GOVERNMENT’s approval of the re-establishment of the National Youth Service Programme is a masterstroke, one that will greatly enhance and boost efforts to revive the fortunes of the country.
Zimbabwe is for Zimbabweans neupfumi hwayo hwose.
This is one message that must be inculcated in our youths, our future.
The National Youth Service Programme is necessary for many reasons.
As others sing our ‘failures’ and ‘weaknesses’, it is with such programmes that we can relentlessly focus on our strengths and celebrate our achievements as a nation.
Selfishness is the root of all the problems that we are facing as a nation, some among us have sold out to our erstwhile colonisers for a few pieces of silver.
If we do not change our attitude and gluttonous behaviour at individual level, then it is fallacious to think that the nation and our systems will work.
And it is through the National Youth Service Programme that we can ensure we mould citizens who love their country.
It is viewing things like selfishness and treating them as mundane and normal that is doing us damage
We must teach our youth the idea of the ‘long-game’ or ‘the bigger picture’ or ‘the greater good’, which is generally about the nation.
The long-game has been substituted by the short-game, which is more to do with the individual.
We should not seek to be better than the next person, but to improve our lot as a people.
Tose tikapfuma, tose tikafara ndiyo budiriro.
We must all work with the idea of improving and making better our various arenas, driven by the desire to leave this our nation a better place.
All of us have a responsibility, not only to ourselves or immediate members of our families, but to future generations …iwe neni tine basa.
Our past suffering and ordeals must not be forgotten; most important are the actions that we took to dislodge colonial rule thus the narratives, detailed narratives of these all important actors and actresses must be imparted to our youths.
We must not wait for others to teach our youths.
Teaching the youths our successes and struggles will ensure that our gains and achievements are never lost.
Our children and future generations need not reinvent the wheel, they must simply have reference points that will guide them.
It is the duty of every Zimbabwean to appreciate and value what the country has
True ownership of resources is rooted in knowledge of that which is owned.
It is high time that, as a nation, we treat ourselves right and love ourselves the same way outsiders love this country.
It is a shame to find outsiders waxing lyrical about our land while we have nothing good to say about it.
All the projects we intend to carry out will not yield fruit or successfully take-off if we have no faith and belief in them and an appreciative as well as supportive youth.
I recently came across a book, Zimbabwe is Our Country, used to educate our children, vatoto, during the liberation struggle in the camps.
The book drove home the point of our Zimbabweaness and that we had no other country but Zimbabwe; it was used every day as a reminder. Maybe we need that to be incorporated in the National Youth Service Programme.
A part of the book read:
“Zimbabwe is our country.
It is our country.
Zimbabwe is a good country
It is a good country.
Our country is good.
Our country is rich.
Zimbabwe is a rich country.
It is beautiful and rich.
Our country is Zimbabwe.
I am fighting for a beautiful country.
We are fighting for a beautiful country…..