Extracted from the book “Youth Under Fire”
This book is a great call to bring our thinking to the needs of the youth. They are very intelligent, energetic and willing to be engaged in the right channel. They are very passionate to learn values from any source. They are very observant of their challenge and their future. They are very eager to mount any mantle introduced to them, but we have to be mindful of the mantle. They are enthusiastic to be a success and willing to sacrifice their strength for it, but someone has to show them the right route. If you allow them to create routes for themselves, it may bring unpalatable results for the entire nation. This book addresses that FIRST THING FIRST, because, our EAGLES ARE UNDER FIRE.
There is no way you can give the best to a community or set of people without first understand their characteristics and needs. This is one of the qualities of a good leader; understanding the needs of your people. If you don’t, you are on your free path. You may achieve astonishing infrastructural placement without solving the basic and fundamental essence of those infrastructure.
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For you to deliver maximally to our teeming youths, there must be a need to understand their characteristics. Understanding of the characteristics of our youths, will offer a leader, the best opportunity to use them for developmental purposes, otherwise peace and tranquility will elude suchsociety. According to Prof A. O. Sanda of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, in his book, Sociology of Development:
“youth’s participation in decision making and in the implementation of major developmental programs will foster further involvement of the youths in developmental oriented activities“
The book has a chapter that is summarized as follows:
- The glory of the youth is their strength, while that of the adult is their grey hair which is full of wisdom out of experience. This youth’s strength has tendency of wrong disposition because, their soul and spirit have not developed correspondingly with their body. Meanwhile, the body is fully ready for manifestation.
- One of the greatest gifts of the youth is the ability to observe and produce the carbon copy of their observation. They will produce it according to their understanding and perception. No matter how hidden a habit is, never think that someone is not watching. The caveat is that, don’t do it, if you do it, expect a replica of it in the near future.
- It is evidenced through statistics that more than half of Nigerian population are the youths. Professor Sanda of Obafemi University recorded the population as stated by the office of statistics. The recent population census also agreed with the data. The summary is that, the major parts of Nigerian population are the youths.
- Because, they are still limited with worldly affair, life has not shown them much of its contents, responsibilities and challenges are limited, their brain and mind are sharp. The memory is still fresh to store information, whatever is dropped is quickly grabbed upstairs.
- At this stage, there is high level of freedom, especially when parents are busy towards house provisions. No matter how available a parent is, you can’t watch them for twenty four hours in a day. No one did it for any adult at that stage. By the way, which parent is available for twenty four hours?
The path to follow for the rest of their life is usually set at this stage. The habit of laziness or hardwork is set here because of the closeness to peer group. The habit of forging certificate or taken the right course is usually developed at this stage. The habit of competition and focus is set here. Smoking, drinking, womanizing and other derogatory habits are set here. They are at a tendering stage of their life, which has the tendency to be bent at will.
The ability to understand and harness the opportunities that lie within this age bracket, through perfect understanding of their characteristics, will transform a leader to a father of the next generation; otherwise, it is an accumulation of chaos and instability for that nation.