WHAT WILL OUR YOUTH INHERIT?

Sir,
 
Tomorrow cannot be the same as today, and today cannot be the same as yesterday. If we are not moving forward, we risk our future. The low registration turnout of the youth for the previous national elections is a sad indictment of how tomorrow’s leaders and tax contributors perceive their future.

While for many commentators this might suggest the youth have little interest in politics, the reality is that many of us are abstaining from casting our votes as a form of protest. This in no way undermines what our forefathers and mothers struggled for – the right to vote – but rather, our way of making the authorities realise that no real alternative exists for us. We are seriously disillusioned. The danger of this approach is that in not voting, those who are doing all the damage to our democracy remain in power and instead of moving on and upwards, we go nowhere. It is a double-edged sword, and a vicious cycle doomed to rinse and repeat, unless there is a radical change in how the boxes are ticked.

For instance, few of government’s policies have translated into realistic or tangible benefits for the people. Another issue is unemployment and the lack of job prospects. Our future is only as good as the education we provide today. But more teachers cannot be appointed as, corruption aside, there is simply no money to pay for those posts.

Teaching, once a proud vocation, has become menial labour lacking the respect and kudos it once had. Our entire education system needs to be reinvigorated, to give us the best shot at forging our best future. We want to work. We do not want handouts; we want a hand-up. We want to be inspired to be the best versions of ourselves we can be.
Our economy cannot grow because we are in free-fall; corruption has sent foreign direct investment running for the hills, and our tax baseline is forever shrinking. Another diminishing dream is a well-run and equipped primary healthcare system with an increase in the number of facilities to service our growing population to avoid the existing long queues and the ever-growing list of drug shortages. From a promise of prosperity, we have become a welfare state; what kind of future is being laid out for the youth? Our youth see this imbalance as a harbinger of what the future holds for them without the necessary strength, integrity, and moral leadership to lead them forward. Government pays lip service to entrepreneurship too.
We have the ingenuity and the will to want to make more of our lives. We just need the skills, access to finance, and the mentorship and support of those who came before us to show us the way.

There are many things that need change in the kingdom to affect a better future for our youth, the most pressing being that of leadership. Hand in hand with this and in our favour is that despite everything, hope still abounds in our youth that tomorrow will be better than today or yesterday. It is a currency that should not be squandered. It is a lesson that today’s leaders should take cognisance of before it is too late and there are no more tomorrows for us to inherit.

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