No country for Young Men
Posted by Felix Okoli on May 22, 2010 at 04:01:18:
There is this movie called No country for Old men and if you're able get a brief on what it's about, you'll finally discover that truly, it's no country for Old men, given the situation they found themselves in. My write-up on No country for Young Men is more like a satire, because in fact, Nigeria doesn't seem like a country for Young men, or don't you think so?
I don't have to start talking about the Presidency where only the oldest people are allowed to be president with no younger person challenging it, but in other socio-econimic situations, Nigeria has not favourable to young people. Young people have a lot of energy and ideas that if encouraged will be able to solve most our problems. The main problem we have in Nigeria is that there are a lot of old people in power who don't want to give younger people a better opportunity, they are even older than Nigeria which is just 50 years.
Take a look at the educational system, the education system the white people left behind is better than what they are leaving behind. Someone who graduated from University or secondary school in 1994 is much more educated and presentable than another person that graduated in 2004.
Jobs:
Talk about jobs and availability of jobs in Nigeria, the Federal govt doesn't create jobs as more young people are graduating from school. The govt keeps the statistics of the number of young men and women leaving the educational system and going into the labour market but still doesn't do anything about it like creating an equal number of jobs or at least economic environment that provides jobs. How will young graduates grow a career after their education and help build the nation? This is nothing more than tactically suppressing the competition for political offices.
Housing:
Housing and accommodation is nothing to write about as these are way higher than the income of many young people. Banks are not helping matters as they want to perpetually enslave you with debts and credit card fees. The govt has not been able to make banks reduce their lending rates and this is not helping the economy. Even when young people have the capability to repay loans, the strings attached to banks loans for real estate investment makes banks unattractive to Young men.
There are many other areas in which the country is not discouraging a lot of young Nigerians and I doff my hat to those young people who have been able to find success in Nigeria because they are a lot of youths who have already left the country just because of internal persecution. Call it what you may, brain drain for the country or breaking even for the young ones; they had to break free from oppression.
Nigeria is definitely not encouraging for the young people who are still trying to make a head start in life.
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