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OSCA WOVEN WORDS COMPETITION – ORIPELOYE MOYINOLUWA PRISCILLA

“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.

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

Youth is a time between childhood and adulthood. It is a period of vigor and juvenility. It makes for what becomes the defining aspect of one’s life. In Nigeria, the youth make for the greater part of the population thereby making it a paramount aspect of the society the government has to be concerned with. In Nigeria, the Youth are broadly classified as those within the ages of 18 and 35.

Yes, it is true that the current state of the nation is quite discouraging and some even have this ‘Educationis a scam’ saga dragging their golden opportunities in the dirt, it all comes down to personal drive or incentive and taking chances as they come. It is a known fact that not everyone can work a white-collar job or be a professor-something. There’s politics to go into for those with a keen for it and a whole host of jobs just arriving in this part of the world. For example, Event Planning.

A British politician, Benjamin Disraeli described the Youth of a nation as the ‘trustees of posterity’. This is in all sense true and that is why nations that have failed to realize this fact lag behind.

Two major ways of tackling most of the problems facing the Youth in Nigeria are through education and involvement in political and leadership roles. Everyone in power is acting based on their own interest so why can’t the youth get this power and act in their own interest as leaders. Instead of seeing the failure of current leaders as an excuse to culminate to disasters happening all over from kidnapping to Biafra agitators, to mention a few, why not go the positive way? The way that develops, not deteriorates the nation? Why become a threat to the security of other citizens?

Although majority of the affordable educational systems are faulty coupled with exploitive political systems and declining economy, the Youth need to always be aware that they need to be more focused and disciplined if they want to become the agents of change much needed in the country.

One of the true scams in all of these is the ‘Not too young to rule’ campaign that surfaced some months ago, yet most leadership positions in the country are occupied by these old men and women succumbing to the sit-tight syndrome.

The Information and Communication Technology Sector and the Agricultural sector seem to be more promising than in the past with newer technologies and schemes introduced all the time. Those are more areas where gainful employment can be made and in one way or another contribute to the betterment of the country.

On a final note, if the Nigerian Curriculum can be reviewed to accommodate more life-like courses with actual similarities to challenges the Youth would face in the real world, that would go a long way in assisting them in surviving and contributing meaningfully to national development.