YOUTHS; LIABILITY OR ASSET

For four days now, London and its environs have been engulfed in rioting, mostly by young people who are protesting the shooting by police of a youth in that metropolis.

The devastation so far is enormous. Looting is widespread, and over 800 people have been arrested.

This is not Africa or any third world country. This is England, a first class, civilized western nation where everything supposedly works.

This particular event has proven again that all human societies are the same. When young people are jobless and have little or no means of earning a decent livelihood or to be engaged in productive venture, any little spark will explode and expose the underlying frustration and disillusionment of that particular society

I cannot help but think what the scenario would have been if these riots happened in Nigeria. Of course there would have been a crackdown. The Armed Forces would have been called out; needless to say that many people would have lost their lives. In England, 3 people have died so far, not from police shooting (they were hit by a car).

Away from the riots for a moment, many young people in Nigeria still see traveling abroad as the only means of surviving. Just last week,  Italian coast guards discovered the bodies of over 30 young people from sub-Saharan Africa on a boat, many of them Nigerians, who died apparently from suffocation, trying to reach Europe.

Well, Europe is not a bed of roses. Ask ‘Weird MC’, who was a ‘nobody’ in London (I am sure she would have been among the rioters, if she was still there) until she decided to return to Nigeria where she found fame and fortune.

We’ve all watched with awe as the youths of the Arab world who’ve been denied their basic fundamental rights are rising and taking their country back from dictators who’ve suppressed them for so long.

The youths of a country can either be an asset or a huge time bomb waiting to explode. The youths are an asset if they are educated, empowered and opportunities created for them to contribute to the development of their societies. They become a time bomb if they’re neglected, suppressed and denied basic fundamental rights available to youths in other countries.

Is the huge youth population in Nigeria an asset or a time bomb? Well, you be the judge