Emmanuel Uchechukwu Adile

Challenges of Young People and Today's Parents Emmanuel Uchechukwu Adile

THE INSPIRATION AND PURPOSE OF THIS BOOKI was inspired by four things to invest my time, intellect and financial resources to write this book. It was in the course of writing this book, I realised that many authors were not motivated by financial gains when they engaged in their work. I am saying so because the dedication, the commitment, the discipline and resources deployed are enormous, not to talk of the tremendous discouragements one encounters in the process of writing the draft, production and marketing. It will only take an inspired person to write because he is being propelled by the innate desire to make contribution to the building and growth of human civilization. I must confess that my first inspiration to write this book came from my challenge on how best I could comprehensively teach, counsel, encourage, train, and remind my children and wards, of the instructions and life guidelines that I have been giving them. As this children leave home to school, and come back, their conducts back home do not reflect the efforts made previously to guide them aright. As parents and guardians, we are compelled to repeat instructions, re-emphasising our teachings and we are seen as pestering our children and wards. Yet the wisdom in training is that the trainer should persist in teaching until what is being taught is understood by the evidence of a change in behaviour. In order to avoid bothering these young people who want us to "let them be", and yet need to be guided, how do we as parents resolve the dilemma. A thought came to me that one can document the life guidelines and instructions, and provide for our young ones a comprehensive guideline or handbook that will serve as referral document which they may consult as the need arises, especially now that they are always far away from home most of the time. My second inspiration arose from my observation that the present generation of young persons are facing too much pressure arising from: absentee working parents, who are not always there for them; corrupt mass media (internet, television, novels, and radio); ungodly peer pressure groups; unfriendly neighbourhood; and uncultured society. As I observe this trend of events, I am moved with pity, which led me to resolve that a frantic effort needs to be made to provide a handbook to serve as a guide for these young lads. This book, therefore, is my humble way to contribute my quota to enlighten the eyes of understanding of our young people to gain wisdom that will help them make quality decisions for their lives. It is also my sincere desire to assist my generation and the future generation of parents, young people and educators of young people by providing a platform that serves as a reference material to be used in training and re-training our young ones so that we can empower them to build a better society of their dream. This book came up as a result of my conviction that it is proper and noble for an educated and enlightened person to endeavour to document his life burdens and experiences for his generation. This becomes necessary because it would create opportunities to influence the lives of many while the writer is alive and when the author has passed-on. For me, it is one of the best legacies to leave behind. WHO IS THIS BOOK MEANT FORThis book would be very useful for many segments of our society. The first group are the primary audience of this book, the young people. By young people, I mean children from ages 13-17, adolescents; the young adults of ages 18-23 years, and people from ages 24-35 years. These age brackets are found within schools, skill acquisition workshops and fresh employees in the labour force. They are very inexperienced and full of adventure. They need this book for insight, wisdom, caution, restrain, inspiration and guidance.