A Nation on the Brink: How Neglecting Our Youth is Building an Army of Discontent

I thought the Ologbo and Ekpoma axis roads of Edo State were the worst highways until I journeyed through some of the villages in Rivers State. Although it is an oil-producing State, the leaders who should focus on people’s development are fighting over political structures, power distribution, and resource allocation to themselves while governance suffers.

I was on the road from Warri to Uyo recently. At a point, the driver diverted into some village roads because the Ahoada axis of the East-west Road was impassable. As the traveling progressed, the rain started falling, and the untarred terrain became a nightmare. My heartache began when I noticed young boys who should have been in school mounted roadblocks in the rain to collect tolls from motorists in multiple spots until we finally entered Ahoada from the village paths.

Justifiably, no parent would allow a child of school age to let children go under the rain if they had the money to feed and take them to school. No child would prefer begging in the rain if there were other viable and comfortable alternatives. No child would like the torture of remaining in the rain to beg for money if he had food. It is the same story everywhere we turn. Do leaders know these children can quickly be recruited to start an unknown army? Are leaders thinking about this?

Nobody needs a soothsayer to predict that those young boys shall one day rise to ask us why we brought them into this world and abandoned them in the wild uncared for. Their actions today could lead to a future where they rise against us, the older generation, questioning our decisions and actions that led to their current plight.

I’ve shared above what replicates the happenings in our cities, towns, and villages for you to take a look at. From the West to the East, North to South, Nigeria is inadvertently building an army of angry generations who will soon rise to ask us to account for how we derailed their destinies because of selfish people in high places.

We must urgently redirect the children currently on the streets and those forced to beg in the rain back to school or vocational centers for skill acquisition. If we don’t act now, the political structures that politicians hold so dear to their political chest could soon be threatened.

By neglecting the less privileged, we are inadvertently arming them with the potential for unrest. We are creating a time bomb that could explode and affect us all, with no escape for those who think they are immune. I hope I will be proved wrong; if not, the consequences of our inaction could be dire.

Grace and peace!!!