It is usually catastrophic when people fall into ditches they aren’t aware of, when people make mistakes they didn’t expect, when business plan fail because of inability to for see the eventuality. The phenomenon of Ignorance is a vivid reaction to the expression of human weakness. Ignorance in its stark-state betrays him. Ignorance in its acrid definition portrays his folly. Ignorance and mediocrity are cousins. Ignorance is a disease, a sickness, a cancerous norm that overwhelms all philosophy and ideology, eating deep into the bone marrow of books. Ignorance in his mental state ridicules and belittles the mentality and the mindset of men. Ignorance toys with the wisdom of man and as a cancer eats it up like acid. Ignorance prides in it’s incoherent and distorted words, does not believe in facts nor figures rather uses these to embarrass the sage. In the darkened state of ignorance, man enjoys the darkness, he thrives in it. The ignorant man is naked and does not even know there are clothes. The ignorant man is risky, he could lead people into the gallows and sincerely think it is a safe haven. The most dangerous of all is the man that does not know and he thinks he knows.
It is simply pathetic that most people don’t know the basic dictates of life. Most of the youths of today babble and ramble in grand folly. Youth should know they are active and vibrant; yet it is sad they do not know. The political scene is an interesting field that should interest an average youth.
Firstly, the higher percentage of the youth constituency are not interested in the political development of their country. Those who even show interest are doing it for the sake of their pockets. Politics is not an argument-It is facts and figures. It is not an exertion of your opinion; it is what the headlines says. That is why objectivity plays a better role than subjectivity. The higher percentage are even ignorant of the basic current affairs and historical lane of their country. Political discussion and analysis annoyingly bore them. Thus, they are rendered not useful and employable for the labor market due to the lack of intellect and basic knowledge. The economic terms are usually bizarre to them, they find it difficult to comprehend; stock market, shares internally general revenue, tax, custom duties, exercise duties, bond, MOU, state returns e.t.c
The higher percentage do not know their rights, duties and obligations under the law. He/She does not know about the existence of a constitution- they have never seen one. The average youth is of the opinion that such books are irrelevant and a sheer waste of time when read.
Objectively, the presumed leaders of tomorrow do not have a grip of the political situation in the country. What brings about political tension and instability? How is it resolved? What are the measures of passing messages of discontentment and grievance to government? What are governmental agencies? The average Nigerian youth cannot offer answers, in as much solutions. The average Nigerian youth cannot raise intellectual discussions, reason out and argue rationally, realistically or pragmatically. The average youth do not know the full meanings of some acronyms. It is disturbing and worrisome when you hear the level of reasoning, you cannot even correct the reasoning; you will observe these set needs total re-orientation. They speak off-point, out of order and deviate from the main discourse. The other set of ignoramus are usually acutely biased in the way they fashion out their arguments and marshal their points; they are not interested in listening to your points but rather keep emphasizing their watery fact. The reasons are not far-fetched, the average youth do not read –historical books, textbooks or journals. They are too impatient to be taught, they are usually unenthusiastic in attending Intellectual gathering where they will be equipped with knowledge and information through seminars and workshops. Lastly, in the gathering of youths, political discussion is less spoken of attention is more on extra-curricular activities.
Economically, the youths dominate about 62% of the population. Yet the youths do not know about their economy. Earlier mentioned the fact that economic terms and terminologies are cumbersome for them; even the graduates. What are other viable avenues to source for revenue? How is revenue allocated? How is the formula for revenue calculated? How does government tax the people? How does inflation and deflation affect the people? What is the effect of the devaluation of the currency on the economy? These are economic questions that the average youth will shy away from answering. And when they make an attempt, one is usually sorry for the future of the great nation. Raising an army of intellectually improvished and unsound generation who cannot help themselves in as much help the nation.
Sociologically, what then is the reason for these: social media; this generation has been overwhelmingly distracted by the chatting sites, it takes the bulk of the time. Facebook is said to be the third most populated in the world asides China and India. Youths all over connect with themselves, add up and follow each other; not for the purpose of the promotion of intellectualism but to engage in unprofitable conversations. The average youth takes prides in the number of friends and followers he has on the social media rather than the piles of books he has bought and read.
The entertainment media is also a factor. The average youth keeps himself updated as to the latest songs and videos that is trending, rather than the latest world news. The musical artistes are his idol and role model rather than astute achievers who bagged honorary intellectual awards. The flux of ignorant youths we have today cast fear as what the future holds, makes us wonder what the next generation will be like. Keeps us worried if our heritage and sacred cultures will not be watered down the drain. Makes us doubtful if we can rely on them to maintain the political sanity of the nation. Ignorance is dangerous. It is a reckless driver that remains adamant despite words of caution.
Written by; Taiwo Ademola. (dmltaiwo7@gmail.com)
Views expressed are solely that of author and does not represent views of www.omojuwa.com nor its associates
