The Excessive Desire for Material Wealth Among Youth

In our world today, there is a great penchant for material wealth. Youths struggle to make money everyday and in the process a lot of crimes are committed simple because youths want to acquire excessive wealth. This phenomenon has risen to an alarming proportion. It is common nowadays to see the youths who want to have all the material comforts in the whole world without being ready to work at all. Even those who have no means of livelihood want to ride posh cars, live in palatial buildings and go about with the most beautiful women of their choices.

Excessive desire for material wealth as a common phenomenon nowadays is caused by our society’s warped and twisted values. The society as a whole recognizes those who can cut corners and make their wealth without caring to ask how they acquire their wealth. Handwork, as a value, is not cherished by youths. As a result, many Nigerians struggle daily to acquire wealth mostly by crooked means.

Furthermore, the government is not helping matters. Government official at the helm of affairs see their positions as a means and an opportunity to acquire wealth. There have been cases of government officials acquiring wealth at the expense of the tax payers.

In addition to this, government officials, out of greed, fail to provide the necessary social amenities such as pipe-born water, electricity etc that could make communities have a sense of belonging and comfort. An average person feels insecure when thinking about his future. They believe that it is a sin to be poor in Nigeria. Therefore, they do all sort of things when they are still young to acquire wealth excessively so that they will not suffer when they become old.

Youths’ excessive desire for material wealth has taken a great toll on the country, especially the country’s image. It has bad and grievous consequences on the country. In the country, handwork and honesty are not longer the best policies as they are not acknowledged and rewarded accordingly. The psyche of some youths has been twisted towards acquiring wealth excessively.

This has made many youths to take to crimes like armed robbery, hired killing, fraud, forgery prostitution and drug trafficking. Many youths have lost their lives to armed robbers and hired assassins. Many others lose their life savings to fraudsters commonly referred to as 419-ners. The image of the country has been called to question by the international community as a result of drug trafficking and common occurrences of assassination and armed robbery.

The craze for excessive material wealth among youths should give the government concern. A good step to curb this malaise if taken by the government will go a long way to redeem the image of a country. It will also help to change our values and make us to cherish honesty and handwork. It will also help a country in reducing the number of our youths who lose their lives daily in their struggle to acquire material wealth by crooked means.