VOCATION OF POLITICS AND SOCIAL STATUS: A TECHNICAL STUDY OF NIGERIA'S 'OLD' AND 'NEW' YOUTHS

People choose politics as their vocation either for pursuing a cause for societal advancement or their selfish economic interests. Where the second option predominates, the welfare of the citizens remains retrograde. The paper examined the relationships between old youths’ access to power and upward social mobility it accrued to them by taking politics as a vocation and the reactions of new youths to the way the old youths use power in their possession. The study employed systematic criticism as its methodology, given its value of the continuous processes of critical discussion of alternative views in the resolution of societal problems. The paper revealed that there was a problem of status inconsistency between the old and new youths, occasioned by the selfish economic benefits of old youths who today are Nigerian leaders. This resulted in antagonistic reactions from new youths to challenge their status inconsistency as manifested in their limited upward social mobility when they compared their youthful time with the similar time of the old youths. Though certain socio-political advantages came, the antagonistic reactions of the new youths produced far-reaching negative impacts on the nation’s sustainable development, hence the need for mechanisms to remove their status inconsistency. It is suggested, inter alia, that our socialization should seek for holistic understanding of the environment incorporating the knowledge to exploit and the wisdom to distribute, and that there is need to develop sense of community that incorporates universal golden rule, logic of utilitarianism and rule of humanity. Keywords: Politics, Social Status, Stratification, Vocation, Youths.