YOUNG NIGERIANS MUST BE AT THE FRONTLINE OF NATION BUILDING

Hey! Young Nigerians, am not here to mince words. Its so saddening that we have lost faith in our abilities to turn things around. We may not have the best of leaders, but we should be conscious and warry of the ambience we found ourselves. Our leaders have reduced and balkanized our politics to a state of conviviality to the extent that issues that affect us as young people are now relegated to the background. In the time past, most especially in the past five decades, young Nigerians who distinguished themselves in business and military circle, provided sound and effective leadership that set our nation on the solid foundation it stands today. In contrast, what we are seeing today is a vast revisal of past trends. Young people are now very docile, most are so apolitical and aloof to happenings around them that you would wonder if they can even perform the simplest civic responsibility of voting. Some who muster the courage to, instead of choosing credible leadership, join the bandwagon of voters who sell their votes for paltry sums. The result, which is what we are seeing today in all facet of our lives.

As young people, we are so full of strength, energy and vibes to make our families, communities and country great. We must begin to focus more on things that unite us as a country and discard the malicious proponents of disintegration, Fulanization, Christianization, Islamization and all forms of ethnic jingoists whose selfish interests are never in consonance with national interests. Let’s not be deceived, a strong and united Nigeria is best for all of us. Those who are fanning the embers of division are sore losers who are lazy and don’t want to extend their influence outside their communities. They will still rant and complain of marginalization even when their local government councils are made countries. Let’s begin to harness the potential of our size and geographical spread. The politicians will continue to divide so that they can continue to perpetuate themselves and their cronies in power, the Nigerian youths must not fall for it. We should take into cognizance that the problem we are facing as young people are similar irrespective of our ethnic, social and political status. Thousands of young graduates lither the streets of Kaduna, Aba, Kaura Namoda, Ibadan, Markudi, Benin, Maiduguri and other cities. There is massive migration of skilled young workers to Europe, our factories don’t even have power to run, insecurity pervades all regions of the country, our universities are moribund, infrastructure is at its lowest ebb, our health care is in comatose and maternal child mortality is high. These problems are leaving with us even when our kinsmen held power. These problems will stay with us for a long time until we regroup as young people and get involved in the political process.

Young African Leaders Initiative Summit 

Aren’t we tired of ranting on social media, we should begin to question our commitment to national project of bettering Nigeria. Am not calling for a revolution, with all due respect to those who did in the past. I think the time is right for the youths of this nation to know that tomorrow is now, and we are not too young to run and we are not too young to be ignored anymore in the affairs of our father land. We cannot kill our established politicians and proscribe the activities of our two main political parties. What we should do is to pinch tent with them and initiate reforms within. We must begin to push for revolutionary reforms in our political parties and electoral process. We must push the two main opposition parties to establish youth leagues where young people can get mentorship and political experience needed to actively play our part in the political process. 

In contemporary Nigeria, the youth are disillusioned about the state of affairs of the nation, they want to skip the entire process of political internship and mentorship to become senators, governors, ministers, and president. We have relegated the act of volunteering to the background. We do not want to volunteer as a nonpaying staff to the senator in our senatorial district, we do not volunteer for community service neither do we initiate conversations about issues that affect our nation. We cannot get into the political arena unprepared, when the opportunity comes, we must never be caught unaware because if we do, we will keep messing up when ever we get the chance to effect change in our country. 

The established politicians who have held political power for decades will never hand it over to us in a platter of gold. We must show that unwavering commitment that we are ready to step in. In South Africa, the African National Congress ANC, led by Oliver Thambo, Chief Lethuli, Nelson Mandela, Thambo Mbeki and others did just defeat apartheid by wishful thinking, they set out a plan and vigorously pursued it for three decades and more before South Africa was freed and popular democracy restored. Most of the frontline ANC leaders were young South Africans who desired a change in their country and made enormous sacrifices to better the lives of their countrymen. Oliver Thambo And Nelson mandela had to close their law firm, Mandela and Thambo, in Johannesburg, the first law firm owned and managed by blacks in south Africa in order to fully commit themselves to the struggle to end apartheid in their country. All we do as young Nigerians is to rant on twitter and other social media platforms without contributing anything to better the process.

We have all turned comedians, we now dish out hundreds of comedy skits daily, when you check the Nigerian twitter, Instagram and Facebook, the contents you will see is a reflection of how things have so much degenerated in our society. While in other climes, young people are taking advantage of the gains of social media to break through in technology, improve sales and reach out to consumers which have inadvertently led to business growth and expansion, all we do here is to twerk on Instagram and encourage winners with mindboggling prices running into thousands of naira when we have young entrepreneurs out there who could have used these monies to boost their enterprises. But we will not, we choose to celebrate very unusual and insane endeavors. How did we get here please?

Without mincing words, thumps up to our astute young and resilient young Nigerians who have shown leadership in the face of this chaos, those who have continue to volunteer to help millions of their fellow country men in the North East and other troubled spots in the country, those young medical personnel who are in the frontline responding and tackling the Covid 19 virus in all fronts, those who have volunteered to work with elected public officials and bring the dividends of democracy to our people. I salute your courage. To the young entrepreneurs out there, the bloggers, Multi-Level Marketing Consultants, Aggregators, Hoteliers, Consultants and other business owners who have continued to blaze the trail even in the midst of inconsistent economic policies and programs of our country, I salute your uncommon courage and attitude. Together, we shall make Nigeria great again. 

Adamu Deco Suleman wrote from Abuja

Email: decosule@gmail.