AYODEJI JAMES

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