Welcome to The Future

Everybody seems to know about what Nigeria is going through. People can recount all the mistakes that our leaders have made till date. I know because I have been there too. I have gotten to a point where the nation as a whole is frustrating and insulting those in authority was as easy as ABC. But I ask myself, if everybody just stays back and keeps insulting the generation that has gone before, Nigeria will not make any improvement as young people will begin to make the same mistakes their forefathers made. This is where YADA comes in.

If you have been following this journal-Zine from the beginning, you must have noticed that everything about this particular ‘magazine’ is different. Inasmuch as we want our readers to have fun and to enjoy reading the journal, we also want our readers to learn something new anytime as the main objective is for our readers to know.

The importance of knowledge cannot be overemphasized. Knowledge is synonymous to the growth of any society. It was the desire for knowledge that made Ancient Greece what is today. Most of our academic and philosophical training is based on what was done in Ancient Greece. We also know that one major characteristic of a developed society is that it is an informed society; one who is willing to learn from the mistakes of the past and strive not to make those mistakes in future by seeking new ways by which the problems can be solved.

In his letter to Lord Burghley, English Philosopher, statesman and lawyer, Francis Bacon said ‘I have taken all knowledge to be my province’. He also said in the book ‘Meditationes Sacrae (Religious Meditations)’ that ‘Knowledge itself is power’. What does this have to do with Nigeria? How does this solve our problems?

There is no point blaming the older generation for our problems. The deed has been done. What we can say is maybe they were not ready? The time was different. Now we have a chance to be different. We have a chance to change the way things have been done and to make Nigeria a place where we can raise world changers. The only way we can change this is if the Nigerian Youth undergoes change from the inside out.

What does this mean? Presently, with the way things are going, it seems that history will repeat itself with this generation. The reason is because this generation has misplaced priorities and also they have the wrong mindset. The average Nigerian Youth is mainly concerned with music or fashion or hitting it big (through pure or impure ways). Why these things are not bad (apart from hitting it big in an impure way), it should not be the core of our youth culture. The Nigerian Youth are the ones who are going to cause a change in Nigeria and our major concern should be in nation building. First, we should go back to our history and find out the root cause of Nigeria’s problems. With the knowledge of that, we begin to find ways by which we don’t make the same mistakes those that have gone before us have made. Also, we should seek out solutions to the problems that ravage us in Nigeria, problems like unemployment, corruption, poverty and illiteracy. Our generation is lucky because we have something our parents did not; the internet. The internet is one of the largest information resource centre created. Everything you need and everything you seek is there. Most times when we get on the internet we spend time checking out music and celebrity gossip. Once again, I am not against this but the truth is in getting our celebrity gossip and in logging on to social networking sites, we should try to seek for information. Let’s read the news and know what’s going on in our society; society being the world as the world is gradually becoming a global village.

Information and knowledge is the key to development. With these tools, we can empower ourselves for a new Nigeria. If of a truth we want to ‘Rebrand Nigeria’ let us start of by changing the mindset of the youth. Let us take our education (informal and formal) a little bit more seriously. Let us find a way of helping our youth that are engaged in 419 scam activities as they are tomorrow’s leaders. We can transform Nigeria together. It starts with you; a little information, a little knowledge. It may look like too little to cause a change but with a generation who knows, with a generation that has been changed from the inside out trust me Nigeria will not only be a nation with good people; it will be a nation with remarkably talented individuals whose excellence will shine across borders.

Remember KNOWLEDGE IS POWER. Keep reading YADA!