OSCA WOVEN WORDS COMPETITION – BUKUNMI VANESSA ADEKUNLE ODUNSI

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

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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.

Nigerian youths hold up a high percentage of the country’s population and a large section of these youths are bound to having a more apathetic view towards various issues including those which concern politics and developmental issues.

National development has become a vague concept to youths; this could potentially be due to the fact that the foothold for these youths to portray their potentials is virtually non-existent. Additionally, individuals that have been put into positions of power in order to showcase leadership and its values and positive effects on the country are under the impression that the younger generations are unable to showcase traits such as independence, appropriate decision making and dealing with governmental issues.  More so, various research carried out have shown that most graduates are entrepreneurs mostly due to the slow employment rate and unavailability of jobs in the country, they also tend to focus more in the entertainment industry for the reasons that in most cases, there is no requirement for a degree gained at higher level.  These youths due to other promising means of income then find themselves straying away from leadership roles in the country.

The present state of the economy is in shambles, the value of the currency detracting. Corruption is becoming the talk of day and with each degrading news concerning the country that comes up, another youth loses hope in the country and the idea of trying to fix the ongoing situation leads them virtually running from the thought of entering a role which will enable them have power.

The Nigerian system is a very ‘dusty’ one and as such does not exactly encourage and aid young and talented individuals to grow their talents and explore the length of their capabilities. This can as well be seen in the case of our education system. An example out of many includes the Nigerian students who manage to graduate with degrees from high ranking Nigerian universities either with a first or a second class upper find themselves unable to compete with individuals who studied in a more developed country, under a more encouraging environment where their knowledge can be expanded appropriately. The individuals who do come back are then put on a higher ranking than students who schooled here and now use their roles to make income for themselves, rather than improving the status of the country. The modern conceptualized idea that other countries breed greater success seems to be more approved by each Nigerian who leaves the country and makes a name of himself in his/her new settlement such as Phillip Emeguali, an inventor of the world’s fastest computer, succeed outside Nigeria. The terrain in Nigeria is discouraging and as such made it almost impossible for Nigerian youths have an interest in the happenings of the country.

Concluding, Nigeria having a massive wealth of young people who are intelligent as well as a great steep of abundant resources, are in need of leaders who will make use of it wisely and use these resources to further develop the country into what it could be.

READ MORE: OSCA WRITE-UPS

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