By Mal Babangida Ruma
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| Mal Babangida Ruma, founder: Arewa Youth Awareness Innitiative (AYAIF) |
Undoubtedly, the future belongs to the youth, they are also part of the “present” because they are most productive group in any society. However their productivity and contrubution to national development depend on their capacity, in terms of skills, education and financial empowerment.
To me I define the youth as 'future' hope for every nation, no nation can move forward without youth. The youth constitute 60 percent of the nigerian populations but to be unfortunate not all of them can read and write. It is also becoming increasingly clear that the national security can be enhanced by addressing the problem of youth who are the most vulnerable group in our various communities because their exuberance and idealism are always manipulated for selfish interest the adage that the devil finds work for.
An idle mind in true among the youth than any other group emerging development indicate that idleness drag them to drugs and crime, virtually All the people arrested for armed robbery and other crimes that endangers our security are young men.
The youth have also become a reserved army for unleashing political voilence on the country under cover of freedom for ethenic nationalities.
With the presence of those problems facing our youth in North and the whole country I deceded to found Arewa Youth Awareness Initiative Forum (AYAIF) which focus best on idea to buld a strong and empowared the youth. And committed to managing and educating youth into healthy, Self reciant, productive and confident youth to the achievement of positive change and transformation of patriarchal values in nigeria. AYAIFoundation is now on the batch of officially getting register as full civil society organization.
Our major concern now is Street-Begging.
The growing number of begers on the major streets of our urban centress in Northern Nigeria is not only disturbing but alarming. The category of people involved as cut across age and gender, because you now have in addition to the physically handicapped, a number of children, women and school age girls roaming the streets beggings without definite means of shalter, clothing or food. But a substantial number of the begging population are the “Almajiri” as they popularly known.
Let me remind those of us who feel to busy due to official and personal engagements, to contribute to the initiative by suporting us, that it is time for them to reflect and consider the possbility of re-paying the debt owed the society. The basic realities on groud is that this debt owed for many years need to be paid and indeed ought to be paid, by whatever yardstick of judgement. I also want to assert here that no amount of personal commitment is greater than the pursuance of this noble cause.
You do not have to be poor to feel the plans of a common man you only need to have fear of God. You any need to have humility you any need to have humanity, you must be capable of listening so that you can hear when people are crying. You must be paying attention so that you can see when the youth are losing focus and are making the wrong choices in life. You do not have to be a counselor, chairman, honorable member or governor to know this is not the way to go. You cannot see yourself as superior to the people you seek to lead. You cannot believe you are better than the man who has not been given a choice, when you do those, than you can no longer claim to see hunger and anger in the faces of people. You cannot claim to still hear when they cry no matter what position you occupy in your community in your place of work, or government, you have lost the right to lead the people.
You do not have to be poor to feel the plans of a common man you only need to have fear of God. You any need to have humility you any need to have humanity, you must be capable of listening so that you can hear when people are crying. You must be paying attention so that you can see when the youth are losing focus and are making the wrong choices in life. You do not have to be a counselor, chairman, honorable member or governor to know this is not the way to go. You cannot see yourself as superior to the people you seek to lead. You cannot believe you are better than the man who has not been given a choice, when you do those, than you can no longer claim to see hunger and anger in the faces of people. You cannot claim to still hear when they cry no matter what position you occupy in your community in your place of work, or government, you have lost the right to lead the people.
You most begin to ask yourself the hard questions when those youths are left to rot away and their values are debased, what happens to your so-called privileged children? How are you going to face your God when this vanity comes to an end we cannot fight the hunger of the stomach when the poverty of our minds is getting stronger, so we must fight and defeat the poverty of our minds.
I also want use this opportunity to acknowledge the fact that, the Initiative at this stage need to widen the circle of consultation and subscriptions.
Finally, I am calling on the new government to consider utillizing more of those less greedy young people into process of governance and create an enabling atmosphere for their betterment by providing qualitative, accessible and affordable educational system and creating job opportunities to cater for poverty and civic crime, so that we can save more to make our roads and health system better, thereby keeping our currency within system better.
Babangida Ruma is the Peace Ambassador for the Commonwealth Youth Council's Youth Campaign Against Election Violence (Y-CAEV) in Nigeria 2015 and Founder,
Arewa Youth Awareness Initiative Forum (AYAIF)
Arewa Youth Awareness Initiative Forum (AYAIF)
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