The life of mankind goes through stages from birth to adult, and each stage has its own role in the worldly life based on the energy and strength the person has. We all went through different levels in our past life to be the person we are today. As a person, you are the result (product) of your past efforts that you contributed to your personal development.
The Somali society is said by 70% are youth and most of them had not experienced a functioning governance system in which the โlaw and orderโ works. We all born soon before or after the Somali government collapsed. This situation drifted families and communities apart. In Somalia is hard to find a single-family unit that all members stay together in one town and region. We are all spread around the world.
The youth who born around the collapse period, whose ages are around thirty are the largest group in the society and they have the highest energy and power to drive the change. But being born in the middle of no law and order inherited us (youth) intoxications and brain-damaged drugs which were daily flooding from the neighboring countries and there is no law restricts. Around 10 or 15% of this 70% of the youth became addicted to these substances which finally put them in an abyss.
The rest who had not or little involved in this life of addiction were engaging to education which was itself poorly equipped and the environment was discouraging the students in some places (southern regions) and this was causing a lot of the students to turn to other plans e.g fleeing from the country, introducing drugs, joining to militias and so on so forth, and this was what fueled and ignited the civil wars and unrest further.
In Somaliland the life was different, the elders gathered together soon after the Somali state collapse and brought peace into their communities and administration was set up by electing Abdirahman Ahmed Ali for the first president and later successive presidents took power peacefully. This system stabilized life and brought chances of going back to educational centers. Schools were reopened in almost all the major cities and towns, though they were not enough equipped with the educational materials but just they had peace to exercise their power of wills and create dreams. Later Amoud University was established in 1998 in Borama and became the first higher educational institution in whole Somalia after the collapse of the Somali central government. Amoud revived the hope of thousands of Somali youth who were on the brink of losing hope and more were already lost their hope of life dreams and future goals. Years later Amoud produced hundreds of skilled personnel and contributed to the workplaces such as government offices, international NGOs, local NGOs, schools and businesses. This act of Amoud establishing toppled civil wars idealisms and directed the youth and community in general to development, and that why they made of the slogan of โvehicle of peace and developmentโ. Amoud University together with Hargeisa University which was later established two years after Amoud in 2000, became the driving machines and energy of Somaliland development by producing hundreds and thousands of fresh-minded youth to the market to run the daily works. And later many universities came after which all brought positive change to the mindset of the youth and shaped their lives.
As Somali youth where do we stand in this momentum world?
We as a youth, are much stronger and energizer than we think of weโre. We donโt have to wait for a good chance that comes by itself and flourishes decent of developments and creates suitable jobs to your field areas which are really impossible. Positive Change is created by a positive fresh mind by applying effort to it. Your life status as a youth in the community right now is the reflection of your past efforts and as you grow and work on yourself later in future you will be a different person than the one you are today. There is a life principle that is used by professional writers which says โIf you wait for the right mood to strike, you will probably never get started at allโ.
Ernest Hemingway, who wrote some of the most famous novels of the twentieth century as well as hundreds of essays, articles, and short stories, advised writers to โwork every day. No matter what has happened the day or night before, get up and bite on the nail.โ
DAYIB MOHAMED ABDILAHI
University lecturer
Vice-chairman of BADBAADO organization
erdayib99@gmail.com