THE YOUTHS AS VANGUARDS OF POSITIVE CHANGE IN AMO
LAND.
Mr. Jonathan Amos Timbau. B.Sc. M.Sc. Sociology
First Executive Secretary of AMONSA.
Abstract
The future of Amo Land I will say is generally
believed to be greatly influenced by the quality of her
youths. It logically follows therefore that a nation that
fiddles with the destiny of her youths works against a
glorious future. The youths are not only leaders of
tomorrow, they also constitute a strong force in a nation’s
quest for freedom, unity democracy and development. No
wonder! A nation that yearn for development and a
bright future invests heavily in their youths. Hence, this
article is an attempt to wake Amo Youths to bring back
the lost glory of our father land. Thank you for identifying
with his noble cause and your desired to join this Ark
that will take us to the promised land
INTRODUCTION
Every Society craves for change especially when such a
change is result oriented and is informed by positive
inculcation of values, beliefs, morals and ethnics
geared towards moving the society forward.
I
have carefully appraised the atmosphere within and without.
This informed my decision to maintain a neutral position and
remain an on looker from the arena.Having carefully studies
the development and all pressure from majority of Amo
people, I have accepted the challenge of confronting
the task of building or developing our dear land which no
doubt need people of wisdom and courage to take our land to
a greater height. With God I believe we shall get the
victory. Time has come that we shall overcome the ugly face
of doldrums because God has never promised us a smooth take
of, but he has promise us a safe landing.
A
look down the memory lane as presented in this article would
reveal that the Youths are Vanguards of change in Amo Land
and the nation at large. The paper also X-rays issues,
problems and prospects towards a sustained inspiration in
the inculcation and cultivation of these ideals for positive
change in the Amo Land.
CONCEPTUAL DEFINITION
The term
Youth may be defined as a time of life when a person is
young. In other words the term may be referred to the
quality or state of being young.
Change
on the other hand refers to the alteration in basic
structures of social group or society (Giddens 1989 : 730).
This means that change refers to the process of
re-organization within a social group of the society to the
extent that there occurs entirely new and specific
structures.
A social
groups is defined as a social unit consisting of a number of
individuals who stand in role and status relationships to
one another, stabilized in some degree at the time and who
possess a set of values, or norms of their own regulating
their behaviors at least in matters of consequence to the
group (Sherif and Sherif 1969 : 276).
A
society on the other hand is a collection of many social
groups and social institutions such as family, law,
education, religion, economic, politics and e.t.c
When a
social change occurs, it also changes the people thinking,
feeling and acting towards the object of change and the
social institution of change and social
life generally. No wonder the Greak Philosopher Heraclitus
pointed out that everything was changing and one ”cannot
step into the same river twice”
everything is changing, from the psychological to the social
and physical environment there is change everywhere.
THE YOUTHS AS VANGUARDS OF CHANGE IN AMO LAND
The
Youths form the bedrock of any social-economic scientific
and political development of any society. Every positive
transformation achieved in any nation is traceable to the
youths. It is pertinent to note that the future of any
society is generally believed to be greatly influenced by
the quality of her youths. It logically follows therefore
that a nation or society that fiddles with destiny of her
youths works against a glorious future.
The
Youths are not only leaders of tomorrow in the land but also
constitute a strong force in a nation quest for freedom,
democracy and development. No wonder a society that yearns
for development and a bright future invest heavily in their
youths.
As a
matter of fact, the pride we show case today as a nation in
the community of nations for example is dependent on the
roles played by the youths of the
past.This is why generations yet unborn will live to
remember people like Adana, Katura, Sir, Ahmadu Bello, Chief
Obafemi Awolowo, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe and many others in
various societies who did this nation or their societies
proud in the days of their youths.
ISSUES,
PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS
Today
how many of such youths can Amo land boast of? What are the
youths doing to build on the legacies of the past heroes
like Adana,katura and e.t.c? Disappointingly, the youths
have embraced materialism and have sold
their dignity and conscious to detractors and enemies of Amo
land. They have cut the string which was used by the past
heroes to unite us and now we have fallen apart. What one
gets today in Amo land is dependent on
not being an Amo man, but where one comes from and one’s
religious beliefs. Oh! The past generations will not forgive
us because we have failed them. The youths have embraced
regional and Clan chauvinism and differences in sectional
persuasions which have played a negative role in matters of
political and/or religion among others from the past to the
present
Amo land
itself has deviated from the path
of brotherhood to enmity, collective interest to
individual interest. Great fighter like
Karl Marx and Martin Luther were blunt social critics who
never worshiped materials. The Youths today have paved the
way for certain cabals to continue to
remain relevant in Amo Land.
The
question that needs to be asked is whether these people
have the will to effect any positive change in our
society. We known them, they are around us in bungalows,
Mansions, tall fences, flying in private aircrafts and
cruising in expensive Cars. Our joy is to see them
displaying “ our wealth” they make us fight ourselves,
incite us to cause havoc within and outside our domains
because they feed fat from our distress and confusions.
The
School system which should serve as a plat form for national
rebirth, economic and political rejuvenation and social
integration has now become avenue for campaigns of
sectionalism tribalism and moral slavery. In fact, to my
greatest dismay, where one come from determine whether or
not one gets admission into the nation institutions of
learning and succeeds on graduation. No wonder! The majority
of our youths who are supposed to be vanguards of positive
change are either school drop out or they completely don’t
want to go to school.
This
ugly development makes it easier for the enemies of our
societies to use them for their parochial and selfish
interest to the detriment of the wider society. The Clarion
call is that our youths should endeavor to known this and
“turn a new leave for a meaningful change in our societies
In
societies like ours, where we are still searching for good
leaders, the youths should embrace virtues as transparency,
hard work, respect for constituted authority as it would go
a long way to bringing back the lost glory of Amo Land and
the nation at large.
The task
of lifting Amo Land from the
doldrums is a collective one. As Chinua Achebe said “we
should never be too old to mend our foolish and useless
ways “We all have a stake in Amo Land and the country
at large. I believe our past heroes had a dream of painting
the name of our Land and the country in gold before they
left. We cannot but nature the dream to
fruition.
With the
obvious collapse of virtually all apparatus for youths
development and welfare including education, moral and
social values, good leadership, culture and good government,
the youths in Amo land have been grouping in the darkness
of frustration, pains and despair.
The
environment is too choking for a meaningful growth of this
vital group to guarantee an assurance of a bright future of
the Land and the nation. The unbridled list for power,
wealth and fame have turned the leaders into a bad influence
on the youths.
Rather
than commit themselves to a genuine path of national
development and progress, the youths in the land have
re-channeled their libido to various dangerous vices,
including cultism, gangsterism armed robbery, drug
addiction, examination malpractice murder, insecurity and
lawlessness. Social analysts like me will trace the origin
of these social evils to
frustration of the youths, occasioned by their loss of
confidence in administrators and the society itself that
offer no security and future for them.
Armed
robbers and hired assassins are now mainly youths who
apparently no longer have values for human lives like the
rulers who have institutionalized violence and created a
state of fear as one of the instruments of government.
The
Youths are a product of the society that brings them up and
have deviated like the society itself from the genuine path
of progress.
Honesty,
hard work and nationalism have lost their positions to
corruption, looting of the nation’s treasury, celebration of
rogues and mediocre with ill-gotten wealth, nepotism and
political deceit amidst growing poverty.
Education, that vital weapon of the development of youths
has collapsed with all it infrastructure even as there seems
to be an official policy of reducing the number of
beneficiaries in a country with poor literacy rate.
Poverty
has dealt the most deadly blow on the development of the
youths as most families cannot afford one square meal per
day nor cope with the rising cost of education for their
children.
With
enticements of money, youths are easily manipulated by
rulers with unlimited access to funds to perverse the course
of democracy by participating in anti-democracy rent a crowd
– rallies
CONCLUSION
In
conclusion therefore, we are forced to agree with the
celebrated writer and a great Sociologist Frantz Fanon who
postulated that every generation of people out
of related obscurity discovers their mission and that
they either fulfill it or they betray it” he was in fact
making a statement that is neither restricted
by geographical jurisdiction or limited by
chronological calculations. That statement has universal
applicability and gains even more currency in Amo land of
curious socio-political ironies and exciting economic
contradiction.
If
really we as youths in Amo land have discovered our mission
and we want to fulfill it. Then, there is a need for us to
be engage in massive attitudinal change, reformation
movements for a re-orientation of the youths towards
positive mental and social development to guarantee a bright
future not only for the youths, but for the generations yet
unborn in Amo land and the nation at large.
REFERENCES
Giddens,
A. (1989), Sociology : A text of the Nineties Oxford:Polity
Press.
Jos
Journal of Social Issues. Volume 2. 1989
Published by Sociology Department.
Unijos, Jos Nigeria
Sheriff,
M and Sherif, C (1968)” Group formation” in David L. Sills
(Ed).
International Encyclopeadia of the
Social Sciences, Vol 1 New Yorth
Macmillan Company and the Free Press.
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