WHO WILL SAVE NIGERIA’S YOUTH?

A recent New York Times survey showed that
43% of Americans think President Obama is
Muslim. Some people just can’t be helped. Some
people, for all intents and purposes, will remain
ignorant and perhaps that’s just the way of the
world. Some people will continue to judge others
based on gender or ethnicity. Some people will
think political appointments “maketh” the man or
that having someone from your village at the
helm of affairs will necessarily translate to your
betterment (although it’s yet to truly happen).
Some people revel in conspiracy theories and
fictitious agendas. Maybe there’s nothing anyone
can do about this. On my worst days, this is my
train of thought. On my best days, which
sometimes coincide with a Serena Williams win, I
think quite the opposite: watching her joy as she
does the splits to celebrate, or jumps up and
down, makes me feel that I too can do anything
or that outsiders in any game, can be victorious.
The system in any country, or what Americans
would call “the man”, is a complicated set of
rules which only allows or guarantees wins for
certain well-connected (often morally corrupt),
entrenched people.
When outliers don’t just break in but beat the
system, it’s a day of celebration for all other
outsiders, people with dreams and ambitions that
the system cannot accept or recognise for fear
of the rules of the game being re-written.
Muhammadu Buhari is a very particular outsider:
he knows the game and its players. He is feared
and hated by the establishment because he
promises to break the cartels and cabals which
keep Nigerians jobless and insecure, in order to
establish a level playing field. What better face
for the outliers, than he?
Unfortunately, his fellow outsiders, the Nigerian
youth, do not fully know or understand him.
Many don’t have the capacity to do so, due in
part to the dumbing down of our popular culture.
Besides dancing to meaningless hit songs and
idolising actors and actresses with little to say
for themselves besides the pursuit of expensive
cars and handbags obtained by “friendship” with
governors, the average Nigerian youth has little
to no political conscience.
How do we breed sentient, aware young people
who take deliberate actions beyond “catching a
husband” or engaging in exam malpractice?
There are various deep rooted reasons why
Nigerian girls feel they can only exist or be
recognised by society if they can attach the
“Mrs” title to their name, and there are many
reasons why some parents choose to encourage
and help their children to cheat during exams.
Nigeria has become a country where quick wins
are the preferred option, where hard work is
shunned: so why not just aim to marry a rich
man? It’s easier than professing independence,
as if marriage (to whatever sort of partner) and
independence are mutually exclusive.
When the President said we needed to kill
corruption before it kills Nigeria, it was because
corruption is the fundamental reason why one
cannot live a decent, honest life and hope to be
successful in Nigeria.
At some point, Nigerians are called to
compromise on their ethics and principles
without which progress is often impossible. So,
young girls accept to be the third or fourth wife
of a geriatric degenerate who might believe
defiling young girls is part of culture and the law
accepts his vice masquerading as a cultural
peculiarity so that he too, looks away from its
sins, such as the inability to protect those who
cannot speak for themselves. Or worse, those
who cannot always think for themselves. Who is
going to rescue Nigerian youth, trapped in a
culture of quick wins and cheap fun where the
depth of personality and focus is sorely missing?
Upon all of our excitement over the growth of
Nollywood as a would-be industry, I wonder if
there is much to be excited about given the
strange messaging contained in the average
Nollywood film. Even reading interviews granted
by the would-be heroes of the Nigerian youth is
worrisome: warped values and skewed mind-sets
abound, all gobbled up by young people who
never learned, due to a broken educational
system, how to think critically and analyse rather
than absorb unthinkingly.
From new age TV channels to dubious “on-air-
personalities” with puerile ideas on serious issues
they know nothing about, young Nigerians lack
mentors. Those who portray themselves as
mentors are often guilty of enslaving the youth
by not training them for succession or giving
them opportunities for growth. They also don’t
know how to speak to young people, to gain their
interest or trust. Nigerian youth bemoan their
situation; yet, many till date haven’t seen the link
between their political disinterest and their
disenfranchisement within society. They might
have found a willing guardian in President Buhari
but they are yet to find their voice, the young
man (or woman) who will translate for them
what the “ogas at the top” are all about and who
will end their banishment or freezing-out from
public affairs.
Interestingly, about 80 per cent of the Nigerian
population could be categorised as “outsiders”,
simply because most of that number would be
comprised of people under 30. Why aren’t there
more names of brilliant, focused young people
being bandied around in the lists of those called
to assist the President and to serve Nigerians?
Talented young Nigerians don’t dream of
becoming civil servants (or journalists for that
matter) and this is worrisome because then, who
will reinvent Nigeria? The average Nigerian’s
attitude is anti-government: too many politicians
believe their role is simply to attack, leaving
Nigerians desensitised and civil servants devoid
of direction. We need to create simpler ways for
talented young people to get into government
and incentives for them to do so, beyond the
idea many politicians’ offspring seem to have,
which is that government is a birth right where
money unilaterally flows. It is simply put, time to
bring Nigerian governance into the 21st century
by allowing brilliant young minds to chart a new
path and destiny for Nigeria.
Stella Oduah
She’s back to set a dangerous precedent. A few
weeks ago, the former minister got a court order
restraining the EFCC, the Attorney General of the
Federation, the Inspector General of Police and
the Independent Corrupt Practices and other
Related Offences Commission, ICPC, from
arresting her or even inviting her for questioning.
Where does one begin? There is no other place
on earth where a court would be able to stop
someone from being investigated. It goes against
the idea of the law itself which is to protect all
wronged parties not just the accused, as is done
in Nigeria.
Would an ordinary Nigerian be able to stop the
police from either arresting or investigating him?
Definitely not. So why make excuses for some,
simply because they have the necessary funds
to make justice (or their idea of it) go their way?
Jonathan’s ministers
The immediate past Minister of Works, Mike
Onolememen, was accused of taking four
unidentified people to an international
conference in 2011. The former minister’s wife
also apparently travelled with him. We all know
how necessary it is to have one’s wife present at
a business engagement.
The minister defended his wife’s presence,
saying ministers’ wives and “top female ministry
officials” were included. This attitude to public
office where wives, friends and often family were
invited on official trips for unjustifiable reasons is
just another reason why the sheriff must be
allowed to pick his ministers carefully.