So there’s this argument that Nigeria re-cycles leaders and that the reason we have remained stagnant as a nation is because politically elected leaders are basically the same faces that have been on the scene for quite a while now. They are too old, we argue. They are not abreast with the technological orientation of this twenty first century, and that their decisions are mostly archaic, bereft of any touch of modernisation. Are there no other people good enough to lead our states, constituencies, ministries and parastatals? We ask. Are there sincerely no young Nigerians good enough to represent? The argument holds water. Most definitely. But let me put a knife to your heart. Most Nigerian youths are daft, and I mean very daft. Our thinking is even cruder than that of these old folks we complain about. To start with, these old men are “elected” into offices. They are not imposed on anybody, neither do they just appear on the scene. No. They are elected. By us. For heaven’s sake, we chose them, at the expense of others.
Nigerian youths represent the highest number of voters. Always. Na we dey always vote them. Yes most times people get bribed or elections are rigged or outright violence is resorted to, in a bid put these legendary ‘old men’ into power but then guess what? It is still the Nigerian youths that are used in doing all of this. I stabbed you before. Let me twist the knife further in. Most Nigerian youths are hungry, angry, lousy ‘talkatives’ who are desperately looking for how to make money, become popular, follow any girl they want and drive the latest cars – and that’s basically all about it. We dream but never wake up to make our dreams become reality. We live in a world of fantasy. We know nothing about patience and process. I’m twisting the knife even further. Nigerian youths are very confused as far as leadership and politics is concerned. We barely know where to start from. We can talk, analyse issues, criticise, suggest. But we don’t know where to even start from.
What else do we know apart from insulting each other on social media, fighting verbal wars trying to prove a useless point? And that is in fact for those who can afford mobile devices. Our counterparts in the villages do farm work, drink, make babies and waste their prime? What else do we know to do apart from these? What else? And by the way I hope by ‘Nigerian youths’ we are not referring to only people in their thirties and below because I know of 29 year olds who just gained admission into universities to start their undergraduate programs. You know where I am driving at, so I’ll just skip that. Because we keep saying Buhari was 23 years old when he became this and that. And that David Mark was 19 years old when he became the other one. What we have refused to admit is the simple fact that there is nothing deliberate we are doing about this. No calculated, planned, intentional attempt made at integrating young people into politics. I believe all political parties have a youth wing. What exactly is the role of their national youth leaders?
I have argued somewhere else that the foundation we are attempting to build Nigeria on is too weak and it’s bad. Our independence was rather premature if you ask me. Our fathers wanted a free state. All their efforts were channelled towards that. We did become independent yes, but that was it. Different presidents have only taken turns in gambling with Nigeria. We are basically heading nowhere. We need a dream that can be infused into our blood system. We need to write our vision, make it plain so that years from now, anyone who reads it can run with it. There was actually never a time when Nigeria was ‘booming’ as history would have us believe. What happened was that the foundation then could carry the not-so-big structure.
But now the structure has reached advanced stage, the foundation cannot hold us together. Its complaining and cracking and threatening to come crashin down. The result is this mess we are faced with. Currently, are there no political offices, or states, or ministries that are headed by young people? I mean men and women in their thirties and forties? If yes, can we access them? How are they performing? Maybe we can start from there. I am twisting my knife further in, one last time with the hope of killing you. Stop sympathising with Nigerian youths, it’s a total waste of time! I should round this up. I will. I just believe Nigerian youths, we are not just it yet.
David Yunana can be reached at: yunanadavid4@gmail.com
