THE YOUTH DELUSION- BY ADAIAH

 The united nations defines youth as persons between the ages of 15 – 24years without prejudice to definitions by member states. The Nigerian 2009 youth policy defines as individuals between 18- 35 years while much of sub- Saharan Africa accepts the definition of individuals between 15- 30 years. However, in Nigeria, a different picture seems to be emerging which seems to have blurred the lines between childhood, youth, middle age and the elderly. Everywhere in the media the word youth, youth,youth echoes repeatedly and some even go further to personalize it with phrases like-
                                          ‘As a youth or ‘ I am also a youth’.
 However, a deeper analysis of this new wave of ‘youthful declarations’ often reveal sinister and ridiculous motives.
         First, much as youthfulness has being branded as a state of mind and a measure of function, it would be overstretching that mantra for a man or woman at 60 or even 50 years will claim to be a youth in a country whose life expectancy at birth in 2014 was at 52.62(51.63 for male and 53.66)years for female according to the CIA world factbook. This often betray either a fear of accepting  the responsibility of age or a wish to compete in the constricted socioeconomic and political space with individuals much younger than themselves which would place them at an advantage due to the portfolios  and qualification acquired or experience garnered from the many years of living on earth.

         Second, the idea of youthfulness being an excuse for irresponsibility, laziness and inventiveness seems to have become ingrained in our culture with devastation of the youth psyche and the celebration of mediocrity amongst young individuals. A look at history shows that most of the individuals who have achieved great feats and made significant contributions did so at their youthful age: Napoleon, William Shakespeare, Alexander the Great, Martin Luther, Bill Gates e.t.c all made significant achievements while still young. In present times, the technology age has thrown up Larry Page and Sergey Brin of Google , Mark Zuckerberg amongst others.
        A third point of concern is the proliferation of non- governmental organizations and political groups all of which have joined the bandwagon of youth empowerment, mobilization and education in declarations but in reality, many of this organizations are pawns for political gladiators or channels for swindling international donor agencies , unsuspecting philanthropists and ordinary Nigerians.This calls for caution and regulation of all these groups to protect real Nigerian youths and donor agencies.
       Finally, the media is not left out especially the social media where young people band themselves together under a given banner and spend useful time discussing frivolities or exchanging insults often over political and social gladiators that often have not contributed positively to their existence.This is often pitiful as the time wasted could have been harnessed in constructive activity to further the lot of young people in Nigeria.
      In capping my pen, I echo Conrad Aiken in ‘All lovely things’
                               ‘All lovely things will have an ending
                                All lovely things will fade and die
                                And youth, that is now so bravely spending
                                Will beg a penny by and by.’