Opinion
Born in a Nigeria of chaos
By Prince Charles Dickson
What is logical in politics is not always practical, what is practical is not always right. What is right is not always ethical, what is ethical is not always desired and what is desired takes us back to what is not logical…
So, let me start with this very short narrative, a few decades ago, we had a power system that was working, the population was not this large, then some section of the public, less than one percent, would go to the NEPA headquarters, get an LPO, come downstairs and sell it to some dude, and get a huge cut without doing anything, they were contractors, no one cared, and gradually, the transformers, and infrastructures started to collapse because no one would bother to check if the job was done or not…Like NEPA, NITEL, Nigerian Airways and most things that starts with the letter N, our systems, and structures was gradually being killed by one generation for another.
The birth of today’s Nigerian youth, is one that is full of chaos, they are victims of power, property, prestige, popularity and pomposity…it is these ‘p’ factors that make it impossible for the Nigerian youth to do that which should be done, it is the illogical, the wrong that becomes ethical.
The fact cannot be over flogged that Nigerian youth today has to take the lead, sadly, reality is that how does the yahoo, yahoo+ and voodoo, ritual marauding youths take the lead, which youth will take the lead, the social media savvy yet reality flawed lazy young men and women that litter everywhere, the ones that are saturated with a gloated sense of entitlement or which one?
They were born in chaos, they want to work for government and steal their own share, or the want to live large, they are the 30BG crew, amongst the chaos there are few that can do an El-Rufai, damn the consequences and do the needful, they will not be perfect but they are the rebels former President Obasanjo alluded to. But we need to find them.
We need to find the Nigerian youth that is not suffering from a contoured role reversal, I recall in those days, only dullards went abroad for further studies, you must have failed severally and out of shame ran away. Today, our best brains are leaving, and may just never come back, and the vultures and Mohicans in our political class are simply being recycled or are being replaced by their lineage.
We have a population born in chaos, they do not understand our past of military misadventure, nor can they come to terms with the concoction currently practiced as democracy. Are they fit to fight the competition that is the system, can they dance the music of change…?
While the system continues to battle in holding itself, our youths are products of a corrupt educational ecosystem; sons and daughters of the same (magicians and politicians) continue to toy with the future, while our youths are lost in the conversation or at best made redundant participants.
One should keep one’s eyes on where one is going, not where one stumbled. (The best course of action is not to dwell on setbacks, but to resolutely face the future). I doubt we are ready for the future…
We will remain here because our leaders are politicians, bazaar experts at sharing and auctioning out the national heritage and treasury.
The social contract is at best dilapidated and at worst does not exist, our leaders are sacrificing the present for the future, sacrificing the young generation for the numbers.
The youths are a term used as headcounts, for political gains, as tools, and conflict drivers. Leadership is a choice, it is not a rank, our youths need to stand and be counted, they need to start posing the right questions or else the answers would be as expected.
How long will this generation stay on the rough path, at what point do we wait to see a population that is useful in wholesome proportion than scattered showers, or are we doomed to the current state where they are used-less, when will the youth realize that the fight in them is much bigger, and issue a nation changing ultimatum—Only time will tell.
Prince Charles Dickson PhD, Team Lead, The Tattaaunawa Roundtable Initiative (TRICentre)
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