Nigerian youths may have misplaced their priorities — Daniel Ogoloma

By Juliet Ebirim

British-Nigerian youth advocate, inspirational speaker and political consultant Daniel Ogoloma have bemoaned the gross misplacement of priorities among some Nigerian youths.

During his recent visit to Nigeria, the Nigerian political consultant, once again had close interactions and a general observation of the attitude of many Nigerian youths towards important issues that border on their socio-economic and political future. He had firsthand experience of the lukewarm stance being taken by youths over matters that can determine their individual and collective survival.

He discovered that while some of these regrettably reckless decisions by the youths are taken out of ignorance and exuberance, some of them are actually deliberate acts of pleasurable indulgence.

During one of his close encounters with some youths and youth leaders, Ogoloma lamented what he called, “the lackadaisical attitudes of many youths towards their civil responsibilities and nation-building.” He noted that while a few sections of the youth population is interested in matters of nation-building and are striving to contribute their efforts, the majority of the youths are not only displaying apathy, they are channelling their time, resources and energy into a wide range of unproductive, illicit and even time wasting ventures and activities.

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His words: ” Sadly, this misplacement of priorities is not only distracting the youths from the collective goal of building a progressive nation, but it also has costly consequences which are capable of jeopardizing the future of the country if the status quo remains.”
Daniel gave the example of internet engagement by the youths. He agreed that while some young people use the internet for legal, innovative and productive purposes, a large number of them use the same medium to perpetrate illegal activities such as internet fraud, social media trolling and cyberbullying. While he emphasized that he has nothing against fashion and entertainment programmes like musical concerts and reality Tv shows, Ogoloma expressed his concern at the amount of involvement and level of attention invested in these activities by the youths, when compared to their lack of interest in matters like politics, leadership, education, etc.

He acknowledged the importance of entertainment but urged the youths to show the same level of interest, commitment and expend the same amount of energy given to such entertainment programmes on important socio-political issues.

He wondered why young people would prefer to attend musical concerts to intellectual fora, spend hours glued to their televisions and spend their resources to vote for housemates, in reality, tv shows but would not come out during elections to vote for qualified and competent leaders or participate actively in nation-building activities. Daniel warned that” The cost of this apathy towards important socio-political issues among the youths might be too grave to bear.”

He, therefore, advised young Nigerians to brace up and redirect their energy positively towards building a better Nigeria for all.

Vanguard News Nigeria 

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