THE YOUTHS AND MENTORSHIP

The mentor of youths in this regard means leader of leaders. in this context, a mentor is a leader who has been in the position for many years and age has called upon him/her not to continue in such position of leadership but to be a mentor of leaders because, i believe "the measure of  life is not its duration but by its donation'' and it is very wise to train and develop people under you, to come up in your life time not when you die. According to Fred A. Manske Jr. "The ultimate leader who is willing to develop people to the point that they will eventually surpass him/ her in knowledge and ability'' an d in this event, Bishop (prof.) Zakka Bonet once said that ''It is natural for sons and daughters to be greater than their parents''. But itis nit practiceable in our society because those that supposed to mentor the youths are still struggling for the position that meants for their sons and daughters. The question there for is ''At what point in live can youths take over from their parents? According to Odey Ochicha, in his contribution on vision fm 92.1 radio programme , Brugami, said that ''It was wrong to say that youths are leaders of tomorrow'' but they are leaders of today and tomorrow and they should be encourage to succeed their parent who lack the strength and the capacity to withstand the challenges of modern leadership. in other word, according to Matins Sander in his book '' THE POWER OF MENTORING'' [2004] state that ' there is need mentor shaping people that will shape the world. And of course, according to Paul Stanley shows that the lifelong development process phase which human must pass through in life. These are three general stages of life that character of Paul Stanley life long development process of a person in life.

 LIFE LONG DEVELOPMENT  PROCESS

Birth     18-30          30-50                              50 years+ 

• Age of learning.         Age of contribution           Age of investment

• Who am I?               What do I do?                   Invest in Whom/what?

           Stanley's chart helps us identify the change of focus and prospective that a person need as he or she progress through the stages. The age of learning from 18-30 focus on being unbusy enjoy new experience, gaining prospective and having mentor or coach to help in the process In the age of contribution from age of 30-50 the focus move on clarifying all the experience of one's life to ovoid becoming unfocused and reaching a plateau. the goal is to sharpen one's life message or goal for purposes of maximum impact. Peers as well as a mentor will aids in this process. Note; This age of contribution from the age of 30-50 is directly focus on 'YOUTHS' to make contributions in family, church, mosque, school and nation at large (i.e age contribution; it is an age of maximum impact for the youths) Thirdly, The age of investment from age 50 and above focus on living a lasting legacy and passing on the  passions that have driven one's life. At this point peer mentors are crucial for keeping focus and prospective. This age of investment from 50 and above focus on old or mentor to youths to living a lasting legacy on passing on the passion that have been driving one's life to the youths who are the leaders of today and tomorrow (i.e of investment, it is an age of invest positively in the life's young one's) without any iota or doubt, youths are the greatest resources of any nation and they are indispensable and unavoidable in a country that want to move forward in all aspect of life (i.e economic, political and social) Youths are most needed in all aspect of development of the nation not for growth in age without achievement and development. It is time there for leaders of today and tomorrow (i.e THE YOUTHS) to jumpstart and re-engineer, the Nigeria we want now because people are growing up in a society that is underdeveloped and this adversely affect the potentiality of the youths who are the greatest resources of any nation. 

KEY THOUGHTS 

• In this context, a mentor is a person who is in position to mentoring the youths who are the leaders of today and tomorrow.

• It is very wise to train people under your jurisdiction to come up in life time not when you die.

• Youths are the leaders of today and tomorrow. 

• Youths are the greatest resources of every nation.

• It is your time (YOUTHS) to jumpstart and re-engineer the Nigeria we want now.