Spectre of Youth

Photo Credit: Techpoint

One sunny afternoon I sat in a cafe not a stone's throw from my residence. I patiently waited for the owner to attend to me. It was indeed a busy day, people anxiously raising their voices in order get his attention albeit in a disorderly fashion.
In the corner of the cafe stood a rickety old Philips standing fan, which had been ravaged by time, but still blew with the power and gust of 2 brand new binatones. It must have been about 40 degrees, because even in front of its refreshing breeze, beads of sweat still trickled from the back of my head down to my spine. Just over the din of the creaking noise the fan made from rotating, I picked up on a conversation between two youths not older than me, sat in front of a computer eagerly surfing the net. An accomplice of theirs walked in and playful mocked their activities. They replied in tandem, "na Buhari cause am". I stylishly cranked my neck to get a good view of what they were doing on the beat down HP monitor, and discovered they were on a dating site posing as a beautiful white female model. Their aim as you all know, is basically to scam unsuspecting male participants and probably females too depending on the victims preference, of their hard earned cash which is nothing short of being criminal.
I couldn't say I was surprised, these had been a natural occurring thing in any cafe in operation. But in that moment, I quickly made an assessment of  my surroundings and discovered it was filled with youths about 10 in number all doing the same thing. At this point, I involuntarily crinkled my nose because all of a sudden, the place felt like a cesspool of the so many ills plaguing this country. The place stank to high heavens to say the least. I was repulsed by it as I felt my stomach churn at the sight of it all.

The young men continued with their conversation on how the government had failed the nation which left them with no choice but to resort to crime. I immediately asked myself, since when did it become okay to use the governments failure to serve as an excuse to start a life of crime. The government may have failed the nation? probably, but that should never be a reason to be a criminal. The logical thing to do would be for us to come up with ways to make things better, think deeply and reflect on ideas of self development and nation building. Its hard work without a doubt, but its the right way to go. The lazy ones turn to crime and research new methods for internet scamming which is still hard work in some ways. Why not channel that zeal and creativity into something positive.
Truth be told, the people with the power to change a nation are its citizens. We must not limit ourselves because of the governments inadequacies. Rather, a conscious and collective effort by all to do what's right and necessary is the way forward. Be the positive change you want to see in this country.

We must put an end to sentiments that arise when our youths are caught and prosecuted for such offences. "I don’t blame them for the act because the government failed them" this is a terrible sentiment. As for me, I blame them, I blame them, I blame them, because it was a choice they made. A choice to make things worse and do bad rather than good. Lets build our nation, aren't we all tired of being tagged as a nation of fraudsters? because I really am.

As Olivier Queen would say "YOU HAVE FAILED THIS CITY". In this case your country.