Youth Involvement in Nation-Building

PROMOTING YOUTH INVOLVEMENT IN NATION BUILDING      

         

It is generally noted that the youth is the main productive class of any nation. In the same vein, anyone in a youthful stage sees himself as one of the major parts of the engine room of any society he belongs.

         

Suffice to say; any existing society that cannot boast of at least a youth is not unlike a tree that is being deprived of its major root. This is why any country that has lost its youths to social vices lives like a blind man as well as sleeps with both eyes open.

         

Though the definition of the youth regarding the age bracket varies from one school of thought to another; but in a nutshell, it could be defined as a group of young people who are in their adulthood stage. Thus, a youth is simply an adult or a fully grown person that is young.

        

Considering the above definition, you would agree to the fact that the youth is indeed the engine room of any nation. To this end, it is pathetic and devastating to see a society comprising irrational youths. It is no longer news that presently, about ninety percent (90%) of the overall youths in most countries in the world, particularly developing nations, have intensely derailed thereby constituting series of inconsequential cacophonies as well as societal menace.

         

In Nigeria for instance; during the post-colonial era and thereabouts, virtually all the political positions in the country were occupied by the youth who were mostly in their twenties such as the likes of Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Alhaji Ahmadu Bello, Chief Tafawa Balewa, Gen Murtala Mohammed, Gen Theophilus Danjuma, Gen Ibrahim Babagida, Gen Sani Abacha, Gen Shehu Musa Yar’adua, Gen Aguiyi Ironsi, Gen Chukwuemeka Odumegu-Ojukwu, Gen Olusegun Obasanjo, Gen Mohammadu Buhari, and many others too numerous to mention.

        

But today, the reverse is totally the case; you would hardly see a youth in his thirties becoming a commissioner in his/her home state, let alone occupying a ministerial position. Unequivocally, the ongoing profound apathy coupled with complete loss of vision among most of the new generational youths who occupy about one-third of the country’s population, calls for an outcry.

         

Wednesday August 12, the world over commemorated the 2015 International Youth Day. The International Youth Day is annually held on August 12 to celebrate the achievements of the world’s youth and to encourage their participation in enhancing global society. It also aims to promote ways to engage them in becoming more actively involved in making positive contributions in their respective communities.

        

The idea for International Youth Day was proposed in 1991 by young people who were gathered in Vienna – Austria for the first session of the United Nations (UN) World Youth Forum. The forum recommended that an International Youth Day should be declared, especially for fund-raising and promotional purposes to support the United Nations Youth Fund in partnership with various youth organizations.     

         

In 1998, a resolution proclaiming August 12 as International Youth Day was adopted during the World Conference of Ministers Responsible for Youth Affairs. That recommendation was later endorsed in 1999 by the UN General Assembly. The International Youth Day was first observed in the year 2000; one of the highlights of the event was the presentation of the United Nations’ World Youth Awards to the eight Latin American and Caribbean youth and youth-related organizations in Panama City.

        

As Nigeria joins the global community to mark the International Youth Day, I’m soliciting for awareness-raising campaigns to ensure that all the youths are fully sensitized in order to revive the ongoing alarming rate of moral decadence, docility, laxity, and mediocrity found among them.

         

Against this backdrop, I call on the governments, non-governmental bodies, religious institutions, the civil society, the media, and what have you, to join hands in this enticing crusade so that in no distant time Nigeria can boast of a country filled with only resourceful and conscience-driven youths.

        

We can contribute our respective quotas by initiating or sponsoring both social and academic activities such as youth seminars cum conferences on education and empowerment, concerts promoting the Nigerian youth as well as various sporting events, parades and mobile exhibitions that will showcase young people’s accomplishments with a view to thoroughly sensitize the mindset of the said group on their civic responsibility, rights and privileges. A stitch in time, they say, saves nine. Think about it!

COMR FRED DOC NWAOZOR

(The Media Ambassador)

_____________________________________

frednwaozor@gmail.com

+2348028608056

Twitter: @fdnnwaozor   

Eradicating Hepatitis

ERADICATING HEPATITIS IN NIGERIA       

No rational man boasts of anything if his health condition is at stake. Suffice to say; a healthy life remains the most precious possession that ever comes to a man regardless of his/her status or age.

In the world today, there are millions of illnesses or diseases in existence coupled with the ones that seem to have no specific cause or cure. Among these diseases, some are often referred to be stubborn regarding their mode of cure while some are seen to be deadly. No doubt, hepatitis is one of those stubborn or deadly illnesses in existence. 

Hepatitis is a medical condition which is defined as an inflammation of one of the most vital organs in the human body known as the liver. It is usually characterized by the presence of inflammatory cells in the tissue of the organ. The inflammatory condition can be self-limiting or can heal on its own; but on the contrary, it can progress to fibrosis or cirrhosis.

Hepatitis may occur with limited or no symptoms, but often leads to jaundice, poor appetite, and a feeling of unease. It is referred to as acute when it lasts less than six months, and chronic when it persists longer. Globally, hepatitis viruses are the most common causes of the condition, but hepatitis can as well be caused by other infections, autoimmune diseases, or toxic substances such as alcohol, certain medications, and some industrial organic solvents and plants.

Initial features of acute hepatitis are of non-specific flu-like symptoms, which are invariably common to almost all acute viral infections, and may include fatigue, muscle and joint aches, fever, nausea diarrhoea, vomiting, and headache. More specific symptoms which could be present in acute hepatitis from any cause are profound loss of appetite, aversion to smoking among smokers, excretion of dark urine, and abdominal discomfort.

A small proportion of people with acute hepatitis usually progress to acute liver failure, in which the liver would be unable to remove harmful substances from the blood thereby leading to confusion and coma due to hepatic encephalopathy. The acute liver failure may also result to the production of blood proteins which often leads to peripheral edema and bleeding.

More so, a chronic hepatitis, which is commonly identified through blood test, is usually characterized with no symptoms at all. It often leads to the presence of jaundice which indicates advanced liver damage. On physical examination, there may be enlargement of the liver. In the same vein, women with autoimmune hepatitis mostly experience abnormal menstruation, lung scarring, inflammation of the thyroid gland and kidneys.

Apart from the aforementioned two major classes of hepatitis, it is invariably grouped and recognized by medical experts based on its common causes. On this note, the different types of hepatitis in existence that are widely recognized include, Viral hepatitis, Alcoholic hepatitis, Toxic and drug-induced hepatitis, Ischemic hepatitis, Giant cell hepatitis, just to mention but a few. The most common causes of viral hepatitis are the five unrelated hepatotropic viruses known as hepatitis A, B, C, D, and E viruses.

Tuesday 28^th July, the world over commemorated the 2015 World Hepatitis Day. The event, which is observed annually on July 28, was inaugurated by World Health Organization (WHO) under the auspices of the United Nations (UN) to raise global awareness on hepatitis or a group of infectious diseases known as Hepatitis A, B, C, D, and E, and to encourage the prevention, diagnosis, as well as the treatment of the disease.

The first global World Hepatitis Day was marked on May 19, 2008 through the effort of the World Hepatitis Alliance in collaboration with various patient groups. The commemoration received an international endorsement following the adoption of a resolution during the 63^rd World Health Assembly held in May 2010. The date of the event was later changed to July 28 of every year by the Assembly, in honour of the birthday of Nobel Laureate Baruch Samuel Blumberg – the man who discovered the hepatitis B virus.

There is an estimate that hepatitis affects hundreds of millions of people worldwide thereby causing acute or chronic disease and killing close to 1.4 million people every year. Currently, approximately five hundred (500) million people worldwide are suffering from either hepatitis B or hepatitis C. If left untreated or unmanaged, hepatitis B or C can lead to advanced liver scarring known as cirrhosis and other complications including liver cancer or liver failure.

While many people worry more about contracting diseases like HIV than hepatitis, the reality is that every year, at least 1.3 million people worldwide die as a result of either hepatitis B or C faster than they would in the case of HIV/AIDS. Needless to say that, hepatitis is indeed a deadly disease. Considering this fact, it is pathetic and devastating to note that many hepatitis carriers are yet to realize that they are living with the disease.

Hepatitis groups, patients as well as advocates worldwide, take part in series of events on every July 28 to mark the World Hepatitis Day. The World Hepatitis Day is one of the eight official global public health campaigns being marked by the WHO.

As Nigeria joins the international community to commemorate the event, there’s need for collective support as regards creation of awareness on this silent killer known as Hepatitis. The World Hepatitis Day provides an opportunity to focus on actions such as:

v Raising awareness on the different forms of hepatitis, their common causes and how they are transmitted.

v Strengthening prevention, screening, and control of viral hepatitis and other related diseases.

v Increasing hepatitis B vaccine coverage cum integration into national immunization programmes.

v And lastly, though not the least, coordinating a global response to hepatitis.

At this juncture, it is of no need saying that, all hands are expected to be on deck towards ensuring that this killer disease that has been a colossal societal menace for decades now is duly eradicated. Think about it!

 

COMR FRED DOC NWAOZOR

(The Media Ambassador)
_____________________________________

frednwaozor@gmail.com

+2348028608056 
Twitter: @fdnnwaozor  

 

Teaching: Respected but Vulnerable Profession

TEACHING: RESPECTED BUT VULNERABLE PROFESSION

No doubt, every right thinking person eagerly wishes to know what he/she does not or is yet to know. Such attribute can be referred to as ‘Man’s quest for knowledge’.

In the same vein; for anyone to acquire any form of knowledge, he must be taught by someone or something. In a situation whereby the knowledge recipient is being taught by a non-human such as book, internet or as the case may be, it is worth noting that that material or avenue through which he acquired the knowledge was invented by someone or a human.

Someone who imparts knowledge to other person(s), directly or indirectly, is generally referred to as a teacher. In a concise term; a teacher is someone who teaches others better ways of doing something or a better way of living. He can also be described as someone who helps or contributes meaningfully in the uplift of someone else’s educational status/level. In other words, teaching is simply the act of imparting knowledge.

This singular fact has proven to us that anyone can be identified as a teacher, considering the relationship that exists between the persons involved. But it would interest us to acknowledge that, there are those or group of persons who embrace teaching as a profession. This set of people could be regarded as ‘Institutional teachers’.

In most cases, the institutional teachers are the ones that are often recognized as ‘Teachers’ owing to the fact that they are the only persons that bring out their time, energy, resources, and what have you, to the fullness, to ensure that knowledge is fully and duly obtained by its seekers. Among all, anyone who practices teaching or who takes teaching as a profession, must had passed through a certain professional educational training in any recognized higher citadel of learning.

In view of the outstanding impact of the teaching profession in any society, there is no gain reiterating the fact that it is no doubt a respected profession, but it is appalling to observe that the members of the said profession in most countries across the globe are seemingly vulnerable regarding their financial worth.

In several nations, particularly developing ones, it is disheartening to note that this set of people known as teachers whom had contributed immensely to the socio-economic development of the respective nations, are treated poorly or badly as regards payment of salaries and other incentives. It is even more pathetic and disgusting to note that in some quarters, these professionals whom are meant to be the leading class are regarded as second class if not third class citizens.

If the truth must be told, then we all must agree that it is only an insane individual that is yet to comprehend the fact that teachers are the building block of any nation. Needless to say; they remain the rudiments or foundation on which any nation is built.

The civil society and other stakeholders are expected to encourage the teaching profession by ensuring that the following conditions are reached by any employer:

v Good and enticing employment conditions including appropriate contracts, salaries, and prospects for career progression and promotion.

v Conducive and charming work environment.

v High quality pre- and in-service training.

v Effective management to include a teacher’s recruitment and deployment.

The law makers in their oversight function are expected to play a very vital role in respect to this proposal. A strict law regarding teachers’ wellbeing could be enacted with a view to boosting the effectiveness and efficiency of the said professionals in Nigeria.

The international community and various governments need to stand firm and united to support teachers as well as quality learning worldwide, especially in those countries where the highest number of out-of-school children exists. In this regard, they are meant to acknowledge that an education system is only as good as its teachers.

Above all and most importantly, the various existing teachers’ unions or organizations are also required to support their respective governments in the area of maintenance of sanity in our schools. By so doing, anomalies like mediocrity, laxity, apathy, truancy, among other nonchalant attitudes of some teachers would be totally eradicated.

The proposed measure if properly implemented would enable any teacher anywhere in the world to proudly identify him/herself as ‘a Teacher’ regardless of the circumstance.

 

 

COMR FRED DOC NWAOZOR
(The Media Ambassador)

_____________________________________

frednwaozor@gmail.com

+2348028608056
Twitter: fdnnwaozor