ABSTRACT
Community development involves collective action by all able-bodied individuals in the community. These individuals are the community youths. The aim of this study was to critically access the role of youth’s involvement in community development projects in Ehwerhe village. Taking comparisons from the pre independence and post-independence eras highlighted the evolution of community development and the roles youths had played in them. It was seen that youths especially in the post-independence era contributed highly to the development of the community. This period saw the construction of a proper hospital, electricity and access to clean water in the village. They also contributed by soliciting for funds and drawing awareness to the needs of the community.
But a wave of negative change was seen between 2010-2020 in the community. The core values that the youths were previously groomed with seemed to be lacking among these new set of youths. There was noticeably the rise of social vices in Ehwerhe village. social vices such as extortion and fraudulent land activities, vandalization, violent outbursts, theft, cybercrime, bribery, substance abuse, prostitution has become rampant in Ehwerhe village. The values and morals the youths of the older generation grew up with was missing evidently judging by the actions of these contemporary youths. a couple of factors was also analyzed to have been responsible for this, which are the family unit, traditional leaders and the government. Solutions were also offered by me to curb this menace which has hindered development in Ehwerhe village for over a decade. It is very important for the issues addressed in this work and the solutions outlined to be given swift response by the government for proper development to take place in the community.
The limitations encountered in this research was the lack of materials about Ehwerhe village as the community still faces the problem of lack of proper documentation hence, a bulk of this work had to rely on oral interviews and discussions. There was also the refusal by a lot of community members to open up about the activities of these youths in Ehwerhe village.
