Brothers in Nigeria

[admin]

What is the number one most challenging issue that burdens a young man in Nigeria now?

[fulani]

Bottom line MONEY! KUDI!

No doubt about it. The entire lower to middle class has been eroded. Usually, recent graduates do their youth service, find a decent job, rent an apartment then move on. Now it seems young men don't leave their parents home until 30yrs old or beyond.

[Yago]

Bottom line MONEY! KUDI!

No doubt about it. The entire lower to middle class has been eroded. Usually, recent graduates do their youth service, find a decent job, rent an apartment then move on. Now it seems young men don't leave their parents home until 30yrs old or beyond.

Fulani,
Kudi is always a factor everywhere but the difference I believe is in Nigeria without Kudi you are a nobody while you can still be somebody even if you are poor overseas. It is not easy anywhere but I think it is obviously more chanllenging in Nigeria. That is my experience from growing up in Lagos. However though in Nigeria if you owe someone, you can tell him later, tommorrow, abeg, but overseas, they will come and carry your carpet if you owe somebody and don't pay.
Nigeria is tough for sure, that is why I applaud those of you making it happen there.

[fulani]

Yaro,
you wrote,

However though in Nigeria if you owe someone, you can tell him later, tommorrow, abeg, but overseas, they will come and carry your carpet if you owe somebody and don't pay

2 points here,

1. Because in Nigeria you can tell someone that you will pay later.. That breeds complacency, don't you think.
2. Overseas, when you owe they they carry your car. That teaches one to sit up. Take responsibility and move. There is no crying to the debt collector, perhaps telling them how your Grandmother is sick. They'll be like sorry I have to collect.

Anyway, there are good and bad in every society. The structured nature of 'Away' society breeds depression etc.

[Yago]

You can get depressed anywhere but in the foreign lands their is no one to cry to in terms of the extended family structure.
My major concern is that I hope our youths are not loosing hope in despiration.

[Beneli]

In foriegn lands if you get depressed and really must see somebody, you go see your Psychiatrist. Period.

The buffering offered by the extended family structure in the developing economies has it's pros and con's.

One of the "con's" is that if you come from an economically impoverished family background and you do manage to raise your head above the shoreline of despondency and penury, that structure that once was a buffer zone can turn into your most horrific nightmare.

Because then you become the meal ticket for the whole effin village!

The "pros" are also quite good...in a way.

It's left for you to decide if the following example is good or not.

In the UK the incidence of Paranoid Schizophrenia (raving lunacy, if you like) among the black population is disproportionately high.

Now, so many reasons are given for this high incidence of diagnosed Schizophrenia among this group, including misdiagnosis by racist doctors blah..blah..blah, but the fact remains that whether you like it or not our people are more than healthily represented among this inelegant group of patients.

We ask how comes?

Well, i have my own reservations about a lot of those agboro's and alaye's in the big cities of Nigeria, and as i've mentioned in another post about our strange politicians...

But one of the things that have helped a lot of people keep a lid on their madness is the buffer zone of the extended family, that "home factor" that embraces you inspite of your almost imperceptible lunacy.

It's only when you break out and run naked to the market square, that's when the extended family may turn it's back on you...

But having said all that, i think the major issues that faces a young man in Naija, is not so much the money factor.

I think it's the lack of the enabling environment where those that dare to dream can dream and work to actualise their dreams. Because who you are is only measured in the size of your mercedes benz...And you are not allowed to be simple because simplicity becomes mistaken for idiocy.

[Yago]

Beneli says:
"I think it's the lack of the enabling environment where those that dare to dream can dream and work to actualisev their dreams. Because who you are is only measured in the size of your mercedes benz...And you are not allowed to be simple because simplicity becomes mistaken for idiocy."

I agree with you wholeheartedly. But how can we change this mind set.
http://www.nigerians.us/forums/images/misc/progress.gif

[Beneli]

...But how can we change this mind set? -Yago.


It will take a lot of time...and sacrifice.
But, it is workable and worth implementing because the alternative will be a gradual but total erosion of our sense of dignity as a people...

Once upon a time, achievement was not measured by how much money you had. Of more relevance was the SOURCE of that money.
After the elders had been bribed into silence and we stopped asking questions that's when things started to go wrong...

The role of the elders in any modern society is performed by the Judiciary, the legislators and the media. They have become the custodians of every budding civilisation. Their performance to a large extent mirrors the type of people from which they have been structured...

In other words how the people hold their "elders" accountable for their decisions determines the kind of decisions they make...

So, we need to start asking questions of our elders. We need to begin to hold them accountable for the mess they have allowed us sink into.

We also need for a new generation of "elders" to be made manifest.
It is they who must articulate the vision.
It is they who must define the new paradigms and chart new vistas of development and enthuse us with the belief that it is possible to lock horns with our individual realities and create of our dreams that future that we all yearn for...

And one begins to feel that the Diasporans (i don't really like that word), will have to play a leading role in all this.

I mention the diasporans because we have been privileged to have a living experience of how things are supposed to work.
We have also acquired the material and technical resources that empowers us to be vocal without fear of losing our meal tickets...

So, may be, we are the awaited ones...

[xeun]

it think its the non existence of the enabling enviroment to actualise dreams.a very simple scenario is...when i was in the NYSC camp for 3 weeks.in my hall we had more than a hundred inmates.all under 30yrs old.when you listen to the kind of discussions and arguments that carry on in my hall,you realise that we certainly have very intelligent set of people in nigeria and that is why i always emphasise that drop a nigerian on any planet and he/she will receive an award for innovation.again when we were sitting for entry exams into the university(jamb),a friend of mine failed,the same year he did SAT and won a scholarship to study abroad.he's been there ever since.so this isnt about dreaming its about empowerment to actualise the dream.cheers

[admin]

Is it possible that your friend paid more emphasis on his SAT than JAMB. Remember sometimes you cannot serve two masters. Is it also possible that after banging JAMB, SAT was his last resort hence it was now do or die?

[hunterfit]

Abatanseun, knows what he is saying, it is not about attaching more importance to one exam than the other, Nigerians are loaded. I have observed several college undergrads I interact with everyday, and from my observation, these young men and women can make a difference if the environment is permissive. Forget about the YY guys and the Cultists, there are many young undergrads who are briliantly intelligent.

[Amplified]

[QUOTE=admin;51]What is the number one most challenging issue that burdens a young man in Nigeria now?[/QUOT

its all about money

[oluranti]

What is the number one most challenging issue that burdens a young man in Nigeria now?

Getting a good job is the most important thing for any young man in NIgeria. Without work, you are nothing, but the ratio of graduating students in Nigeria to the ratio of job creation is quite alarming, hence there is high rate of unemployment.

An idle hand is the devil's workshop; no wonder we have high rate of crime in Nigeria. You may ask why people dont create job and people will be quick to give you a long list which includes but not limited to:

Lack of Finance

No proper infrastructure. You need to know how much businesses pay on fuel because there is no stable power supply in the country, etc

Provide opportunity to work for a young NIGERIAN AND YOU WILL SEE HOW HARDWORKINg, productive and enter[rising he could be

[omowhy]

The major problem that is a burden to a young man in Nigeria is.
1, MONEY: How to make money is a major issue. There is no work out there and every year hundreds of student graduate every year without hope of finding a good work.
2. FOOD: An average young man in Nigeria can not afford three square meals a day and you know a hungry and is an angry man
The government need to address the issue of creating more work opportunity for the youth of this nation and of course food for every body is also very important.

[xeun]

u know once a good job is available,thoughts of going aboad is greatly reduced.

@admin,
my friend studied for both exams same way,no extra time for SAT.
guess u have never seen a situation in jamb where marks where awarded for a subject u didnt even register for.

[omowhy]

u know once a good job is available,thoughts of going aboad is greatly reduced.

@admin,
my friend studied for both exams same way,no extra time for SAT.
guess u have never seen a situation in jamb where marks where awarded for a subject u didnt even register for.

You see in the eighty's when our economy was still very good how many thought about leaving the country? it's a mess