Future Of Nigerian Youths Is At Stake - Open Letter To President Goodluck Jonathan

Below is an open letter to Mr President from a concerned citizen of Nigeria all the way in the United States...

Mr. President, it baffles me know that the kinds of leadership Nigerian leaders have systematically embarked on, which is totally different from the leadership of our fore fathers and that of our colonial masters.

Sometimes I wondered what has become of our leaders, because as a kid growing up in the sixties and seventies, the life we enjoyed then which was the life our colonial masters left for us was better than what we have now. It is absurd to know that we cannot give such quality of lives to our youths. Every normal human being would like to see that their children's life is better than the live they lived.

What legacy are we living for our youths when educational system in Nigeria has decayed beyond repair? Back in our time at least we have the leisure to enjoy our ability to work hard and been smart in school without thinking twice of how you will pay through University especially if you graduated from secondary school with aggregates 6-12 with distinctions. Back in the days cheating in the examination hall is on heard of. What is happening now, the validity of students' exam is zero. Therefore, those who worked hard in schools are been pushed to the back seat because of the corruption that has eaten deep into Nigerian veins.

Let me remind you that for the past three months Nigerian youths who are in the Universities and Polytechnics have been home for no apparent reasons. Where, in the developing Nations or developed Nations, do they keep the future of tomorrow out of schools and such acts did not bother the government? How could your leadership sleep to see that our youths who are the future of tomorrow are graduating from 4 years University program in 8 years? How could your leadership sleep when those who graduated from the University stays home for 10 year looking for jobs and your administration are not looking for ways to create jobs for our youths? How could your leadership sleep if millions of Nigerian youths cannot afford three-square meals but you have the audacity to purchased lots of iphone 5s gold plated as gifts in celebration of Nigeria marking 53 years for its independent?

Come to think of it, is our independent a just independent? Has our independent shift focus to enslaving the youths of Nigerians? What can we write home about since Nigerians got its independent from Britain? Is being 53 years of self-governing! What have we achieved on our own? Yet we have Nigerians all over the spectra of the globe making contributions in various positive ways to other Nations as they used their expertise to contribute positively in growing the economy of such Nations they found themselves. I will not fail to remind you that at the same token we have other variation of Nigerians who wants to leave an exorbitant life that engaged in dubious fraudulent businesses which they have inherited from Nigerian's leadership.

How could your government sleep when Nigerian has so much mineral resources and yet it is impossible to explore such advancement to better the life of our youths? Even the crude oil that was developed by the British we are still exporting such crude oil to other Nations to be refined and later sell back to us at exorbitant prices.

Let us look at Philippines for example whose main source of income is fishing because it has over one thousand Islands, that mean they are surrounded by ocean and the major source of their income is fishing industry and growing rice.

The Filipinos have developed their Nation more than Nigeria and the quality of life in Philippines is much better than Nigeria. This is just one Nation out of many.

When you took an oath to lead the Nation, the oath was to defend and protect all Nigerians, which means in terms of job as well. How many thousands of Nigerian youths would have been employed if you have given a priority to Ajaokuta steel project? How many companies would have sprang along Lokoja-Ajaokuta road and Ajaokuta-Okene road providing extra jobs for our youths. How many neighboring Countries would have been purchasing the products of Ajaokuta if you would have call a spade a spade to forcefully embark in this vital project? Who are your advisers who are getting fat like fat cats just embezzling Nigerians wealth?

Where are the lawmakers who took an oath to work for the interest of Nigeria as whole from various constituencies in Nigeria? Where are your cabinet members who suppose to be looking for the progress of Nigeria as a whole? Where are your Ministers from various spectra? What have they done to improve Nigeria? Why are they still in government when they are not productive? Why must they be allowed to have such allocations when they are not using the money to create jobs? Why must they have such a huge allowances for doing nothing for our Nation? All of these acts were at the detriment of our youths.

In my final analysis Mr. President, it is time to take off your gloves and stop leaving in an unjust life for the sake of the youths of all Nigerians. If I may asked you this questions, Why must our leaders used our Nigerian wealth to educate their children abroad? I will suggest this; it should be enacted into law that all children of Nigerian leaders must only get their education in Nigeria period. If such measure is implemented then those who lead us will embark into quality education in Nigeria, that is one concrete step we can take to ensure there is fairness in our education systems. When I visited Nigerian last year I saw schools that were built by our colonial masters decapitated without repairs. Will your leadership tell us that Nigerian government have no means to fix those schools built by our colonial masters? Mark you we are not doing anything new but we cannot also maintained what we have gotten from the British government?

I also urge you to create school funds in Nigeria so that those of our youths whose parents cannot afford to train them to the University have means of taking a loan to educate themselves so six months after they graduated and secured a job they can begin to pay back to the government, this must be built in the National budget. You must seriously consider creation of jobs for our youths as number one priority in Nigeria if Nigeria will remain a developing Nation, or we should go back into the level of under developed. That means only Nigeria will remain in such stage, as most Countries all over the globe have moved from such level. I remind you again, that the first steel project built in India by the Russians began the same time with Ajaokuta and the Indians are way ahead of us in terms of steel production.

In the nutshell, investing in the life of our youths is the best thing any nation can boast of. If we failed to understand that we either sink or swim as a Nation then, the life of Nigerian youths will have no place in global economy. You should swiftly give listening ears to the demands of those Professors and Lecturers that educate our youths so that we can all embark in the real education, which our youths are yearning for. You should ensure that all colleges and Universities are well funded so that Professors can teach our children to meet the demands of the global world. Thank you Mr. President, for your listening ears.

Humbly Submitted by:

Joseph Ozigis Akomodi

New York City Department of Education

USA.