Sometimes, it is difficult and sad writing a piece of this kind which focuses on how elders in society have failed the young ones especially when coming from a youth following the saying “afar, the picture is different.” There are innocent elders and leaders though but again “one bad nut spoils all.” There is this popular conception and perception that most unpopular attitudes emanate from the youth obfuscating the bad attitudes of the people the youth look up to. This is evident right from our homes, schools, religious institutions to the public and private institutions and entreprises.
Parents who naturally are elders at homes have one way or the other committed or omitted their roles and responsibilities to themselves and their descendants on spiritual, financial, educational and recreational terms. Again, attitudes such as verbal and physical tussle are put up by elders in the family which are obviously not healthy and not worth emulating. These, unconsciously are imbibed into young ones and if not controlled will continue to exist in society. Emphatically, though parents are expected to be proactive, this is not to suggest that, these things will not happen, but when issues of these kinds emerges, it is expected of parents as leaders of the home, to look for modest, feasible and amicable reactivity to these happenings and lead exemplary lives for the younger generation to follow. But, mostly, this does not happen as there are vast oral and written testimonies as well as observations to show.
Teachers and non-teaching staff of schools are seen as elders of this social institution, who are not just to inculcate academic knowledge in students but to mould them in their social skills. It is an indubitable fact that, schools have tried to push their course, but as to whether the elders of these social institutions are really imparting as they supposed to. This is following the lapses evident through misplaced curricula, inadequate resources in schools, the lack of in-depth knowledge in their subject areas, lack of punctuality to class and school functions, attitudes that are not worth emulating such engaging in sexual relationship with students, laziness in discharge of their duties, spewing unprintable words. All these are evident right from pre-school to higher educational level, yet the youth are always blamed for being intellectually and socially incompetent and are not fit for the world of works after going through ill-structured school by responsible leaders. Meanwhile, elders in schools who are responsible for development of students/youth are undeveloped themselves. This has to be taken care to avoid a future generation of being “educated fools from uneducated schools” as Curtis Mayfield puts it.
Religious elders cannot be left out as they are responsible for promoting and sustaining morality and religious principles among the youth and society as a whole. The focus of this section is not showing how and who should be in the clergy but when in such positions, the need to be a role model in both speeches and deeds. This, defeats the saying “follow the preacher’s words not deeds” as everyone is capable of the former. Followings in the media and experiences have revealed how the clergy is involved in despicable and unprintable acts. Physiologically and anatomically, humans are the same as clergy but these are individuals that have been “called” to promote morality in society hence attitudes such as engaging in politics, sex and fraud scandals, and other immoral dealings undermine this course and should not be encouraged. These elders the youth are expected to emulate are preaching virtue and practicing vice. Since, we live in a fast growing, complex and interdependent world; the clergy need to find innovative ways to imbibe and sustain religious principle in themselves, the youth and society as a whole as the current situations are not helping.
Leadership and staff of the three arms of government (executive, judiciary and legislature), public and other private corporate and entrepreneurial institutions, though have served and is serving, it has not been to the admiration and expectations of those they are serving especially the youth.
With the executive, the lack of proactivity and political will right from the presidency to the ineffectiveness and inefficiency of the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) has been evident through the stagnant socio-economic development of the country. This follows the poor implementation, supervision and sustainability of projects, policies and problems, complex administrative processes, (perceived) corruption, poor attitudes towards works and sheer incompetence in cognitive and social skills.
With the legislature, the flaws come on the back of the partisan nature of it as legislators approve or disapprove proposals, budgets, bills, agreements and other administrative and development issues before them on partisan interests rather than the interests of the citizens they represent to serve and the future generations. Legislators also have this reluctance to pass bills that do not favor them like the Freedom of Information bill and the Assets Declaration bill which has been before them quite some time now for obvious reasons.
Issues regarding the executive and legislature go to affirm the saying that “politicians are like Mexican air-conditioners, they make a lot of noise but do not function”.
The judiciary cannot be left out as their history of complex bureaucratic processes which make it stern for citizen to come seeking justice and also the habit of unduly delaying suits and cases pending before them and the (perceived) corruption within the arm. This is neither to say that cases should be rushed as “justice rushed is justice crushed” nor cases should be delayed as “justice delayed, is justice denied”. These situations should be handled, as negligence of them impede and compromise the dispensation of justice.
The public and some private service providers have their take in their inability to model their work life to the admiration of the youth and society in general as workers from top to down have dwindled in the full discharge of their assigned duties through lackadaisical attitudes towards work such as delays in execution of official duties, lateness, absenteeism, lack of commitment, engaging in unofficial dealings on official hours.
Day by day, there is evidence of chieftaincy disputes, conflicts within and among political parties, verbal tussles among politicians and clergy, bribery and corruption, scandals- from fraud, embezzlement, and misapplication to misappropriation of public funds, criminal cases such as sex and fraud scandals. Ironically, these inauspicious actions are mostly manifest from elders the youth look up to in society.
The focal issue has been how the elders and leaders in homes, schools, religious institutions and public and private institutions and entreprises have failed the youth in their actions and inactions towards cultural, social, political and economic development and sustainability. These and other issues have been undesirable and not met the expectation of the youth and society in general and should be discarded with the disdain it deserves.
From the foregoing discussions, though society has overlooked them and is blaming the youth for indulging in all sorts of vices, most youth through their bootstraps have acquired knowledge and skills yet are not appreciated in various aspects of life which is evident in the unemployment rate and the lack of financial support to start up an entreprises, for the reasons that, they are inept and inexperience. The question is, does this duo come from a vacuum? The youth are today’s leaders but not future leaders (President John Dramani Mahama, 2012) and also the country’s future and should be treated as such.
Today’s youth must make efforts to filter the undesirable actions and inactions of the people they look up to in society and discard the residue and build on the filtrate that is worth emulating. As such, elders and the youth in society are expected to be predominantly serious, discipline and hardworking and build attitudes that are healthy towards sustainable development so that today’s youth can be proud of themselves in future whiles tomorrow’s youth can be proud of their predecessors.
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