SHARE THIS POST:

OSCA WOVEN WORDS COMPETITION – ADEDOYIN ADEBAYO

“Imagination gives birth to things unknown but the writer’s pen turns them into shapes and gives to them living breaths.”

ALSO READ: BOWEN WOVEN WORDS COMPETITION WAS A HUGE SUCCESS

The 2018 OSCA WOVEN WORDS COMPETITION was organized by My Woven Words and it was only for undergraduates of tertiary institutions in Osun State as approved by the ministry of education, Osun state. There were Terms and Conditions for contestants.

OSCA Woven Words Competition remains the “first-of-its-kind” and “one-of-its-kind” in Osun state, Nigeria. To avoid Conflicts of Interest, we reached out to a number of unbiased scholars in a university outside Osun State to assess the submitted manuscripts and select the best contestants. All the contestant got a certificate of participation and some of the submitted manuscripts were selected for online publication.

TOPIC: The Tenacity of Nigerian Youths in National Development and Leadership Roles.

A youth is an individual that is young and active in deeds, youths are strong, ambitious, promising and wild, a period where vital decisions that shapes the future are made, the period ranges from ages 18-50, a period for taking maximum responsibility for our actions and inactions, the youths constitutes a vast majority of the Nigerian population, it is obviouslyimpossible to have a nation without youths. In Nigeria, youths are the major beneficiaries of the wealth of civilization, empowered with the ability to convert labour and capital through technological innovations into maximum productivity.The contributions of Nigerian youths to national survival are appreciable but, in terms of national development their impact is trivial due to misplaced priority which made an average Nigerian youth to seek greener pastures abroad rather than creating one in Nigeria. The personal development of Nigerian youths is not of lesser quality to youths of developed countries, the questions that needs urgent answers are; what is our priority? Where is our patriotism? What makes our situation a sub – standard one? Since the majority of Nigerians are youths, they bear the effect of the policies of the government popularly controlled by extremely conservative men; youths are the victims of unemployment, poor education, poverty, poor health care, economic recession etc. In the real situation the conservative approach has beenimpotent, it is time to consider the application ofadvanced knowledge to realities, and there is a need for strong, radical and innovative minds that can push for greater heights.

Patriotism is another factor that is missing, the love for and passion to serve Nigeria and make it a green pasture we desire. It is time to acknowledge a‘One Nigeria.’ The spirit of nationalism is dead among Nigerian youths. It is highly regressive forNigerian youths to channel their thoughts in the ethnic or religious perspective. It is time to carve out a common agenda favourable to us as Nigerians, it so sad that the National Youth Service Corp. (NYSC)has not really fulfilled its purpose, their activities requires innovations that will give Nigerian youths a national outlook, the enactment of the ‘Not too young to Rule’ bill is a solid foundation for Nigerian youths to consolidate their stand in being directly involved in restoring the Nigerian dreams, I am not of the view that the active participation of Nigerian youths in the political arena is an absolute solution to our woes, but it is the beginning of a remedy to the Nigerian malady. This is a clarion call on Nigerian youth to change the approach to our prosperity;making Nigeria a better place to live is the best platform for our individual prosperity. Our future is in our hand and every man has the right to decide his own destiny, Nigerian youths must take the bold step of actualizing their dream of a better Nigeria.