A Book for A Time and Purpose

Is it the right time to be young in Nigeria? There is no single way to give an answer to the question since it is an issue bound to raise arguments. Ask the older people! For some of them, the millennials are a bunch of loafers who seek entitlement without responsibility. We are the mediocrities with scant regards for rigorous learning while we court the get-rich-quick syndrome without shame.

We are the generation that is clueless, killing time on the internet while murdering a premium opportunity to channel the platform offered for substantial engagement. Perhaps the older generations are no saints after all; they have earned the right to criticise without evidence of good character through their legacy of irrepressible corruption. Do they stand guilty as charged? That is a subject of discourse for the future.

James Baldwin, a US writer and civil rights activist, once wrote: “There is never a time in the future in which we will work out our salvation. The challenge is in the moment, the time is always now.” It, therefore, fits that this book I am reviewing, Letter to the Nigerian Youth, written by a seasoned educationist, Chief Shola Ogunsola, is apt as a manual to address contending issues facing today’s youth.

Addressed as a letter divided into 12 sections, the book commands a sense of commitment from the readers owing to the engaging themes and the manner of tact adopted by the writer to sink his message into the hearts of readers. Combining his experience as an educationist and counsellor with extensive years of experience, Ogunsola tackles the question of the place of youths in the stance of history with a firm grasp that would compel the attention of both parents and youths to engage the book in a journey of thought, remuneration and actions.

Opening each titled letter with a captivating quote by eminent personalities, who made great marks in history, the writer engages uses facts and happenstance to encourage young people to brace up and face the reality of life, and invest efforts required from them to step in the shoes of greatness.

Acknowledging the fact that the youths are much challenged today than before, Ogunsola writes that those who are afraid of challenges never make impact before their demise. “The anticipated role of the youth in nation building is rooted in the energy they have in abundance, the knowledge, doggedness and intelligence which they possess,” he wrote.

As young people growing in a tough terrain that is the present living...