visionnigeria.org

Today’s topic is inspired by my encounter with cyber rats; in our local parlance I mean yahoo yahoo boys. Seeing their vast energy and potentials, always move me to tears. They are not lazy when it comes to hard work, spending twelve hours and above daily on the Internet is not a joke; their problem is that their energy is wrongly directed – even as many of them end up with more rags, their search for Internet yahoo yahoo riches is elusive and sublime.

Could it be their fault entirely? No, they are product of a society that applause get-rich-quick fixes. At least they have seen instant business millionaires, politicians who came into great riches in days and Nigerians Who travelled abroad washing corpse coming home with great riches. All Americans must have died if washing corpses has become such lucrative business over there. Many of these yahoo yahoo boys fell into the cock and bull deceptive stories of some notorious people who made cover-up for their source of riches.

Many of these young Nigerians are tired, fatigued and frustrated starring at the face of their computer; because the computers failed to pour out anticipated money. If only they know what to do, half of the time they spent trying to steal money online would have been channelled into useful endeavours for money-making and by now they should be doing better.

A leader of thought does not just tell you to stop the course of an action; he must give you another option – and a better one. You cannot tell a cyber rat – Yahoo Yahoo boy to stop his dealings, you cannot tell an armed robber to go drop his gun with a hungry stomach. Teach him a constructive lifestyle of self-esteem, dignity of labour and evident principle that has helped you to achieve a wholesome untainted success and he will want to be like you – we all prefer good model. Who would not prefer an Obama to a notorious drug trafficker?

You cannot change the Yahoo Yahoo boys, reduce kidnapping and robbery activities when you are committing a higher offence, feeding in percentage on the public funds meant to take care of the interest of those supposed villains – somehow the corrupt leader causes the high influx of criminals in the society – and they are worse of a kind. See, what goes around comes around, the “public” marauders will also not let you rest if you are feeding on their public funds – it is a matter of time to pay up.

Man is born active, like the river you cannot stop it, you can only redirect its course; and to want to stagnate a river is to ask for a destructive flood in the city. To stagnate the youth and their bubbling energy is to seek flood of dissipation, vices and havoc – a nightmare we should not pray for.

The way out: let us make the youths useful part of our institutions; family, religion, politics, governance, etc; not as tools but useful part of the society, we should begin to give them all the support for growth and attainment of noble aspiration. We should not fight them over their vices but show them good examples and they will change – as the adage says that a good example is better than a thousand words. Let us treat them as the future leaders and not in the habit of stealing or manipulating their future by the old breed who should have retired and raise successors. Leadership without a successor is an outright failure.

If we are true to the youths, they will be true to us, many of them are confused of today and the future – let us show them that the future is bright, and they will drop their arms, struggles, and destructive vices: and together we will build Nigeria.