Why are Yoruba Youths Missing in Action? By Maxwell Adeyemi Adeleye
Read the source as its long so I kept the pertinent parts
Writing for Naij.com from Magodo, Lagos, Maxwell Adeyemi Adeleye says the Yoruba youths are no longer making their valuable contributions to the political and cultural life in Nigeria. What can the Yoruba people do to restore lost influence?
Lateef Raji, a public policy analyst, in an article titled “Dwindling Oil Revenue: What Next for Nigeria?” posited that today, despite the pitiful state of unemployment in Nigeria, ironically, the nation is still rated as the third destination of investors and one of the fastest-growing economy in the world. Raji noted that Nigeria is a golden land of numerous opportunities for those who are resourceful, ingenious, creative, innovative, inventive, groundbreaking, enterprising, hardworking, focused, visionary and, most significantly, disciplined.
Consequently, as a concerned Nigerian, I want to question the role(s) of Yoruba youths in the current fight against unemployment, starvation and poverty in Nigeria. This question was necessitated by my discovery through indirect observations that Yoruba youths are the most lazy, perfidious and egoistic youths in Nigeria as at today.
I discovered that the pride of an average Yoruba youth has overshadowed his intellectual judiciousness, level-headedness and sagacity. Today, among ten Nigerians submitting their resumes to multinational corporations eight would be Yorubas. Folks from my generation in the Western Nigeria are too lazy to tap from the abundant opportunities that litter the streets of, say, Lagos, for primitive accumulation of wealth.
The Igbos, and, by extension, the Niger-Deltans and the Northerners have indirectly taken over the control of economy of Lagos, Nigeria’s indisputable number one centre of success, excellence and opportunities.
The Apapa wharf in Lagos has virtually been taken over by the Easterners. The data that I got from the Nigerian custom services divulges that 63% of those licensed to transact businesses in Apapa Wharf are Igbos.
More so, data collected from licensing office reveals that owners of 56% of commercial motorcycles in Lagos are Northerners and Easterners. The lucrative transport business has been hijacked from the Yorubas
Today, the major work of average Yoruba youths on the streets of Lagos is to collect royalty, due and charges from the Hausas and Igbos using their motorcycles to make cool cash from their land. 95% of transport and travel and tour firms operating in Lagos are owned by the enterprising and hardworking Easterners.
The Yorubas stay at various intersections harassing hardworking people transacting their legal businesses in the name of collecting charges and dues for local government. I also discovered that majority of the few Yorubas riding commercial motorcycles in Lagos are locally trained automobile Engineers that have abandoned their workshops.
Furthermore, the popular Ladipo and Owode Motor Spare Parts markets in Lagos are now solidly in the hands of Igbos. As usual, Yoruba Youths are in the market collecting dues for their local government chairmen and the Iyaloja General of Lagos. Yaba, Oyigbo, Sabo, Oshodi, Agege, Alaba, Idumota etc markets have been taken over by the easterners and northerners who are predominantly youths.
Let me also assert unequivocally that Igbo youths are now becoming more prosperous in the entertainment industry than the Yoruba youths. Today, yorubas hardly tune their DSTV to the Yoruba movie channel of the satellite television, rather, they watch the other movie channel that show English movies starred by Actors and Actresses of Igbo extraction. Why? Because most Yoruba movies are short of creativity.
I can also articulate that 85% of the CEOs and Executive Directors of Commercial Banks operating in Nigeria today are Igbos and Hausas under the age of 50. They are very super and talented in boardroom politics unlike their Yoruba counterparts and they assist each other with an amazing ease.
Educationally, the yorubas are no longer in the first three. According to the National Universities Commission (NUC), Anambra, Imo and Enugu have the highest number of professors and Doctorate Degree Holders in Nigeria. Ekiti and Ondo States that used to top the list have been demoted to number four and six respectively.
The 2014 Reports of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) and the National Examination Council (NECO) revealed that the Yorubas have been upturned by the Easterners in terms of academic performance. Ekiti, a state known as fountain of knowledge was number 34 in 2013.
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My fellow Yoruba youths, why are we too proud and lazy to ruggedly and smartly act like our brothers and sisters in the east and the north? Why do we always bringing ourselves down? Why are Yoruba youths missing in action?
