THE ROLE OF CHILDREN AND YOURTHS IN NATION BUILDING
The role of children and youth in nation building cannot be overemphasized. This is so because children and youths are important to nation building and must be valued. We should no longer look down or pay lip service to the issues concerning the development of our children and their welfare. The worth we place on our children determines the kind of investment we place on them. We shall not have the great nation of our dream in this country unless we have a positive change of attitude by investing heavily in the development of children and youths. This is the most appropriate time more than ever before, for all and sundry, that is government policy formulators, academicians, entrepreneurs, philanthropists and business barons to deliberately concentrate efforts and resources on holistic moral, academic, medical and social as well as scientific technological development of every child. This is very important because more than one hundred years since the amalgamation of the Northern and the Southern protectorates into a single political entity in 1914, nationhood has continued to elude the country largely due to the numerous challenges emanating from the neglect of the children and youth. Hunger, frustration, hatred and anger still grip our land in such strangulating manner that we can only perceive a cloud of hopelessness threatening to crush them and truncate their future. They have been told that they are the leaders of tomorrow and builder of a virile nation, yet there is no evidence of arrangement on ground to equip them for the leadership responsibilities. It is on this background that this work examines the conceptual clarification of children, youths and nation building. The paper also highlights the situation of children and youths in national development. Finally, the paper gave recommendation and conclusion. The work adopts diverse secondary sources (such as books, journal articles, newspapers, magazines, internet sources and unpublished works) and thematic approach in its analysis. Reports obtained from these sources formed the bulk of this research’s tool of assessment.
Keywords: building, children, nation, role, yourths