To The Youth, When Will Our Tomorrow Come? Welcome to this online gathering, created by a youth, for the purpose of the youths and for the liberation of the youths. When I was made one of the admin of a youth-oriented page, I happily took the challenge, seeing it as another platform for us to educate ourselves. Thank you once again to Nnamdi Obeta, the main man behind the page. Now lets go back to the subject under discussion, Im asking this question again; to the youths, when will our tomorrow come? Ladies and gentlemen, lets go... I have been thinking, looking and X-raying the events in Nigeria as they unfold every minutes. Not just that, considering the youths, a thought came to my mind; if we are the leaders of tomorrow, when will our tomorrow come? As events continually unfold in our beloved country with massive implications for the viability of our continued peaceful co-existence as a sovereign political entity, one mind boggling rhetoric that recurs in my sub-conscious is, “when will tomorrow come?” Are you pondering what Im pondering? Then follow me... The youths in Nigeria have over the years been beguiled by our more esteemed elders that we are the leaders of tomorrow and hence should bid our time and await tomorrow. However, events of the yesteryears have clearly pointed to the contrary. We have over the years seeing the same bald-headed elders doing what they know best to do, weve seen the google-faced looters (sorry, leaders) exhibiting their talents over the years. The same set of elders who have been leading us since the creation of this country are still there. This force me to ask; when will our tomorrow come Nigeria’s political culture is perennially characterized by a system where the youths who ought to be major stakeholders are considered as outsiders, or best used as thugs and dumped when the elders aims and objectives have been achieved. What we have on ground is the current practice where the country’s democracy holds practically nothing for the youths. We are continually manipulated and exploited for ethnic, religious and selfish ends by the political class. We are made to see each other as enemies that must be regimented and not as partners in the democratic and building project who ought to work together for common interests. We are easily incited and mobilized to attack and injure one another because it suits the long term interests of the political class who appear ready to employ any mechanism to maintain their tenacious hold on to power and perennially shut the youths out of the corridors of power. They only gave us helmets during their campaigns and afterwards collect our okadas. They only shared ammunitions for us and after theyve achieved their agenda, dumbed us and leave us with the ammunitions, automatically converting us to armed robbers and terrorists. They use our females for selfish and diabolical interest and dumb them when theyve expired. How many of their children live with them in this country? How many of their children stick their heads during campaigns and elections? This keeps me asking; when will our time come? The average youth in Nigeria today lacks adequate food, shelter, quality education, employment and other fundamental amenities that can enhance his/her independence. With all these out of his/her reach, he/she is at the mercy of the ruling political and economic class who can supply him/her with peanuts and cajole him/her to destructive ends. What should ordinarily be given to the youth as a right is offered to them as a favour and a bait to entice us to do evil. Today, the only job a politician can offer a youth is that of a thug or ballot box snatcher, while urging him/her to tarry till ‘tomorrow’ when his/her turn will come. Please tell me, when will our tomorrow come? It is my humble submission that Nigeria’s political leaders will never be quenched of their perpetual thirst for power and will do anything to cling on to it. In other words, this tomorrow may never come. And the consequence will always be youth restiveness, militancy, kidnapping, terrorism and their likes as we have witnessed in recent times. Whoever is in doubt as to the perennial nature of this futile wait for tomorrow should cast his/her mind back to the infamous third term saga, where a former Nigerian Head of State in 1976 addressed a gathering of youths where he referred to them as the ‘leaders of tomorrow’. Fast forward thirty years to 2006 and you see the same leader using the Nation’s resources and entire state apparati of governance to perpetuate himself in power. Look at their appointments; the youngest minister in Nigeria is 57 years, the youngest governor is 58. PDP Youth Leader is 68 years old. ACN Youth Leader is 61 years old. Forget their official age, all of them are using football age to convince us. Go to National Assembly, The Senate, House of Assembly and you will see them sleeping during sessions. Its not their faults, theyve all passed their prime! All of them can tell us first-hand the Independence story and the civil war, because they witnessed it. We have been recycling them all these while. Please tell me, when will our tomorrow come? I feel strongly however that there is an urgent need to build a strong and virile democratic culture which will outlive the contradictions of the system practiced for the past fifty years and counting. I sincerely wish we youths will learn, pull resources together and tap positively from our vast God-given potentials for our maximum benefits. Above all, while I am no Martin Luther King Jnr. I dream of the time when all youths will rise to the challenge, grasp the bull by the horns and resist all attempts by these elders to use us as mere tools, and instead act with the conviction that the country is rightfully ours. Because the beautiful ones (The youths) have been born, but the beautiful ones will not make it until the ugly ones die or set aside. Finally, and possibly more importantly, I do hope that as we speedily approach another do or die election year of 2015, we would have a situation where the young ones can stand their ground and reject the peanuts often offered as the price for our votes and support. I hope that by then we would have had a genuine and virile government institution that will work to improve the lots of the Nigerian youth, for only then can we really look forward to tomorrow when the youths can shout ‘Uhuru.’. I keep saying it, in this country, hunger should not be a recurrent thing in our lives. Unemployment should not be a genetic thing. Poverty should not be an inheritance. Okrika should not be a family tradition. Begging should not be a custom. We deserve employment, good governance, accountability, social and infrastructural amenities, sound education for all. This is what this country need, we have plenty of confidence in this country, but we are short of good men to place our confidence in. One thing I know for sure is this, whether our leaders wear shoes or not, whether they wear clothes or not, they shall dearly pay for subjecting Nigeria and Nigerians to this unfavourable conditions, and they will forever remain unsettled and unrest as long as they are stealing public funds. So shall it be. Amen. Vibrant and reasonable people, good morning. Please like our page: https://facebook/pages/Nigeria-Youth-Support-For-Change/580773078723071?ref=hl
Posted on: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 07:21:26 +0000
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