Who will help my children?

This piece is flowing from a reflection shared on Facebook last week. It is a sad tale about a young lady who said she was writing the now-ended Senior Secondary Certificate Examinations to prepare for a career in architecture. Asked about her subject combination, she was incredulously off-track: she was an all-art student!


There were immediate reactions to the post. One however stood out most cryptically and it came from the University of Ibadan professor, Obododimma Oha. Hear him: ‘There are many like her. Some don't even know what they want to be and what they are looking for at school. Even university students! Sad.’ Need we say more? So we write about the challenge of a generation.


The crisis we are addressing is indeed most graphic because we are today in the post-knowledge age. It is an era in which nations are no longer being judged by the mass of their population and the abundance or otherwise of their natural resource endowment. Rather the focus is on brain power. And it is therefore how developed a nation’s human capital base is that gives it the competitive edge.


Today’s youth is therefore confronted with challenges that we may not have properly bothered to fully investigate and find responses to. It is a generation that is caught between and betwixt in the manner of the archetypical transition child. With not many ennobling role models in sight, it is not routinely motivated and almost cannot find inspiration. It is one that is expected to give its best without being helped with the appropriate tools, skills and mind-sets. To paraphrase the saga of the Israelites in the era of the ‘Pharaoh who did not know Joseph,’ they are being told to make brick without straw!


Another parallel we can sum up is the archetypal dilemma of Nwoye Okonkwo. As an offspring of the strongly driven hero of Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, Nwoye could not match Okonkwo’s energy-sapping standards. Coupled with this was the fact that the overall society was also in a state of flux attendant upon the coming of the white man. With Okonkwo bearing down harshly on everyone and insisting that all that was needed to excel in the world were the sheer physical strength that men brought to their tasks, coupled with the adrenalin rush that attended fear-driven individuals who did not want to fail, Okonkwo was plainly being imperceptive and therefore most surely headed for destruction.


But Umuofia had its Obierika, the wise elder who helped situate the dilemma in the death of Ikemefuna and later on put in perspective the issue of the white man’s coming and the disruption it was to introduce into their lives. The white man came, quietly and somewhat innocently, Obierika would reminisce and Umuofia did not see the disruptions inherent in his entry. “Now he has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.’ Indeed one of the wishful exertions of this writer is about how Achebe’s text would have spawned entirely new readings if this elder of balance was given more space to breath!


Back to the crisis of the next generation. On account of errors in its upbringing, this generation now suffers from its unhelpful possession of an entitlement mentality. This has to do with a feeling and attitude that it should literally get everything on a platter of gold. It is a manna-fed generation.


In terms of history, this may be a post-Independence outflow. Here we are referring to the disruptive influence of colonialism and the latter-day reactions that come from post-colonials having to come to grips with a new reality that getting back flag independence may not be worth more than the shop-floor value of the flag itself!


But it is more than that. While the generation that clamoured and fought for Independence at least had the ultimate prize of freedom - no matter how badly defined - in front of them, the current generation has believed a lie that Nigeria owes them everything and they do not have to do anything about it. It is just enough that they are born Nigerians! And many elders are not doing much to re-orientate them. Yes, Nigeria owes the youth all. But the question to ask next is what do they do when the nation is not delivering on its promise? They invariably have to roll up their sleeves, burn the midnight oil, labour at learning a skill and make a life for themselves, anyways.


Our children need help. We need to help them understand their reality. And it is only then that they can begin to behold their future. I still believe.