Okenyi Kenechi
It has often been said that if you want to measure the number of people who are unemployed in a state, then check the number of persons who attend political rallies during working hours. There is no perfect picture that paints this ugly reality than the gathering of energetic youths during working hours in the name of One Million Youths for Wike.
The trend is an ugly one, not just because it depicts Rivers youths as a jobless set of youths but because it has also closed their eyes to reality. This is not an attack on the person of governor Nyesom Wike per ser but an attempt to state the obvious: the youths are victims of slavery who do not know that they have been enslaved.
Over three weeks now, a 7-storey structure collapsed at Woji Road, in GRA of Port Harcourt. A majority of the persons who were trapped under that rubble were youths. The government exhibited a series of lacklustre attitude towards the rescue effort. People were allowed to die because they were commoners. In short, the commissioner for urban development and physical planning stepped aside to allow a ‘comprehensive investigation into the matter’. That was after he disclosed that he approved the extension of the structure from a 5-storey building to a 7-storey building in September this year without the necessary documents of the building which was said to have been missing.
But instead of the youths protesting against the glaring inefficiency, the youths were made to defend the man, calling his decision to step down ‘rare’ and afterwards, went into campaign frenzy in the name of ‘One Million Match’. This is not just a Rivers state thing but a nationwide problem.
How long will the Nigerian youths continue to be told what to do? When will the youth yank the veil off their faces and understand that they are the ones at loss in the scheming of things?
On Monday, a 39-year-old man was stabbed in the stomach and his wrist slit during a robbery attack. He was taken to two different hospitals which rejected him. The third reportedly requested an initial deposit of 25, 000 before they will attend to him. His sister transferred 30, 000 to the hospital’s account but they wouldn’t attend to the bleeding man until they receive an alert of the transaction. The man identified as Progress Dennis died a few minutes after. He bled to death.
There have been a series of protests against the hospital but it is the same youths that are defending the actions of the hospital. These actions make one scared as one wonders whether this generation will ever achieve anything.
Nigerian youths are abused every day by the system. The abuse has also led to several deaths but yet the youths do not know that the tide is against them?
