Voices of Youth

I was in-between a scene in my screenplay when I heard an explosion, I quickly rushed to my Radio because I suspected that something had gone wrong. Minutes later, news of an explosion inside UN house a few kilometers away from me filled the air. At first, I was shocked to hear the news and a lot of things filled my mind, I thought of all the effort our new administration is putting to revive our economy and regain confidence for us in the international community, I thought of what other youth leaders from different countries of the world will think about us, I thought of our loss and our sorrow, because we are all Nigeria citizens and will be generalized while addressing this harm, I sobbed for my country for the first time.

In a developing nation like ours, where the zeal to acquire more knowledge has been the pursuit of the youths, where we toil and write to get our voices heard on the issues of universal primary Education, a certain group of people, after being brain washed, have decided to say thank you to the United nation, for helping our children go to school, for healing us of diseases and wars, for helping us preserve our culture and identity, for showing us a way to embrace science and technology, is it this kind of thank you that this people deserve, don’t they deserve our protection, love, and affection? Why must we bite a finger that feeds us?

But we the youths must say this, we refuse to identify ourselfs and our dear country Nigeria with the group of brainwashed people that committed this evil. We wish to state that we are not of the same frame of mind and are not in any way supporting of their intentions, however reasonable it may sound.

Earlier than now, youth leaders from Nigeria has condemned the act on facebook , twitter and other youth social forums, but as we slept and woke up this morning, some of us drive out for businesses in town, I keep looking at the faces of my fellow Nigerians, the feelings of lost and fear is all over the city. It is more that the fear of earthquake because sciences can predict the next occurrence, it is worst than the fear of flood, no one knows where it will be next. And now, I have come to realize that this fear has not only come to leave with us, but with citizens of other countries that associate with us.

We are calling on UN to understand that this is an act of international terrorism, instead of withdrawing from us; they should help us fish out the perpetrators of this evil and bring them to book. Though there is fear in our country, it still remain a country with new administration of positive minded leaders, we have hope, we have future, yes, we have future.

As an African youth, I have been very much involved with in one of the United Nation’s Global Project “ACHIEVING UNIVERSAL BASIC EDUCATION”. I am excited about the mission because it is supposed to enhance the development of African continent. Without the achievement of Education for all in Africa, our plight for science and technology, medicine, philosophy and economics can never be achieved.

Earlier this year, I launched a research with other youth leaders across the globe to investigate the limitations we have towards achieving universal basic education and I discovered that here in Africa, one of those challenges are the effects of climate change. On a blog post that I published on the 12th of January 2011, titled CLIMATE CHANGE IN NIGERIA, I pleaded to the government to initiate an adaptation plan, government capacity, to tap into international climate financing mechanisms, and public awareness of the risks, but as time passed by, I discovered that I should start this change that I dream for Africa, with my state of mind as a youth that believes in continental unity, I urge every African, to start initiating positive adaptation plans in any part of the continent you find your self. The government and his people are one.

The standard of education in Africa is affected by desertification and drought that occur in the north, and its opposing monster that I called coastal erosion and flood.

Every day we watch our television, we see how thousands of African children suffer hunger because of draught, and their frame of mind has been turned out from achieving a basic primary education towards struggle for survival. When you turn to the other part of your channel, you see how overgrazing, abuse of woodland for fuel and increasingly unreliable rainfall is threatening the other coasts of Africa. Here in Nigeria, Half of the population of the city of Lagos lives less than six feet above sea level, including the wealthiest areas of Victoria Island.

I am not here to recount figures of our lost Africa, but to tell you that our children are no longer consistent in school. Some of their school blocks has been destroyed by the wind because the protective mangroves of their coastline has been largely lost to human intervention.

My fellow youths and people of Africa, we must initiate an entrepreneurial adaptation Strategy and Plan of Action. Instead of counting losses from the impact of this phenomenon, we would rather have a personal consciousness of our situation and develop appropriate technology to cope with effects of climate change.

There has to be more efforts and policies towards adaptation, special areas of mitigation, technology and clean energy for industrialization. We need to do what is within our means, while at the same time look forward to what the West will offer. Let us carefully combat the return of Sahara and the bully gully. Thank you.