The Role Of Youth On The War Against Corruption

Photo Credit: sundiatapost.com

N.B: THIS IS A LECTURE DELIVERED BY HUSSAIN ABDUL ALEEM ON 31-03-2016
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So, to start with, i am going to explain the keywords in this topic. We have 'youth' and we have 'corruption'. So, starting with the word youth, a youth according to UNESCO is a period of transition from dependence of childhood to adulthood independence and awareness of our interdependence as members of a community. On the other hand, corruption according to transparency international is the abuse of entrusted power for private gain. Going by these two words, corruption has been a bane of development not only in Nigeria but also in other developing countries also referred to as the third world countries.. Corruption in every government department has hindered the development of our nation.

The political-economy sector in the country have been rotten by corruption and we sit here observing. Unfortunately, the youths in our generation are more at the receiving end of this disease that is eating us up. Therefore, it is more of the role of the youths to find solutions and fight the problem before it annihilate us. On the other hand, youth is a spark that can either burn or lighten the country, and according to Mr. Ratan Tata, he opined that 'the youth of today will need to recognize that they shoulder a great responsibility.

They will need to fight for rooting out corruption, for ensuring that no one is above the law'. However, youth age is a relative term because youth age differs from region to region due to differences in life expectancy, but for the case of Nigeria where the life expectancy is 47 years, we can employ the UN youth age to be (15-24)years. Therefore, more pressure is put on this age group in every field to fight corruption because they are considered as the leaders of tomorrow, and they represent the dependency age of a nation, i.e., both the younger  age group and the  older age group depend more on them.

Ironically, the older age group are not giving the youth the chance to perform this role through the government because the older age groups have occupied all governments departments and are not willing to retire. And even departments that houses youths are not giving the youths to raise their voice over the fence. However, if youths cannot play this role through the government, are we going to keep quiet and just observe? The answer is no. So here are some role the youths can embark on to cure this disease.

 First and foremost,  the youths themselves need to change their orientation on the phrase 'making it in life'.. It is very sad to not that most youths in our society have this negative orientation that even if they were to be the one in a particular position of authority, they would do more than those who are there with the excuse that no one is fair any longer in the country. They have the mindset that if they were to be in power, they will appoint friends and relatives to top government positions solely for their personal interest. This fight against corruption start from you and I. Having a mindset like this is corruption itself, now tell me, how do we fight corruption if we are also corrupt? We are the one to eliminate this from  the society, so why  are we corrupting our mind? In that case, it is worth noting that cleaning oneself is the first role you and i need to perform for this war.

In addition to this, our youths of today must work under and umbrella to fight this war, we should work hand in hand, we should support ourselves to achieve our aim in defeating corruption in our land.. Unfortunately, youths of nowadays are not doing so. Youth are fighting for their pocket, they are fighting for material gain which will last days. What we have today is  different ball game entirely, as youth now fight against each other on who will lead a union, are we really fighting for the future? Or we are fighting for ourselves? #

In Nigeria of today, corruption meet groups and turn them against one another in  what they call anti-corruption campaign.. Is that anti corruption campaign or pocket campaign?. We should all note this, if we are really fighting for what i call 'one Nigeria free of corruption', there shouldn't be any conflict attach to it since we are striving for the same goal. We should know that where there is hatred, there wont be progress.

Furthermore, I laugh the youth of today who stand of the umbrella of fighting corruption but are not educated...  To fight corruption, be educated at least, because as nelson Mandela said,'education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world'. Now tell me, without education, you cant even change yourself talkless of changing the world. Let the youths get themselves educated before they can earn the trust of the older age group. These people are not willing to retire because they know the youths are  not agent of change. Rather they are destroyers.

Let us get ourselves educated, let us know our rights and let us stop making troubles within the community. Youth engage in violence protest all in the name of corruption and we call ourselves leaders of tomorrow. It is high time we tagged ourselves as leaders of illiteracy, leaders of violence if we don't change. We have gangs all over the country calling themselves freedom fighters and we want the government to  trust us, it is not by magic am sorry, they wont have an atom of faith in us if we continue like this.

Finally, I will like to extend that we youth should support the witness and the victims of corruption instead of disintegrating from them. We represent the larger part of the population. If we can all in one voice beat for support for the victims of corruption, it would have change something. But sample social media   platforms today, even though we all know a government official is corrupt, we still beat support for them and faulting the victim just because you are a supporter. I pity you my dear. Your future is sinking into the red sea if you don't take heed. The fight against corruption start when we stop to be   biased towards our role model. Let all say what the truth is. If we can          speak in one voice, sooner or later, the situation will change. If we don't do this, then i am sorry to say, our future at stake and the corrupt will   continue in this ungodly act -knowing fully well that some youths have their back.

In conclusion, we youths are the leaders of tomorrow, and being leaders of tomorrow require us shaping our future from now by fighting the disease of corruption to enable us contribute our full potential to the development of this country. We shouldn't allow small material gain of today blindfold us and destroy our future, as it is important to note #don't get carried away making a living and forget making a life.# thank you, and i remain Hussain Abdul-Aleem. God bless you all

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Hussain Abdul-Aleem.
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