I’d be god
When Ra kills his rage
I’d be god
Me
Of a barren skin –
Fruitless
I’d be god
No need for homoestasis
The petalled plume to wilt
Ra’s fever cured and gone
When I’m god
Then we shall merry the dark
Before Ra’s demons come again
“No one is born a good citizen; no nation is born a democracy. Rather, both are processes that continue to evolve over a lifetime. Young people must be included from birth. A society that cuts itself off from its youth severs its lifeline; it is condemned to bleed to death[1]. Young people should never be seen as a burden on any society, but as its most precious asset.”[2]
Abraham is still smarting from his bruises. Last night, he got waylaid in some alley by a gang of urchins, and refused to give up his wallet. The much they punched and kicked, the more he clung to his wallet that contained only enough to bring him to school today. Until the police showed up, he had continued only, to yell for help. It was his last bucks, and had to save them for school the next day. He had no option but to walk the three kilometers from the beachside to the makeshift shack he shares with his two brothers and a sister, and expect to be mobbed.
Today, he had gone to see his marketing lecturer who had agreed to censor the tourism marketing product that had taken him five months to draft, and another two, to assemble. He held the one sheet of paper containing his plan in his right hand, and looked poised as he approached the lecturer’s office. He managed to keep a straight face, as his bruises still stung. Minutes later, Abraham exits the office, looking disparaged. For the umpteenth time, he’d been told that his toils can’t get him anywhere near breaking the jinx of poverty that so looms over his family. His plan once again, is declared not good enough.
Abraham is trying to get above the poverty line in which he was born in. His eldest brother could not finish secondary education due to lack of funds, and now works with a local vehicle mechanic. Kunle his other brother had finished from the state polytechnic four years earlier through a government scholarship, but still wander the streets of Lagos, seeking for the Golden Fleece. He had once been close to landing a job, but was turned down at the last minute, for the inability of drawing up a simple cash flow plan for a startup. Abraham like Kunle, was benefitting from the ambivalence of the Local Authorities, and he had gone ahead to the state owned university.
Now wanting to break away from the clutches of poverty, he intends to start some venture on his own, control his flow of income and just be his own boss. However, he had failed again today, in setting off his aspirations in a good start. The lecturer had told him how the product has failed in basic requirements including a business plan, a financial projection, and its unique selling point. These terms seem vague and indistinct to Abraham whom like many other million youngsters in the developing world, get their bright business ideas turned into the dustbin, for lack of basic business knowledge. It is common sight in Nigeria find youngsters who have bright business ideas but can not start-off due to lack of funds, but principally due to the absence of basic entrepreneurial knowledge. These ideas most often seem to be driven by the need to escape the ever looming glare of poverty.
Unlike his peers who are doing well, living in caring and cohesive societies which provide them excellent education and an unprecedented knowledge of the world around them[3], Abraham and many others in Nigeria, are consigned to the hard facts of instability that has rocked his country for decades unending. Analogous to numerous countries in the third world, the crumble of colonialism, caused decomposed ethnic lines and City-State allegiances to bear cracks of insecurity and ill-preparedness to the glory and worship of urbanization, independence and civilization, which have resulted in weaknesses in the State-centric concept of security − regarding development, human rights, peace and good governance. Thus, whether it concerned civil wars with their dramatic consequences, natural disasters and accidents, social dissatisfaction, or yet, health crises and major pandemics, populations face life threatening dangers − paramount above others, poverty.
Ending poverty, the aspiration of the Millennium Development Goals, is the overriding developmental objective of the 21st century. Despite great progress in the past 50 years, 1.2 billion people—one-fifth of the people on Earth—live on less than US $1 a day, without access to many of the social services basic to a decent human life. Their plight requires a global response making full use of all the financial, intellectual and organizational resources that we can muster.[4] Poverty however, cannot be analyzed without taking into account the effects of the growing interconnectedness and interaction within and between countries and regions. Some have clearly benefited from the increased interdependence.
Despite great progress in some countries and regions, deep poverty remains a stubborn and intractable problem across much of the world. Substantial gains in some countries have been accompanied by deep losses in others, suffer from hunger and lack access to water, sanitation and energy. To cap it all, young people account for most persons suffering from the effects of poverty and wanton lack of opportunities. This group of people, aged between 15 and 24 total almost 1.1 billion and constitute 18 per cent of the global population. Youth and children together, including all those aged 24 years and below, account for nearly 40 per cent of the world’s population.[5] In general, therefore, the definition of youth as the period of transition from dependence to independence relates to all societies and could serve as one of the fundamental principles of the United Nations global agenda. Independence, in the sense of representing personal autonomy, is part of the Western process of individualization[6] and, as such, is an example of a culturally conditioned relationship between an individual and society.
Youth are an increasingly compelling subject for study, entering into political space in highly complex ways. To pay attention to youth is to pay close attention to the topology of the social landscape – to power and agency; public, national and domestic spaces and identities, and their articulation and disjunctures; memory, history, and sense of change; globalization and governance; gender and class. Youth as a historically constructed social category, as a relational concept, and youth as a group of actors, form an especially sharp lens through which social forces are focused. Through this lens, relations and constructions of power are refracted, recombined, and reproduced, as people make claims on each other based on age – claims that are reciprocal but asymmetrical.[7]
Young people have an ambiguous economic and cultural relationship with the globalizing world. They are relatively adaptable and therefore perhaps best able to make use of the new opportunities presented; they are the best-educated generation, particularly in areas relating to new information and communication technology (ICT); they benefit from economic growth; many travel around the globe for work, studies, exchange projects and vacations; and the telephone and Internet enable them to stay in touch with friends and relatives all over the world.[8] There are still many young people, however, especially in developing countries, who lack the economic power to benefit from the opportunities globalization offers. They have been left out of the modernization process and remain on the other side of the digital divide, but are simultaneously finding their cultural identity and local traditions threatened.
However, to succeed in today’s competitive global economy, they must be equipped with advanced skills beyond literacy; to secure employment, or some lifeline out of poverty. Young people who start new enterprises are creating jobs for themselves and reaching their personal goals. Nonetheless, lack of experience and resources mean that a high percentage of these efforts fail during the first few months of operation. Starting a business requires courage in the best of times; courage to take the risk of putting your own money into an idea; courage to take on the competition; and courage to take a leap into an unknown future. But there is much to opening a business than having the right idea and willing to take a risk.[9]
For an entrepreneur to succeed, he or she needs to have basic entrepreneurial skills, such as knowing how to communicate well, make a budget andl. The need for effective training is even more profound in countries where traditional educational systems rarely provide it even on the basic level. In such environments like the one in Nigeria, there is a need to foster an entrepreneurial culture, introducing entrepreneurial principles not only within the general population,[10] but most especially, amongst the youth who are termed “the leaders of tomorrow”. Dexterity in book keeping and accounting is necessary in drafting a business plan, making a financial projection, making a budget and the understanding of financial statements; the ability to negotiate prices and contracts; excellent external relations and brand positioning; and a skill in marketing is also important.
Conversely, as these skills are needed for entrepreneurship, there exist a few youngsters who against all odds, have tried to expand their ideas into money-making ventures that could be integrated into the private sector. But integration have not been possible, due to the lack of sufficient funds to sustain the venture in its formative years, the lack of support management expertise to advise the startup, unavailability of skilled and competent labour, and indeed, certain government policies that seem hostile to startups.
One great barrier preventing young people from setting up businesses and assuming leadership positions even as it concerns management is the systematic exclusion and marginalization of youth from decision-making and political processes at national and local levels world over, most especially in developing countries. A vivid example, is a study carried out by The Conflict, Security and Development Group (CSDG) in Nigeria which identified that, “the minimum age for becoming a lawmaker at the state level and the Lower Chamber (House of Representatives) at the national level has been raised from 21 and 25 in 1979 and 1989, to 30 years in 2005, while that of a Senator (Upper Chamber at National Law-making Chamber) has been raised from 25 to 35 years. Unsurprisingly, there is no single member of the Senate who is under 35 years of age, and the average structure of Senators (2003-2007) shows that people aged 45-55 years form the core with 44% of the 109-member Chamber, followed by those between 36 and 40 years (17.2)%. Similarly, in the National House of Representatives, of the total 360 members, only five are under 35 years of age (all male), and people aged 41 to 51 years form the core (59%), followed by those under 40 years of age – 23% (but mostly within age 35-40 years) and those aged 52 years and above (15%). The average age in the House of Representatives is 45 years. The current state of affairs reflects deterioration in youth participation over time given that in 1993, 52.4% of members were between age 30 and 40 years, and this dropped to 46% in 1999 and 23% in 2005.”[11]
The implications of the continued exclusion of youth from decision-making processes, both social and political portends ominous consequences as has been starkly displayed in countries like Cambodia, Liberia, Columbia, Angola, Nigeria, Haiti et cetera. Large groups are being excluded from the benefits of production and decision making. For example, there are very few cases in which the youth ministry and the youth budget have been administered by youth themselves. This neglect has also been translated in to a recurring cycle of unemployment, unemployability and underemployment.
To reduce the failure rate of youth enterprises and address critical issues during the start-up process, the public and private sectors need to increase their efforts to support young people by providing training, technical assistance and small credits. Government must show commitment towards catering for its youth populace through developing a national employment strategy targeting youth , and An example of the attempt at linking education and training is the Nigeria’s National Open Apprenticeship Scheme in Nigeria under the Ministry of Labor and Productivity’s National Directorate of Employment. Under the scheme vocational education and training in more than 100 occupations are provided to unemployed young people. The programme uses production facilities such as workshops and technical instructors of private industries, government institutions and, by way of a subcontracting arrangement, wayside craftspeople and tradespeople (informal sector operators). Unemployed young people and school-leavers can train for six months to three years under reputable master craftspeople. To enhance trainees’ theoretical understanding of the trade in which they are involved, theory classes are organized every Saturday to complement the practical training received. Since the scheme’s inception in 1987 nearly 600,000 unemployed young people have received training, and 400,000 of them have started their own microenterprises.[12]
Internship programmes and entry wages that are below average wages are another way to give young people a chance to work. Many employers are reluctant to employ young people without experience. Working for a period with lower wages could give young people a chance to demonstrate their competencies and acquire new skills through learning-by-doing. The introduction of apprenticeships in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa has proven successful and could be replicated in other countries. Social entrepreneurs can also be of great use, if they refuse to hoard information and experience, but are willing to share expertise and advice to young and upcoming entrepreneurs.
Young people are growing up in a world of globalization and inequality, taking part in a development process that is simultaneously bringing people closer together and widening the divisions between them. They are in the process of establishing a sense of identity in what is essentially an insecure world, and this underlying instability may serve to magnify the tensions and lack of control they experience on a daily basis. They ought to be provided with the enabling environment where their entrepreneurial abilities can be leveraged on, towards achieving the Millennium Development Goal on poverty, and provide a stream for the growth of GDPs of nations.
[2] UNDESA, “World Youth Report 2003.” (New York, 2004).
[3] UN, “World Youth Report 2003”. (New York, 2004).
[4] UNDP, “Unleashing Entrepreneurship Making Business Work for the Poor”. (New York, 2004).
[5] ILO, “Youth and Global Trends.” (Geneva, 2001).
[6]Rose, N., “Powers of Freedom: Reframing Political Thought” (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, (1999). The process of modernization involved the breakdown of some of the more important institutions of traditional society such as the larger family, the fixed clan and agrarian village life to make way for urbanization and the beginnings of the wage-based industrial labour movement.
[7]Durham, D., “Youth and the Social Imagination in Africa: Introduction to Parts 1 & 2.” Anthropological Quarterly. Volume 73 Number 3. pp113-120. (2000).
[8]Boswell, C., and J. Crisp, “Poverty, International Migration and Asylum.” Helsinki: United Nations University/World Institute for Development Economics Research. (2004).
[11]Ismail, O. and Alao, A., “Youths in the Interface of Development and Security.” Conflict, Security and Development. Volume 7 Number 1. pp3-25. (Routledge, 2007).
[12] Kanyenze, G., Mhone, G. and Sparreboom, T., “Strategies to Combat Youth Unemployment and Marginalization in Anglophone Africa.” Discussion Paper 14. Harare: International Labour Office, Southern Africa Multidisciplinary Advisory Team. (Harare, 2000).
Aw, with this weather?
Let the bombs rain
Warmth come forth for
Those without a blanket
Merry where the cisterns leak
They will hug calabashes
And gamble away sanity
Like Zacheus, of Jenta Mangoro
They pay the taxman of spirits
And kill the fake heart within
Those without a heart fall
Within Jaws the city from chaos
Where anyone with some cash
Gets to thrust at Jaws
Sensitive mandibles between legs
There it burns the most
The rampaging fire in his tap
Seeking to be doused
My only surviving grandparent turned seventy one [71] late December 2009. She was full of anticipation for the new year, and I wondered why a septuagenarian would be so apt about 2010. She looks forward to seeing her last daughter tying them nuptials, another year of bliss hopefully, good health and perhaps this time next year, should be boasting of more grandchildren [and who knows, great grand children]. I understand her position towards 2010 from an old African proverb that says "what a child can't see, up on an iroko tree, an elder does sitting". She's seen it all, and not to give preference to the schemings of 2010, would be to fail from the start.
Today, the transfer window officially open in England, and those of you - like me, ardent football freaks would monitor, analyse, "mock-buy", predict and follow the happenings. Like all of you, I expect the right activity for my dear supported club. However, another transfer window opens today. "The Resolutions Transfer Market". With a lot of bad habits, misdemeanors, acts, immorals and shortcomings expected to give way to chastity, discipline, good behavior, "clean bills" and character. I ask how much do we need to buy good over bad? For some, its keeping a clean sheet. For others, its surpassing 2009's goals. In some cases, its just sustainability. In all cases, beating the gun won't be a good way to start a race of three hundreds and sixty five days.
Sometimes, we try, but don't try well enough to achieve the goals we set. Sometimes, we even set goals so we can - like every achiever, talk about goals and ambitions. We never understand the reasons why well enough, nor customize goals to our realities. I for one, fail on this basis. In 2009, three of six books were started; none has reached an advanced stage. Some manuscripts are even long forgotten. For some of the books, there are a lot of plot clashes. For others, its an issue of starting what I can't finish. Emotionally, I have failed to tie myself down to some commitments, responsibilities and demeanor. Yet, 2009 was a success for me. Yet, I crave to be better. To relate well with people, maybe not all people but most people; to set out on goals with precision, and to live a fulfilling life before God and before men.
Today, is my best shot at making 2010 the best of my life. Why should I wait for tomorrow am so uncertain about? Thus, I'd live it, like it was my last. And I expect you to follow suit. Don't be like Osuofia, who tries to calm a crying baby by asking it what it would do tomorrow, if it cried today. If you need to cry, please do cry today, when there are lots of shoulders to provide succor. I will live out 2010 today, stepping on them stones of yester years' experiences, and hope I achieve the goals of 2010, today!
Indulged by beauty Polished in the courts of the gods Guile unmatched, so terrific Heads unduely turn, adulations abound But the secret admirer looks on In the hope that fates swing you his way As he in long-suffering, yearns for you And lurks in shells, admiring your beauty Tarry no more, in returning his love For dear, as the old moon wanes So his love lingers
These past months, there has been a huge test for me, most especially as it concerns my personality and character. A redefinition of character was most paramount for me, in a period where in class the reigning thing was forgery of field data for dissertation purposes, while in my professional niche, a string of failures littered my world. There was a great drop in self-belief, and emotions were thumping high on the meter.
People around me just seemed to be getting things right at the time, while I was on the better side of Goliath. But I weathered the time. However, not without support from people I hold very dearly. No one even knew about my predicaments at home, so papa and mama had nothing to do with this. But I had quasi-professional help. I had a lot of character building and redefinition, and today I can proudly say, that am better off.
My spirit stands strong on a rock that outplaces Gibraltar's, and my personality has been repositioned, to beat every failure that looms. Ly Thi Bich Nga and Adeniyi Adeyemi have been very instrumental in this, and so is the Campus Life team, of the Nation Newspapers, most especially Ms. Ngozi Nwozor. Ufoma Egbamuno and Daniel Tanko, good friends have been on the flanks, holding up my hands in times of emotional wars.
The Nigerian society is perplexed. It continues to trudge in antiquated paths, yet expect to get the best out of life, and perhaps, slide to the top of economies in the world. Well, it better reinvent its dreams. The other week, I finished school. I wrote my final exams, and father reminded me of Youth Service.
He so exalted it, that it seemed like the pinnacle of living here in Nigeria. Perhaps he still reminisce his days in camp. But I bet he doesn't realise things have changed since then. He has gone on to marry, have kids and now, one of them have turned a graduate. However, the thing is that the National Youth Corps Service have gone down the abysmal alley, becoming another scorn for Nigerians.
Today, you can bet, school proprietors are not recruiting staff. They have a steady flow of hands coming from orientation camps. All they need do, is apply for the next batch of Corpers, and yepee, the staff list is complete. Think also, of competent people who have the skills required to excel in certain fields who rather are confined to the walls of the classroom. Most of these guys are actually not trained to teach. And the last time I checked, the teachers Registration Council was rueing the quality of teachers in the country.
Yet, we want to be one of the top 20 economies come the year 2020. I think this is vague for us for now, and we are not really ready to achieve what we so babble about. Why must I be subjected to the scheme? Must I be far flung within my country because someone thinks its best for me? While somebody else earns fat pays for over pricing the Youth Corps apparel? Or recent graduates get posted as cannon fodder to some political cum religious battlefields?
Well, I'm a recent graduate, and am not ready to serve. Tell me I lack national consciousness, and I'd let you know that leaders are not made as such. What if these recent graduates are sent to such countries as Sierra Leone, Liberia, Sudan, Haiti, Burma, Zimbabwe et cetera, and made to contribute voluntarily to the building of these crumbling economies? Wouldn't we be doing great justice to the now capsizing image of "Giant of Africa"? I've seen many young people who claim they are serving in some purported hinterland, cooling off all year round in their homes somewhere, because somethings have traded places.
While some have played down their ages, because they want to get enlisted in this show of shame. Its compulsory, and I say that's not right. Give us the right to develop ourselves mentally and entrepreneurially, to enable us become independent, and social entreprenuers.
They say nothing is constant in life except change. Well, I just hope that if there should be change in anyone's life it should be positive. A negative course of change would just be disastrous. However, how about a neutral change? Can there be anything as such? a change but neutral, not really tilting, but changing in magnitude. If there were any philosopher who talked extensively about change, I'd really like to poke into their works, and delve more in to this story of change. I really bothers me, most especially when you seem to have just had some change in magnitude, but not in direction.
Life continues to prove impossible by the day, with the many surprises and challenges it throws my way, I guess with the belief that I can treat them aright. Well, life must understand that am weak...and really weak. By the day, I feel empty, like something I really want has been taken away from me, and am let to just drift off towards the Antarctica.
Then the talk about me being...Gay? I continue to ponder... They say am DYKE. Everyone in the LC says so, that its an identity that has glued to my shirts. Fine I just hope its the shirts, before my boyfriend...pardon me, my girlfriend finds out.
School is a mess sometimes. I can't imagine, just like yesterday, I got admitted into school. Now, 'they' say am a graduate, awaiting the "compulsory" one year youth corps service. I see it as a waste of one precious year, which I can use to better myself. What do you think?
Then my love life? YES I know you want to know. Its in shambles. However, don't let my sisters know, because it could be the beginning of something I can't handle, because my girlfriend might just come knocking on my door, demanding an explanation. But when would I grow up, and acknowledge that some things in life follow a predestined course?
My family? I adore them. I love them so much, even though the need to be independent remains top on my agenda, and my father doesn't want to hear any of those... What do I do with so much bothering my family now? You know, sometimes I hate the fact that we are still where we are. But perhaps, everythings are for a reason. I just hope so.
When do I finish my dissertation? I bet you should ask my supervisor. I don't know myself. I just want to pack my bags and be off to some unknown place, where perhaps, life can continue for me, from where it has presently paused.
The warlords of Mordor in fierce battle cry Allies with Orcs, Dementors and Sauron Seek the white gates of Gondor In a frantic bid to seize middle earth
Time upon time, the ring long lost The sovereignty of middle earth given up Gondor gone merry, Mordor in rubbles A surge from bottom earth very imminent.
