Activist advises Youths against ‘Japa’ syndrome

* Says a better Nigeria Is possible.

Okwuta Audu, Jos

A Youth activist ,Mr Sam Odeh gave the advice in Jos at the maiden national conference on social justice organised by the International Organisation on Peacebuilding and Social Justice (PSJ).

The activist, who is PSJ Programme Manager, said that a better Nigeria was possible if the youths refocused, took their destinies into their own hands, and correct the anomalies bedevilling the nation’s systems.

Odeh who is also the PSJ Youth Ambassadors’ National Coordinator, described youths as tools and agents of change that any nation that wants to advance or progress cannot do away with.

“So youth are actually the nation itself. So this is why we’re holding this programme: to inspire the youth to take responsibility for the change we seek in this nation.

“They should rise in their various communities in different locations and take responsibility for leading the nation and their communities because we are not giving up on Nigeria.

“We’ve seen instances where youth are leaving this country in the name of Japa, saying that nothing can be done in this nation.

“But I’ll tell you, we are a generation of people that are saying no to Japa because we are not living in a nation that is blessed with rich mineral resources more than the countries they are going to.

“If we can inspire youth and educate them on the issues of Nigeria, particularly the wealth of this nation, I tell you, Nigeria will be the greatest nation on earth.

“I want to tell all the youths out there that they should look inward rather than external or outward to the issues of Nigeria.

“Nobody can change the nation except us,” he stated.

The programme manager told the youths that the country was in its present state because their fathers refused to do something about the problem.

According to him, PSJ was mobilising youth across the country to be alert and reinvent a better Nigeria.

PSJ Executive Director, Mr Inuwa Durkwa, said that youths were the social capital of any nation.

According to Durkwa youth were the future of a nation, without which it would not achieve its destiny.

The executive director stated that anyone who wants to transform its system must educate and empower the youth to do it.

“And then, of course, the youth represent the largest portion of the Nigeria demography.

“We are talking about about 75 to 80 per cent of a demography of people that are under the age of 30.

‘What can you do without youth in any case? The elites and the politicians are using them to further plunge the nation into crisis,” he said.