OUR YOUTHS NEED MENTORSHIP

Most times the term “Youth” is defined in terms of developmental period – an age group, often those that fall in the age bracket 15 to 24 years. But defining youths as a social group and a transition stage tends to bring out more vividly the identity of youths. Youths are humans transiting from the stage of dependency to stage of freedom, from the stage of sexual immaturity to sexual activity, from economic dependency to economic responsibility. It is a period of liberation from direct control to a period of “all things are possible”. It is period of testing new fits and daring the “don’ts” of the society; a period to prove strength and express courage.

These youthful tendencies and exuberances lead to the social vulnerability of the youths. In their quest to exercise their assumed freedom, they tend to throw caution to the wind and sway, sometimes uncontrollably, to their newly found fantasies, believing they are enjoying life. Such social vices like smoking, drug abuse, stealing, robbery, kidnapping, prostitution, thugry, etc are illicit social tendencies which they are vulnerable to.

But it is important to point out that certain societal factors promote youth vulnerability to social vices. Chief among them are illiteracy, poverty, unemployment, poor parental care, war, unhealthy political rivalries, religious strife, etc. Most of these debilitating factors can be traced to the failure of the various administrators of the society who have shown negligence to their primary roles to the society.

Though the youths must take responsibility for getting involved in social vices, the drivers of the society – those in the sit of governance – have their full share of the blame. For example, politicians that employ youths as thugs to achieve their personal interests are certainly the architects of this social malady. So are the religious leaders who, in order to win followership, preach hate messages against the other groups and inadvertently incite the youths into unhealthy rivalries, often resulting in physical attack. The US Commission on International Religious Freedom puts total death in Nigeria due to sectarian violence at 14,000 between 1999 and 2014. This is exclusive of deaths resulting from the Boko Haram Insurgence.

Perhaps the greatest culprits of youth vulnerability is the government whose primary role is the maintenance of law and order, and ensuring equity in the society. Their failure in exercising this role as well as providing the enabling environment for socio-economic development has contributed immensely in the heinous crimes committed on the society by the youths. Most of the youths have lost faith in the government and therefore move like sheep without shepherd. The Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics reported that out of the 64 million youth population in Nigeria in 2012, 54% was unemployed. Out of this population, 46,836 youths were caught involved in one crime or the other. The same report shows that 15.7% of the crime committed was smoking of hard drugs, 8.1% were involved in theft, 7.4% were involved in murder.

Youths have indeed been driven to criminal activities by the actions and inactions of both the government and the society. So many youths caught in such crimes like armed robbery, kidnapping, prostitution, cybercrime, etc attribute unemployment to the cause of their involvement. Working cooperatively with unemployment is the issue of illiteracy or poor education. Survey has shown that over 70% of youths involved in crime do not have their secondary school certificate.

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ruth is that nobody opts for crime while growing up. Recall that as a child in the primary school when pupils are asked what they want to be in future nobody ever wanted to be a thief, a harlot, a street urchin (an area boy), a drug peddler and the likes. You will hear them wanting to take to such noble professions like law, engineering, music, medicine, piloting, mass communication, teaching, etc. Taking to criminal professions by the youths definitely is an afterthought. This is where mentorship comes in. Proper mentorship works towards making the youths realise that they can be what they want to be. In the Kanayo O. Kanayo Mentoring Academy, the mission is to provide today’s youths with guidance, direction, critical thinking, motivational and entrepreneurial skills to overcome limiting circumstances in the pursuit of their dreams.

It is the limiting circumstances that steer the youths off the course of their career drive. Somebody needs to spur and prop them up – that they can make it. Youths should be made to look at those shining stars – world class citizens – who attained their careers from grass to grace. That is mentorship. Like a tender stem wanting to reach the sky, mentorship shall serve as the stake for the tendril to keep to the upward climb to the sky. Mentorship should encourage the youths to pull their youthful energy in the positive direction towards their career accomplishment. It shall help them to predict their future by creating it; realise that their future and success begins with them; discover their in-born potentials and harvest them; help to develop the I-Can-Do spirit in them; and ultimately make them love their society and environment.

This is what we are set to do at Kanayo O. Kanayo Mentoring Academy. We shall work cooperatively with the key stakeholders in youths development – including those in the government, industry, opinion moulders as well as the society’s role models.