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.

 

The Society : A Journal of the Nigerian Sociology and Anthropological Students

            Association (NSASA) Unijos Vol 11 No. 3 (2004) 

 

The Society  A journal of the Nigerian Sociology and Anthropological Students

   Association (NSASA) Unijos . Vol 10 No. 2 (2001)