ARTICLE FOR IJERO YOUTHS

A NEW FUTURE WITHOUT FRONTIERS: Thoughts on Youth Empowerment and Development.
By Femi Alufa
Thank you to the coterie of scholars of our own dear nativity and to our good people who treks in the fountain of knowledge. Let me thank the Federation of the Ijero Student’s Union (FISU) and its crew of the Ajoro Magazine for giving us this platform to ventilate our profound thoughts. I feel humble as an essayist, but swollen with pride to be among the alumni of FISU, Ijero Patriots, Ekiti breed who are good citizen of Nigeria and of the world.
For a decade, FISU has dominated the literary ‘headlines’ of the Ajoro thoughts-young and old, men and women, native and alien, learned and well-read- and the news has been good and a gospel of change. The dreams of our symbiotic thoughts of the past years have become one of the realities of our present day and a compass for the future. Most civilized countries know how to honour their national heroes, while the younger people look up to their role models and FISU members too do not forget their pioneers and alumni which belong to the epoch, they cherished them, the union members deserves our commendation in this regards; At the end of the day, our movement was not in vain, when FISU is growing and all members apply themselves to duty. The road to this future was a great effort and good leverage. I salute the resilience, persistence and responsibility of those young men and women, who shaped the union to what it is today. Thank you all.
Our generation of youth stands at the border-line between the ‘wasted generation’ and present days of corruption, which dent our collective and national image and calls for true re-branding of the polity, not only of our nation but also of our individuals from the bottom-up. At this defining moment in our history, we must embrace change; re-build our youths, restore trust in our leadership and re-create an enabling environment for all the citizens and rededicate ourselves for the common good of the society. It is not too much to ask, it is a sine qua non to the prospects of peace, progress and prosperity that we, the people deserves.
I wish to say that no one should receive the attention of our government, our society and the public stakeholders more than the youth. They are the future. In their hands is the destiny to make Nigeria; a great nation and good people; the trust to make Ekiti; a true fountain of knowledge indeed and the fortune to make Ijero; a greater society, where there is cornucopia of opportunities and new future for all. I am well convinced that we are more than ready to meet the challenges of self-determination and freedom to succeed and enter this new future without frontier. Wherever you are - in the schools, in colleges,
in tertiary institutions, at work, in your duty services, in sporting places, wherever you are... be assured that you have impact, your life counts, you have a role to play to make this world better than you met it, you are the change maker that our community, our country and our world is waiting for; you are valuable, you shall always remain in our hearts. I am firm in my conviction that you deserve a better future….
Recently, before our global eyes, a young black senator from Illinois, United States, during the declaration of his candidacy and electioneering campaign for the highest office in his country, taught us to believe in our youthful exuberance and hope in a new future that we are the change that our world is waiting for. In spite of the long dark night of racial prejudice and segregation; America embraced the change they can believe in. Black and White, young and old, rich and poor; they have creed in their ‘can- do- it -spirit’, they believe in their own potential, opportunities, and responsibilities they have to one another. They believe in the values that reflect their best and rooted in the American dreams. They are ready to come together and choose a new and better future. Towards making a home in our endless frontier, we must ready for change too and work for it. We must embrace personal and collective empowerment and development, this is the only way to truly have a place in the future we seek, as men and women in our society, and we can choose that new future now.
BUILDING OUR YOUTH FOR ICT AND LIFELONG LEARNING
We live in an increasingly information and knowledge-driven world which requires individuals and community to be able to continually develop and utilize different kinds of knowledge frameworks, value systems, intelligence structures and skills in order to make sense of, adapt to and contribute to change in our social and physical environment .Within this broader vision of human consciousness and participation, we must embrace the knowledge of computer education and information and communication technology (ICT) ,and making progress towards reaching high standards in our education and learning which can take us to a new era of progress in our education and information age. Education should no longer be viewed as a ritual that one engages in during only the early part of one's life with a routine course to cater for incidental needs during adulthood. Nor can the value of learning be seen in one-dimensional terms as related only to obtaining a job or career.
However, education systems throughout the world and our country in particular are ill-equipped to address the multiplicity of individual and community learning needs that healthy societies increasingly require. This is not only illustrated by the 900 million illiterate people around the world and the 130 million school-aged children who are out of school, but even more dramatically by the vast majority of learners who leave the education system with limited accomplishments, learning capacities and motivation to learn that hardly sustain beyond the schooling cycle. More problematically, conventional education systems fail to reflect (and, in fact, often contradict) the vast range of new ideas, experiences and understandings from a variety of disciplines that relate to processes of learning. Furthermore, conventional education systems are poorly prepared to deal with the challenges and opportunities inherent in the emerging information and communication technologies, and in the predicted "information society." They have done little to address a growing problem of social fragmentation, human frustration and dis-empowerment, cultural dislocation, and technological alienation.
Our youths should be empowered to choose and to actively construct the learning communities to which they belong. This involves lowering barriers (e.g. space, time, age, circumstance) that stand in the way of individuals and communities wishing to engage in different learning opportunities. More fundamentally, it involves a supra-national effort in critically rethinking some of the basic assumptions, processes, roles, relationships, approaches and discourses underlying conventional education systems and in creatively constructing new learning communities, and environments in which such communities can flourish, that are more responsive to diversity of learning needs, (meta-)cognitive styles and cultures around the world.
The dynamic stakeholders in the education (ranging from governments, NGOs, private companies, donor agencies, universities, foundations, etc.) should developed interdependent layers of activities to fund and promote public education, which is decaying and have a multiplying effect on our youths and the national development. Any society that fails to provide high quality education for its citizens cannot be developed or grow, It is the duty of the government like any responsible democracy to provide a world class education for its youths and citizenry to have a edge in the new age of information like his/her peers in New York, London, China and India. This is among the benefits of the new future without frontier that we seek. The choice is ours, and we must choose that future. Even our local government should create an enabling environment for ICT development at the grassroots, while the state and federal government should be the vanguard of making computer education and its tools affordable for the youths.
EMBRACING OUR CORE VALUES AND NEEDS FOR PATRIOTIC DUTY
The demand of this time is to summon our faith in our society values; the values of selfless service, humanity and patriotic duty to our communities, states and nation with what we have and are. As natives and residents of Ijero-Ekiti, we have an important role to play in this community development as the ‘Sons and Daughters of the soil’, the sense of belongingness as a native or citizen of a community or nation is one of the impetuses that sprout the spirit of patriotism. Every society from time to time needs patriots to move her to the new frontiers of opportunities. Patriots are the men and women, young and old, natives and aliens, who are lovers and defenders of the society and the nation; they are altruists and not chauvinists.
We are called to be Patriots; men and women who have virtues and not the enemy of the public or haters of the society or country; we are positive and cannot injure the common wealth of our society. Ijero ,our town is a Yoruba words that means ‘Ajoro’ –‘’Mutual thoughts”. We all have big roles to play in the Ijero collective development. We will need this kind of mutual thoughts in all walks of our life and to move our nation forward. This is a commitment and pledge to the new future. Ponder on the meaning of Ijero that means Ajoro. This is a challenge for us to stands as one and dwell in unity and work in solidarity of spirit, and we can do that.
Let us therefore take up the virtues of patriotism like a garment and adorn the community we love with the beautification of progress and development, this is an unfinished business of a life time, but we can contribute our own quota for our community and societal development in our moment in history. Not just to hold an office, but to hold the forth for those who will come after us, as we did in FISU, with the torch of unionism, community and solidarity of spirit we kindled. Let us continue to build on these legacies. We are one people; united, we will always succeed but divided, we are bound to fail. We must begin the work anew. The torch of Ijero Patriotism has been rekindled in our generation, a generation which has a rendezvous with a new future without borders and barriers. We are the heir of this generation. Under God, we will succeed in passing on this core value heritage and bequest to our progeny.
OUR FUTURE AND THE WAY FORWARD
The future is now to fulfil the dreams of a greater society, where there will be opportunities for all. The youth can provide this platform; you have mutual responsibility to make sure that you are not used as a pawn by any individuals, body, sects or group at the detriment of our future; you should shun and eschew any social malaise and vices that will not make you to fulfil your destiny, you are born to live your dreams and rule your world. You are the future leaders that this country is waiting for, to salvage it to a promise land. I believe that God place you here at this moment in history to use your talent, time, knowledge, money , and other potentials to live a life that the future generation will said of you: Thank God, this one came into the world and have impact and leave a good footprints on the sands of time.
Finally, my fellow comrades, let us remember the story of a young man who became the President of the United States in 1960, at his inauguration who said to his fellow countrymen: ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country. And a young preacher from Georgia, whose name acronym is MLK and said: I Have a Dream in 1963.It was in that spirit and great human adventures that their country was led into a NEW FRONTIER. In a less than a decade later, young men enters the surface of the moon, in another decades, a young black man becomes the president of the world most powerful nation, with Dreams From his Father and Audacity of Hope with a mantra of CHANGE.
Let us remember these stories and be convinced in our hearts that there is power in words, conviction, hope and faith. Without belittling our own audacity of hope, there is strength in our youthfulness and solidarity of spirit. I will always exhort young people to Think Big, Live their Dreams, Trek in knowledge, and Believe in Holy books and put their rest in God. We will just be restless until we have our rest in Him. If we recognize our need of Him, He will help us to be alive in our youthful exuberance towards a new future of never-ending possibilities. Together, let us be optimistic and usher in a new dawn of progress in our union, our society, and our world. Together, we will build that new future without border and barrier. May God bless our Union. Thank you FISU.