LOST DECADES
HOW NIGERIAN UNDERGRADUATES LOSE DECADES
I look at many Nigerian undergraduates and i empathise with them. Too many of them think that being an undergraduate is enough achievement, and that what they obligatorily should only do is move successfully from one level to another in university.
They spend most of their academic years in catching cruise. Very first day as an undergraduate a student should start fighting. Read motivational books, engage in seminars,symposiums. He should go learn digital skills,business skills.
There is no such excuse like there is no time. An average Nigerian undergraudtae will spend at least 5 hours daily on tiktok,Instagram and reels. Invest in your mind, cut spendings and save capital to start investing in small ventures that can grow big. By year two you would have BY THE GRACE OF GOD ALMIGHTY gained DIVINE DIRECTION of what you want to do.
In your third year you would have started to improve vastly in area of skill,business, trade, or any other economic and capacity development venture.
Pray everyday and ask GOD ALMIGHTY for DIVINE DIRECTION.
Aggressively seek out people with good ambitions to network and connect with while on campus.
In your final year, you would have been far ahead of your first year and would have started seeing economic resulls. Your final year should be for consolidation and going all in when you leave University.
But what happens to those who dont do these things above
They go for Nysc and continue chasing shadows. But after Nysc,suddenly free money from government, from parents stop. Those peers who make them feel it is cruise everyday all go their way, they suddenly for a first time in close to one decade begin feeling alone. This is a period of harsh reality.
Most will quickly look a job even if underpaid and continue negative networking with people who add no value with them, and may even pick up bad habits that wastes more time in their life. It is called lifetime because life is tied to time, wasting time is wasting life.
Average graduation age for an average undergraduate in Nigeria is 25 years. Because they wasted their years in University just moving from classroom to living room, with little or no efforts for capacity development, vision development,future plans, economic development, business development, psycho-social development they become lost after Nysc. And this is where their real problems begin.
A percentage of them after realising this begin making great efforts to correct that but most take up entitlement mentality blaming others and doing little or nothing about their situation,this usually lasts for 10 years,after one decade they approach 35 years with or without children. With children it becomes added responsibilities that could further trap them in an economic hole or rat race.
After that period if nothing is done, they enter another period which i call period of drifting-in this period they are subject to changing positions of waves of seas of economic changes. Because of lack of capacity they are not able to stake their claim in society, they are pushed around easily because of lack of weight, and when this lasts for 5 to 10 years,by the time they hit 45 years there is a high chance for them to enter mid-life crisis. In this period if there is no serious and quick psychological turn-around, the desire to continue living may gradually start evaporating because of loss of hope, loss of confidence, loss of goals, loss of desires, loss of momentum, loss of zeal.
And if nothing is done after 45 years, next 20 years could be spent in acute and continuous depression leading to hypertension and acoompanied health issues. In this period person may suffer PTESSD(Post-traumatic economic and psychological stress syndrome). At this level the person may have been overwhelmed.
By 70 and above it is all in regrets.
Dont be this person Nigerian youths and undergraduates.
AMUTAH DANIEL CHUKWUDI
Whatsapp,08137701720