THE TRUTH
Whosoever say the truth is bitter must really have some taste bud issue,
because the truth ain’t bitter. It is sweet and smooth, it is not sore neither
is it bitter.
The truth need to be told and not sugar coated.
Allow me to borrow some lines from the movie “Head of State” by Mays
Gilliam; “That ain’t Right”
How many of you work two jobs just to have enough money to be broke?
That ain’t right
How many of you work in a city you can’t afford to live in? That ain’t
right
How many of you work in a shopping mall you can’t afford to shop in?
That ain’t right
How many of you clean up hotels you ain’t never able to sleep in? That
ain’t right
We’ve got nurses that works at hospitals they can’t afford to even get
sick in! That ain’t right
It ain’t right.
And that is absolutely wrong
I know there will be some kind of explanation for everything that’s
happening and some story to justify what’s going on in the country. But I tell
you this, everything that’s wrong in this country is your fault and yours alone
to bear (the government).
We have some youths committing crimes every day, it is not their fault
fully. A young Nigerian spend about four, five years at the university, serves
his country and find nothing else doing at the end of the day. He becomes
miserable, dejected, lonely and sad with nobody paying attention to this
ticking time bomb happening in our society.
Graduates keep piling and your pockets (Politicians) gets heavier,
problems getting bigger, and the masses feeling the pain and pressure.
Statistic came out that a larger percentage of Nigerian Universities
graduates are unemployable because, we have not got what it takes. But I am
asking you “what in God’s name do we need again after five years in colleges
and universities, what training do you think we lack that our prestigious
University lectures hasn’t taught us, what other learning have we not received
for those of us who spent three months in SIWES training, Six months in
Industrial Attachment just to get better at what we are trying to be in the
future.” I think this is a big slap on faces of our so called Doctors and
Professors at the University level, because they surely put their best into we
students, and 75% of their lives was dedicated for us alone. So, what else do
we need?
I won’t sugar coat anything because I am not Willy Wonker, so let us
call a spade a spade and not just some garden tools. Students from other
countries and overseas are not said to
be unemployable, they are not tagged as we are for who they are, they don’t
have to stay back at home lonely and frustrated. And they don’t still suck on
their mamas’ breast to survive, because parents has done their part and it is
our turn to do ours as their children.
How many of you youths still have to ask your parents for money just to
go out?
How many of you youths still have to stay indoor doing nothing, not
because you’re lazy but, because you don’t have no place to go?
How many of you youths get tired of the constant whining and abuses from
parents and guardians because of your joblessness?
How many of you youths have to go on an irrelevant journey just to get
away from your environment where you’ve been tagged.
How many of you have been harassed and libel just for showing up too
many at a place?
How many of you youths had to go for interviews without a single phone call
or email to congratulate you on the success of your job.
How many of you wish you can call an old neighbour or friend but lack of
money to recharge won’t let you?
How manyt of you wish there is something that can be done to fix this
problem?
I say I am tired of our government treating us like some filthy rag.
A single man in a political office will embezzle billions of Naira, I
wonder how they get to control such money, I wonder if there is any regulatory
body or office observing the spending of money in various offices, I wonder
what kind of excuse is made up by such people to bank managers, Antony generals
and Federation accountants, I wonder if such money isn’t too big for a single
person for the bank to question them about what they do for living to have such
amount.
It is so ridiculous and shameful for us as Nigerian to see our country
been mess with.
I am not a soldier or a law enforcer, I am a Nigerian and I believe in
“Equality”.
I believe in the truth and I stand by it.
And your children are not better than us at nothing; we are smarter,
better, well trained and for a lack of word ‘Wilder’ than your children. God
forbid one day your children will be turn unto, both home and abroad and they
will suffer for every pain you’ve caused every Nigerian, both directly and
indirectly and you won’t be able to do anything about it because you will be
too scared to come out of your shell.
You will be too scared seeing what is happening to your own blood in the
cause of your life. You will be too scared seeing what your generation is
turning into and you won’t be able to do nothing about it.
You need not a seer or a priest to tell you that “YOU WILL BE JUDGED
HERE ON EARTH”
And whatever thing you believe in won’t work for you that day.
Stop wasting our life as youths, stop standing behind walls of pretence,
disguising to help us youths achieve our dreams. If you help a million youth
today it still doesn’t cover for the huge number we have in our country, but No!
You’re not helping a million. Instead, you pick about 100-300 youths and talk
about empowerments. What are you empowering when the larger force is outside in
the rain.
Create jobs, help youths with dreams either big or small, pay us salary
as soon as we turn 18, even if it is only a stipend, send us out for training,
encourage us to see possibilities in what the less enlighten sees as stupid
jobs, organise programs and platforms that helps youth know well, create more
technical colleges for those who are crafty and handy, equip our hospitals and
libraries so that we can read better, employ more staffs in our hospitals to
break the ever busy queue waiting to be attended to by the short staffed
members of the hospitals. Stop giving graduates road sweeping jobs, gate attendants’
job, security jobs, grass cutting jobs, we did not spend 5 years at the
university to do this. Bring the good stuffs you see abroad home to implement
and make use of, stop wasting our life and brain, set up new banks and
encourage investors more by improving the country’s electricity, security, and
poverty rates.
Take more concern about the welfare of homeless children and encourage
citizens that have plenty to help the less privileged. Stop pumping billions
into concentrated areas and let the smaller communities enjoy the benefits of
been Nigerians too. Stop sending only rich kids abroad for education and help
those that are poor and brainy. When I see a Hausa man or an Ibo man, the only
thing I see is a Nigerian and nothing else, I don’t call one a name and another
by something else. I don’t care whether you are black or white because same
blood runs within our vain, I don’t care whether you are rich or poor, we all
deserve to be treated equally.
This is a call for all of us, not only to the youths, not only for the
poor, not only for those that are less privilege, and surely not for the rich
too. Let us help build this country from scratch to something beautiful,
because we are one beautiful nation. We are Nigerians!
I am DelwinJames