Article: NIGERIAN YOUTHS, WHICH WAY? -Evergreen

Sometimes, I wonder what the Nigerian youths go to do abroad, aside from the few who either by being sponsored or through scholarships go to study, all other things they do there remain unclear to me, but I am sure that whatever they do there develop wherever the country they find themselves.

Once, while we were being mutual, whining and mocking each other, three of my friends when asked why they would love to leave the country, they replied back with 'why should we remain in Nigeria?' In fact, one of them said even it would be to 'pack shit' bathe the dead or do some rough shits, he would be more satisfied than working in Nigeria as a Master's degree holder. Whether it was just a joke or he meant it, there is a disinterest about Nigeria in his deep self.

Many are the youths who would rather use their intelligence to defraud other people than use it to benefit Nigeria. I know this because many times, during open discussions with my peers, many of them would rather talk about how to 'make it' through 'yahoo yahoo' and would emphatically defend themselves with the excuse of the lack of employment opportunities to make their lives truly worth decently living. It seems to them, even to me sometimes, that there is no good way to make fortune in this country. Even the so-called religion leaders who should imbibe sound moral teachings into the youths also partake in illegal and inhuman ways of acquiring wealth. One could but conclude that our hope in this country is delusive after hearing the tales of how animals snatch or swallow millions of naira from our so-called political leaders.

When a friend was asked what his view about the snake-monkey saga was, with a very frustrated countenance, he said "I told you, this country is a joke, I swear, I go soon start yahoo yahoo too". I then began to think through his words like they meant more than what he said. I used to think I would someday become a freedom fighter and stand against 'the powers that be' and reinstate Nigeria's giantness in both economy and human welfarism through powerful crusades and intellectual tactics. I used to think I would become Gani Fawehinmi and risk my peace for this country, but in the later days, my spirit changed. I became discouraged. Even Chief Gani Fawehinmi had to surrender Nigeria's problems to Nigerians. Reason being that even the people he wanted to fight for, in an unclear way, benefit from its rottenness.

One thing I have learnt about our Nigerian leaders, and even under the Management of most organizations I have worked with, is they always want us to remain loyal servants to their tyranny. They give us reasons to raise our voices and stand against their policies and decisions but without reasonable reasons, want us to shut up for life. If one is not careful in the process, one may lose his liberation. May I not be asked how I got to know this because I would tell you to wake up from your unconsciousness, it only makes me feel like such a person who could ask such question is either under long-age cage of absolute wealth or just too shy to attest to the simple truth that awaits his generations.

What they tell us everyday is we are the leaders of tomorrow. Which tomorrow? I think they are right. We are the leaders that carry placards and jump on streets to beg for our rights from the 'bigger leaders', and eventually, when we don't get them (our rights), we resort to working for them during elections. Sometimes, I am unsure of what they truly mean by tomorrow. I do think tomorrow is simply a monster, an extremely illusional and deceptive creature or even a creation created by a critical creator who only but create dicey odyssey for us, the innocent reapers of all the 'bigger leaders' have sown.

Naturally, one would ask why more and youths join terrorist organizations and cultist groups but then, the answer is found in the question itself, an idle hand is simply the devil's workshop. In fact, in some cases, the Nigerian youths have become too idle that even the devil rents an apartment in him.

We have watched the members of our legislative arm of government throw chairs and weapons at each other, exchanging punches at the national televisions, black painting the image of the country. The confused elders well, were once Nigerian youths too, they know the routine, they were bred here. It shouldn't be much surprising if the youth engage in such activities too among themselves. It is becoming norm, except for the truly educated ones among them, who themselves are just 'powerless raw makers'.

Everywhere in the 'developed world', the leaders of tomorrow are the engineers, programmers, ideologists, e.t.c. of today, but in 'our own world', the leaders of tomorrow are the four times jambites, SARS accused, cultists, political thugs, yahoo boys, e.t.c. of today. The few, who are interested in building to free Nigeria (from underdevelopment) are less privileged when the issue of politics is discussed. The few who get there don't have a say, and those who have the say are being recycled to become our antagonists. This terrible situation is where we wake up everyday to find ourselves, with even worse products at the end of the day. Our voices of activism die as soon they are voiced, our mouths become automatically shut when a very little percentage of what we demand for are met. They have made it a culture, our rights can never be fully granted. After all, no one is truly free.

Sometimes, I wish revolution would just happen. I wish the old-men order would be replaced with that of the younger generation. I wish we would stop thinking our leaders are the problems, and that our leaders would stop thinking we are the problems. I wish we would stop confusing ourselves with what revolution truly is. If I am asked what it (revolution) is, I would simply borrow from the words of Chief Frank Kokori in his book, THE STRUGGLE FOR JUNE 12, he said (to Otunba Bola Tinubu), "In any revolution, you must have a political base. The base is that you secure a constituency in the election." I believe this is the point where we crash with our wishes for this country. The people who think they know about how to take Nigeria to the grandest heights do not participate in politics. In fact, they are the front-runners of criticism against every government. The fools remain kings in their paradise while their country remain an empire of total waste of makeup. Even the youths are succumbing to the sermons of these preachers; preachers turn sadists. The youths, rather than prove to be what they are, the soul of the nation, prove to be the assassins of the future. That is the reason they can go the extra mile to fight for politicians and snatch ballot boxes during elections. Well, what does the idle-hungry youth do anyway?

Politics, they say, is a dirty. I believe it is not a dirty game because some people have to suffer or be killed before other people can govern or be governed, make personal gains at the expense of others or probably for other filthy things. I believe it is a dirty game because you can choose to betray whoever, whenever they are working against the masses - and get into power and win for the people who have trusted them enough to vote them into power. Politics, I believe, is truly a dirty game. One whose dirtiness can wash away injustice and inhumanity from our society. It is a dirty game because it has mechanisms to unite us, bridge our differences, eliminate tribalism and religious bigotry. All in all, politics is whatever we call it but until we see its dirtiness as one which can be used to clean up our filthiness, we cannot be a truly great and potent SUPER POWER.

If the government is too big to succumb to our wishes and give us our needs, let us - the youths, the soul of the nation, take the future into our hands, onto our thumbs (for voting during elections). Instead of carrying placards, protesting and dominating the streets to request for the rights that never may get into the skulls of our 'hyper-democratic leaders'. In fact, beautiful write-ups with well crafted words and creativity do not get into the stone-hearted monsters we call leaders, neither do our powerful oratory skills help, rather, they would just laugh such efforts to scorn. We have passionately tried that in the past and they never worked. Let us get involved, massively, in the affairs that directly affect us. If revolution means to massively participate in politics, then we should let it be! Before our hair begin to grey and our generation begin to curse us, let us build a country we can all be proud of, a country with the power that is truly super, a legacy for the rest of the world. Unless we resort to this, our country, Nigeria, would remain an undiscovered SUPER POWER!

By: Ibrahim Ayobami Balogun (Evergreen)