By Emmanuel Ojeifo
“Today’s young people, our children, belong to the most promising generation in the history of the world. They stand at the summit of the ages. They also stand at the crossroads of two great paths. One is the broader, well-travelled path that leads to mediocrity of mind and character, and to social decline. The other is a narrower, ‘less travelled’ uphill path leading to limitless human possibilities – and the hope of the world. Every child can walk this latter path, if shown the way.”
– Stephen Covey, The Leader In Me (2010)
“Youth, not oil, will be Nigeria’s most precious resource in the twenty first century.”
– British Council Report, ‘Next Generation Nigeria,’ (2010).
Today’s generation of young people is the largest youth generation in human history. We are now living with an unprecedented generation of young people who have enormous potentials because they are globally connected, have a social consciousness and are living in places in the world where they can make a huge difference. Ours is a world that hosts an impressive array of inspiring young people with bustling energy, creativity, restlessness and imagination, and who are ready to make big social impact. By the sheer nature of their individual accomplishments and service to humanity, today’s young people are personifying the broad-based belief that young people are the drivers of social change. They are restlessly and passionately working to change the world for the better.
The emergence of this global youth culture is one of the significant features of the brave new world. David Wraight, the gifted Australian social exponent and public speaker has called this globalized generation of youth the Millennial Generation because they stand out around the world as the most connected generation of young people to developments in global affairs, and because of their amazing ability to overcome cultural, geographical, language and ethnic barriers with ease. As globalization and technology continues to shrink the world, there is an emerging ‘global consciousness’ and young people want to be a part of it. No longer are we talking about one nation of youth being mobilized and empowered, but we now have to grapple with the implications of a ‘globally connected’ youth community mobilizing to bring about world change on a scale never seen before.
These young people believe that they can change the world for the better, but they are sometimes unsure what they should change the world to; so they search for an ideology or system of belief to hold on to as a foundation for the change they seek. In searching for an ideology or belief system to hold on to, they are actually searching for something worth living for and dying for. They are optimistic and idealistic, with a deep desire to make their mark in the world. They dream of what can be and they follow their dreams with passion and perseverance. They are no longer prepared to be spectators watching the world go by, but want to be ‘players’, to get their hands dirty, to make a difference. They are knowledgeable about the affairs of the world and very mobile, travelling as much as resources and opportunity allow.
As I travel round our country, my mind cannot help but pause occasionally to ponder: How can millions of our idle young people connect with the high ideals that have infused youth activism in many other societies in the world? How can our nation adequately prepare its bustling demographic tsunami of young people to face the challenges of the 21st Century in today’s global society? How can we give our young people the sort of education that will equip them with a type of greatness and the skills that they will need not just to survive on the margins of life, but to thrive in the 21st Century?
As a result of the inexorable integration of capital, knowledge, technology and information across national boundaries, globalization is altering the face of the world and transforming world affairs today in unprecedented ways. Thomas Friedman, the three-time Pulitzer Prize winning foreign affairs columnist for the New York Times, in his book, The World is Flat (2006) has argued that this wave of globalization is creating a level playing field for all people across the world to tap into the system for their benefits. “The spread of free markets and democracy around the world,” Friedman says, “is permitting more people everywhere to turn their aspirations into achievements. And technology, properly harnessed and liberally distributed, has the power to erase not just geographical borders but also human ones.”
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I believe that, as a whole, Nigerian youth are not doing badly in terms of integrating themselves into this global level-playing field. Not only are Nigerian students studying and winning laurels in many facets of human endeavor in different parts of the world, many of them are also inspiring forces for social change. From time to time when we open the pages of newspapers, on radio, TV and the Internet, we read and hear uplifting stories of young Nigerians who through their scientific inventions, social activism, literary accomplishments, academic feats, artistic creations and musical performances are breaking new grounds, making history and bringing honour and glory to their fatherland. These Nigerians represent a dazzling array of young people who are doing breathtaking things, often without public applause.
However, I believe that so much more needs to be done in terms of equipping millions of other young Nigerians to tap into these wide-ranging opportunities. The exploding advances in technology and the globalization of markets have created unprecedented opportunities for growth and prosperity for individuals, families, organizations and societies as a whole. Of course, there are many problems and challenges – there always have been and will always be – but gaze in any direction and opportunities to progress and make a difference are everywhere. Yet amid this climate of opportunity, a question tenaciously nags at the minds and hearts of parents, educationists and employers alike: Are today’s young people being adequately prepared to take advantage of the expanding opportunities and duly equipped to deal with the accompanying challenges?
The young people who are emerging as the new winners of the twenty first century are those who possess above average creativity, strong analytical skills, a knack for foresight and good people skills. They are the right-brainers who are taking over the present economy. They are the inventors, the designers, the listeners, the big-picture thinkers, the meaning makers and the pattern recognizers – those who know how to optimize and creatively maneuvre the facts, not just memorize or regurgitate them. All this they do while knowing how to effectively team up with others. Even in remote villages of the world, people with such talents are popping up. In other words, today’s students are no longer merely competing for jobs against students in neighboring towns, states or provinces, they are competing with students in China, India, Japan, Europe, South America, Madagascar and every island and continent in-between.
To succeed in this new world order, young people need to be taught leadership principles that with equip them with more adaptability, knowledge, ingenuity and resources. They need to be infused with the passion, the dynamism and the entrepreneurial spirit to shape their lives and future and the future of the world. Ironically, our country Nigeria is not fully taking advantage of these new opportunities. In his classic work, Why Nigeria is not Working (2013), Paul Irikefe has said that the youth bulge in the country is a ticking time bomb because the amorphous and roving army of young people, represents “Africa’s largest cohort of young men without the education to connect, compete and collaborate with the rest part of the world, and without social opportunities and economic prosperity in their country.”
Thousands of graduates are churned out on a yearly basis from our tertiary institutions, with no jobs and no hope for the future. Recent studies have shown that many of these graduates are unemployable because they lack the required knowledge, skills, talents, adaptability and creativity to survive and thrive in a highly competitive globalized work environment. This crisis is largely connected with poor education and the failure of university curriculum to meet modern demands. Nigeria has no single world-class university. In the 2015 rankings of world universities by Webometrics, no Nigerian university featured on the world’s best 1000 universities. It means that in terms of international university performance dictated by the core missions of teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook, Nigeria is nowhere. No wonder our educational institutions are not at the cutting edge of robust scholarship on public policy debates. In the new world order, education, skills and creativity are the key drivers of prosperity. No nation that wants to succeed will take the education of its citizens for granted the way our country makes nonsense of the future of its youth.
* Ojeifo is a Catholic priest of the Archdiocese of Abuja ([email protected]) 07066363913.
