Resilient Kogi Youth: An Endangered Specie by Balogun Emmanuel

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In this political dispensation, the Kogi Youth must understand “power”
must indeed “change hands”. The power” in this context of discuss, now
lies in the hands of patriotic, incorruptible, vibrant and politically
conscious youths who make up the bulk of our population not the old
ruling class.

The Kogi youth must understand he has the power with his eligibility
to vote and be voted for, and also the collective power to recall an
erring or non performing elected official.

Therefore, he must be willing to exert it where need arises in
alignment with democratic principles. He needs to prove his conscience
is not for sale, by standing up for change; he demands for credibility
and accountability over corruption and crass incompetence. He should
vote for hope instead of despair.

The Kogi youth is resilient and unwavering in his struggle to
emancipate himself from the powers that holds us subjugated under a
government that had little semblance to what is expected from
democracy.

How far have we progressed as youths other than we have continuously
been relegated to the background in the affairs of governance. Have we
forged a common front needed to actualize our long held dreams of
becoming leaders of tomorrow?

That is a pertinent question every youth must be concerned with if
indeed we are resolute to see our state become transformed as the land
of our dreams full of opportunities and functional infrastructural
facilities available to all.

We must be willing to re-orient ourselves about community building and
our definitive roles that cannot be disregarded. The Kogi Youth must
understand he has the power to shape his world; with his ingenious
mind, his capabilities are limitless.

The Kogi youth must know his potentials can be harnessed and put to
maximum use in developing his fatherland instead of his daily quest to
flee from the enormous woes of his fatherland thereby causing brain
drain.

A Kogi youth who knows that his voice cannot be silenced has the power
to direct the affairs of governance instead of been a passive
onlooker.

A Kogi youth whose political awareness and ideologies are well refined
and equipped knows that our public office holders are not demi gods
but servants of the masses who are subject to our collective dictates
as we deem fit to meet our yearnings and aspirations for a better
society.

The era of complicit silence and passivity from our youths are
far-gone, the reawakening has begun.

The feat, which our national leaders achieved when they assumed
leadership roles in their youthfulness can today be recreated.

Another germane question that needs to be answered is not how prepared
are we, but how united are we? It is quite unfortunate that we the
youths have always been used as the torch bearers of divisive
campaigns, religious crisis and political thuggery.

The ugly trend must be check-mated and reversed for our youths to
become more productive in contributing their quota to the development
of our state.

The change we are clamoring for is not in any way intended to reverse
us to the past order where our fathers have always had a say but we
the youths today must awaken our minds to the realities of our time
that the prevailing status quo must be dismantled for us to have our
way.

We, the youths, must prepare ourselves for the challenges to come with
our demands to take charge of our destiny. We must imbibe in us the
requisite discipline that does not portray us as immature for
leadership responsibilities. We must prove ourselves worthy of trust
by speaking out loud against youth’s involvement in cultism, drugs
abuse, advanced fee fraud and many other social vices.

The Kogi Youth must be patriotic to place the love of his fatherland
above ethnic, regional and religious bigotry.

The Kogi youth must learn his history and mistakes of the past for
that will help him avoid making same mistakes that keeps us moving
under a vicious circle of poverty and prevailing youth’s redundancy.

The Kogi youth must demonstrate his dogged spirit to hold our leaders
to account for their stewardship in office instead of allowing
his/herself to be used and dumped with peanuts.

Our present crop of leaders, owe us a moral duty to pass unto us the
baton of leadership without recourse to violent agitations. The reign
of the old order must gradually be phased out for emergence of the new
and the time is already counting as we expect the norm of huge
monetary inducements domineering our political landscape is
neutralized; which in the long run will pave way for more youths
participating in politics without seeking the help of godfathers to
sponsor their bids.

A modest platform must be created and promoted under the existing
political structures to give opportunities for competent and visionary
youths, who are willing to serve their communities in leadership
positions, but are deterred by the outrageous cost of involvement in
politics which over the years has been deliberately hiked to
accommodate and protect only the interest of the filthy rich who can
afford the running cost of its demands from their questionable wealth.

The Kogi Youth alone knows his challenges and he must be willing to
make sacrifices in pursuit of his dreams, one major sacrifice starts
with each and every one of us recognizing we are one irrespective of
our tribal or religious differences.

When all embrace unity with an understanding of our plight, together
we can always fight for our rights.

The change we yearned for starts with us today let’s be the
ambassadors of change, let’s not relent in our daily individual
struggles for a better state of our dreams.

Let’s not forget we are heirs to the throne, the old order must pass
away; a new dawn awaits us with better promises if we don’t lose
focus. United we must remain in pursuit of our goals.

  • Balogun Emmanuel Funsho, from University Of Ilorin. He can be
    reached on 07034444976 or irule9ja@gmail.com and also on Twitter @
    Iam_emmyb

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