Future builders of Liberia! Social fiesta versus Youth empowerment!
By:
Eugene R. Ricks
Liberia, as the oldest nation on the African continent, has without any doubt, suffered many reform impediments, coupled with nearly 14 years of devastating civil conflict which led to the total breakdown of our country’s economic, social, political, educational, legal, infrastructural and cultural systems. What we realized after 14 years of civil conflict were a complete dysfunctional economy, broken institutions and devalued cultural systems. Many Liberians were used as implementers of evil strategies employed by greedy politicians in their wicked quest for state power. Today, many young people are being abandoned, some traumatized, while a good number of them strive for daily bread. The future of our country hangs in thin air with a battle between social fiesta and youth empowerment.
It is widely known that people do not blame the sledge hammer for the injury, rather the person who owns or uses it. Against this background, we leave all our blames on evil politicians who manipulated the youthful population of this country to accomplish secret political gains. Bearing in minds that Liberia will one day be left in the hands of the youth to manage, there is a need to focus largely on youth empowerment in this crucial stage of repairing our country’s crippled bureaucracy. Admittedly, our country is home to highly polluted and violent youth amidst current gray headed political actors and actresses on the developmental stage. It is imperative to note that many gray headed political actors and actresses in our country will soon retire from the stage to give way for a cross section of the youthful population to become actors and actresses in the National development process.
A strange wave which comes from a wind of social change threatens to hamper the future of our war ravished country, amidst poor youth empowerment programs throughout the 15 political subdivisions. Realistically, youth empowerment is a pervasive proposition in a country where the youthful population is the highest, but the lack of strategic youth empowerment initiatives has strangled this objective. The abandoned youth without any alternative for empowerment, enjoys the fun of socializing with no capacity building skills. Although, today, there are many youth who are enrolled in various elementary, junior, senior and tertiary institutions, it is prudent to know that there are many who remained unoccupied with no means of acquiring secular education. This social change has made many youngsters, both those that are enrolled an unoccupied to focus less on youth empowerment for tomorrow.
However, there are some who still strive for capacity building. We cannot divorce the fact that there are some whom when even offered the opportunity to enrolled at any elementary, junior, secondary or tertiary institution of learning will refuse such offer. One typical example is our car loaders on the various street corners.
Now the biggest question is ‘what can we design as a remedy to such problems which threatens the future development of our war ravished country’?
As we await endorsement from the World Bank for reaching HIPC completion point, it is time that the government Liberia engage in designing and planning lot of activities geared toward constructing a system for the minimization of corruption and increase its spending to initiate civic and vocational training programs. One clever tactics that this government must employ to succeed is the creation of a nationwide civic and vocational training programs intended for the youth. The civic education program will be entrenched within the vocational training program to mold the minds of the youth, enabling them to be patriotic and moreover, very nationalistic. The vocational training program is strictly a human capacity building agenda geared toward empowering the youth to be useful citizens of Liberia. Anything short of this, many youngsters remain vulnerable to social fiesta with no skills to contribute to the National development, and this is not a good sign for our beloved country.
As we will soon be allowed to acquire huge loans, the government of Liberia must look forward to reducing taxes on businesses and individuals and spending a good portion of the loans toward the civic and vocational training programs. After all, it is the social responsibility of the government to provide its citizens with capacity building skills for the future. In this way, more jobs will be created and money will be in the hands of many people to spend for consumption and investment purposes. The vulnerable youthful population is contributing to the increased crime rate and lot of human rights abuses, due to the fact that ‘an idle mind is the Devil’s workshop’.
Unquestionably, if the government of Liberia focus on these priorities, most of our youngsters will have respect for our civil and sacred values and will progressively drive away appetites for social fiesta, while focusing positively on youth empowerment for the future development of our nation.
More Images:
Copyright Liberian Observer - All Rights Reserved. This article cannot be re-published without the expressed, written consent of the Liberian Observer. Please contact us for more information or to request publishing permission.
.JPG)
Updated: July 30, 2010 - 8:38am
Liberia, as the oldest nation on the African continent, has without any doubt, suffered many reform impediments, coupled with nearly 14 years of devastating civil conflict which led to the total breakdown of our country’s economic, social, political, educational, legal, infrastructural and cultural systems. What we realized after 14 years of civil conflict were a complete dysfunctional economy, broken institutions and devalued cultural systems. Many Liberians were used as implementers of evil strategies employed by greedy politicians in their wicked quest for state power. Today, many young people are being abandoned, some traumatized, while a good number of them strive for daily bread. The future of our country hangs in thin air with a battle between social fiesta and youth empowerment.
It is widely known that people do not blame the sledge hammer for the injury, rather the person who owns or uses it. Against this background, we leave all our blames on evil politicians who manipulated the youthful population of this country to accomplish secret political gains. Bearing in minds that Liberia will one day be left in the hands of the youth to manage, there is a need to focus largely on youth empowerment in this crucial stage of repairing our country’s crippled bureaucracy. Admittedly, our country is home to highly polluted and violent youth amidst current gray headed political actors and actresses on the developmental stage. It is imperative to note that many gray headed political actors and actresses in our country will soon retire from the stage to give way for a cross section of the youthful population to become actors and actresses in the National development process.
A strange wave which comes from a wind of social change threatens to hamper the future of our war ravished country, amidst poor youth empowerment programs throughout the 15 political subdivisions. Realistically, youth empowerment is a pervasive proposition in a country where the youthful population is the highest, but the lack of strategic youth empowerment initiatives has strangled this objective. The abandoned youth without any alternative for empowerment, enjoys the fun of socializing with no capacity building skills. Although, today, there are many youth who are enrolled in various elementary, junior, senior and tertiary institutions, it is prudent to know that there are many who remained unoccupied with no means of acquiring secular education. This social change has made many youngsters, both those that are enrolled an unoccupied to focus less on youth empowerment for tomorrow.
However, there are some who still strive for capacity building. We cannot divorce the fact that there are some whom when even offered the opportunity to enrolled at any elementary, junior, secondary or tertiary institution of learning will refuse such offer. One typical example is our car loaders on the various street corners.
Now the biggest question is ‘what can we design as a remedy to such problems which threatens the future development of our war ravished country’?
As we await endorsement from the World Bank for reaching HIPC completion point, it is time that the government Liberia engage in designing and planning lot of activities geared toward constructing a system for the minimization of corruption and increase its spending to initiate civic and vocational training programs. One clever tactics that this government must employ to succeed is the creation of a nationwide civic and vocational training programs intended for the youth. The civic education program will be entrenched within the vocational training program to mold the minds of the youth, enabling them to be patriotic and moreover, very nationalistic. The vocational training program is strictly a human capacity building agenda geared toward empowering the youth to be useful citizens of Liberia. Anything short of this, many youngsters remain vulnerable to social fiesta with no skills to contribute to the National development, and this is not a good sign for our beloved country.
As we will soon be allowed to acquire huge loans, the government of Liberia must look forward to reducing taxes on businesses and individuals and spending a good portion of the loans toward the civic and vocational training programs. After all, it is the social responsibility of the government to provide its citizens with capacity building skills for the future. In this way, more jobs will be created and money will be in the hands of many people to spend for consumption and investment purposes. The vulnerable youthful population is contributing to the increased crime rate and lot of human rights abuses, due to the fact that ‘an idle mind is the Devil’s workshop’.
Unquestionably, if the government of Liberia focus on these priorities, most of our youngsters will have respect for our civil and sacred values and will progressively drive away appetites for social fiesta, while focusing positively on youth empowerment for the future development of our nation.