said, “The world demands the qualities of youth: not a time of life but a state of mind, a temper of will, a quality of imagination, a predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the life of ease.”

International Youth Day (IYD) is an awareness day designated by the United Nations (UN). The purpose of the day is to draw attention to a given set of cultural and legal issues surrounding youth. The first IYD was observed on 12 August, 2000.

The United Nations define “youth” as persons between the ages of 15 and 24; “Teenagers” as those between the ages of 13 and 19 and “Young adults” as those between ages 18 and 32. Youths in Nigeria includes all members of the Federal Republic of Nigeria aged 18–35.

Before I divulge any further, I must mention that this is quite a lengthy read, and most contemporary Nigerian Youths would find it unnecessary to read but would rather dive into the comment section and say, “Great Write-up!”, “Beautiful”, “Nice”, “Keep it up!”, And so on. And that, brings us to the first and arch problem of the Nigerian Youth today — LAZINESS, and its twin, PROCRASTINATION.

I recall with euphoria, an incident that transpired in April 2018. It was a moment when most Nigerian Youths took to their social media handles and other media outlets to decry the proposition made by President Mohammadu Buhari. There were Twitter wars, YouTube videos and numerous rants on Facebook with the hashtag: #LazyNigerianYouth.

I crave your indulgence to pay very close attention to the exact words of PMB. He said: “About the economy, we have a very young population, our population is estimated to be 196 million in 2018. This is a very conservative one. More than 60% of the population is below 30, a lot haven’t been to school and they are claiming that Nigeria is an oil-producing country, therefore, they should sit and do nothing, and get housing, healthcare, education free.” I carefully checked and rechecked to make sure my ears heard right, he never emphatically said, “We have Lazy Nigerian Youths.”

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