By Haruna Salami
The Clerk to the National Assembly, CNA Ojo Olatunde Amos, has warned that Nigeria is fast losing her youth to obsession with wealth and fortune which has plunged them into diabolical rituals.
Mr. Olatunde stated this during the Commonwealth Day Celebration with the theme: “Delivering a Common Future” held on Monday at the National Assembly, Abuja
Talking about “Delivering a Common Future” for our teeming youths in Nigeria is a huge challenge to Parents and the society because of the disturbing circumstances and distasteful scenarios surrounding them today. The tide must change positively so the next generation is not doomed.
“Nigeria is fast losing her youth to obsession of wealth and fortune which has plunged them into diabolical rituals. Our youths now want to become rich overnight while some suddenly turn living horror to their pals.
He said as young people are the supreme targets of 2022 Commonwealth Day celebration, it afforded him the wonderful opportunity to direct his attention entirely on them.
“The future belongs to you and you must begin to consciously work to secure it. Through your creative energy and youthfulness, you can become an active player in addressing identified challenges.
“The task of delivering a common future call for collective efforts to achieve. We must therefore, work for the present in order to secure the future, Know it today that the future is you.
The CNA asked rhetorical questions: “what type of future are our youths looking at when teenagers and under aged children are incredibly involved in money rituals? What kind of future is waiting for our youths when the craze for sudden wealth has even overtaken morality and Godliness? What future awaits a generation when its youth spends tong hours chatting on social media sites yet the long hours wasted online can be channeled to productive activities that can enable one acquire quality education.
He also observed that social media have gained so much growth and fame worldwide, but regretted that the youth and teenagers are the leading and most fanatic of these social platforms to the point that they even use social network while in class or even at religious places.
“Social sites impact the lives of our youth in a society a great deal in terms of morals, behavior and even education-wise.
On the way forward in the face of “nauseating atrocities enveloping our society, the CAN said “it’s never too late to drag our children and youths from the jaws of certain identified destruction. That is one of the reasons the theme chosen for this year’s Commonwealth Day is timely and very instructive”.
Therefore, this a wakeup call to all parents, religious leaders, schools and the mass media to go back to the basics and courageously identify where we missed our ways into the jungle of barbarism that now violently threatens the future of the youths in our society as government cannot do it alone.
He admonished the youth as the journey to the 2023 general elections is gathering momentum that “our youths must not allow themselves to be used’ as cannon folders for unscrupulous politicians”.
In his remarks, the Speaker of the House of Representatives Femi Gbajabiamila, represented by Hon. Bubba Yakubu said the ideals of Commonwealth Day Celebration, which is marked on the second Monday in March, include “democracy, good governance and human rights”.
He said the future belongs to artificial intelligence, AI, adding that the youth must use the social media to improve their education.
The Queen’s Commonwealth Day message by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II said in this year of her Platinum Jubilee, it has given her pleasure to renew the promise she made in 1947, that her “life will always be devoted in service”.
The Queen observed “a modem, vibrant and connected Commonwealth that combines a wealth of history and tradition with the great social, cultural and technological advances of our time” adding “that the Commonwealth stands ever taller is a credit to all who have been involved”.
“Our family of nations continues to be a point of connection, cooperation and friendship. It is a place to come together to pursue common goals and the common good, providing everyone with the opportunity to serve and benefit.
She hoped that members can “draw strength and inspiration from what we share, as we work together towards a healthy, sustainable and prosperous future for all in these testing times”.
This year’s celebration is special for the Commonwealth family because it will include the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting and the Commonwealth Games.
The Queen hoped “we can deepen our resolve to support and serve one another, and endeavour to ensure the Commonwealth remains an influential force for good in our world for many generations to come”.
This year’s celebration in the National Assembly was graced by students from three public schools in Abuja namely: Command Secondary School, Lungi, Federal Government Girls College, Bwari and Government Secondary School, Tudun Wada.
Each school smiled home with computer set and many books.
