We Are The Up NEPA Generation We were told that those who are 35 years and below form 70 percent of the Nigerian population. These are the people who witnessed the establishment of NECO, the introduction of Post-UME and the proliferation of private Universities, the geometric increase of churches, the introduction and acceptance of Nigerian Hip Hop. The era of different TV stations and Talent Hunts, the period of Big Brother Africa and football fanaticm, etc. If you are part of us, you are welcome, we are the Up NEPA generation. Our generation eat okin biscuit, gogo, sisi pelebe, choco milo, kuli kuli, dokwa, goodygoody, baba dudu, coconut candy, condensed milk, m&k, pako biscuit, ABC biscuit (remind me the rest). Our generation drank lolly, fan ice, blackcurrant, pito, Zobo, Limca, Tandy, Gold Spot (remind me the rest). We watched spidaman, Super man, Jonny bravo, incredible hulk, tom and jerry, voltron, power rangers, sesame streets, tales by moonlight, drunken master, amitab, damendra, kunta kunte, the rich also cry, checkmate, Doctor who, robin hood, tele match, rante ghost, Mr. Spencer, Super Ted, Koto Orun, Yemi My Lover, Feyi Kogbon, Danger man etc. We danced Ijo yoyo, Shina Peters, Fuji Gabbage, Bright Chimezie, Awilo lokomba, kofi olomide etc. We wore Satin lace, Jacard, Ni-ne, Baggy Jeans, Aswani etc. If you can still remember these, yes you are one of us. We are the generation, Up NEPA! Apart from a negligible part of us who are fortunate to be parented by the Nigerian big men, the rest of us were young people who, throughout the short time weve been in this world, cannot effectively lay any claim to having had uninterrupted electricity for, at least, one month. We are used to NEPA constantly reminding us through darkness that their job description mandated them to always turn off the power source. And each time NEPA gets gracious enough to allow us a sight of electricity, you hear us in happiness shouting Up NEPA!. Yes, this is our generation! The only idea our generation has about pipe-borne water is the water from private boreholes. Our thinking, based on what we have so far seen, is that water can either be hauled by Malams in gallons or hawked in sachets as “pure water”. Those in the villages are okay with the streams and rivers that sometimes are miles away from residential areas. A good part of us have never seen government supplied water from the ministry of public utilities. Our idea of good schools are the private schools – from Nursery to University. If our parents are unlucky to afford the tuition, then we are condemned to the public schools. We grew up to know this. This is our generation; Up NEPA! Political language means deceit to us. What is said isn’t always what is meant. We have learnt from experience to brand somebody “a politician” if he’s usually evasive or quick to tell lies. Some of our governors pay as high as 25% of their total revenue to their political godfathers and therefore have little left to cater for their states, since they themselves will eat from their labour. This is our generation; Up NEPA! We grew up to see the only feasible ways of becoming rich is by carrying powder, doing yahoo yahoo, getting into government, being the friend or relative of someone in government or being a miracle performing pastor or Imam. We see opportunities in Football and Music, but appreciate that the rise to wealth in these fields aren’t as fast and easy as it is in the earlier mentioned ones. We observe the good things of life from distance, our generation have not witnessed anything called good governance in our lifetime! And interestingly, this is the generation I am part of, Up NEPA! You will then appreciate why it is difficult to engage most of us on issues of good governance. Weve not seen one, so we know not one, we can’t define it. The jean sagging guy is full of hope, thinks he will somehow get there one day. He prefers listening to Beyonce to discussing the last time Arsenal won a trophy and why Mourinho has never lost in any Finals. But as for good governance in Nigeria, he believes that from all he has seen in his life time, nothing will change. He thinks Nigeria has accelerated way beyond a rescue point and therefore prefers watching the English Premiership to, in few occasion talking e go better. This is our generation, Up NEPA! We belong to the age of Tablets, Apple, Blackberry, HP, Dell, Nokia, Samsung, Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, 2go, YouTube, Talk, Google, Yahoo etc. We are globally connected to people weve not touched and have not seen; places weve not visited and technologies weve not utilized. We are young, imaginative and full of energy, but in our youthfulness, we do not understand that, if changes are not effected by us now, we may still witness a struggling Nigeria in the next 35 years. Our country is littered with man-made enemies of longevity; from stray bullets to bad roads, to lack of hospitals, to lack of sound education, to lack of employment to skeletal judiciary, and to compound our woes, to degrading moral and spiritual value. Our leaders are doing everything possible to reduce our life expectancy. Unfortunately, many of us don’t know this, and the few who know find it difficult to comprehend. This is the generation we find ourselves, Up NEPA! Now can we, the Up NEPA! generation take some moments to start re-educating ourselves? Can we deploy our imaginative powers to see a world where electricity can light up our rooms and streets every day of the week? Can we start seeing good roads built with our money? Can we do something positive for our generation and save the coming generations these hardships? Can we fight to live? Can we draw strength from our courage? Can we extract motivation from our fertile imaginations? Can we be the next success stories? Can we rise and take cognitive action against a conglomerate of criminals that had stashed away the future of a generation into their pockets? Yes WE CAN, if we vote REASONABLY. One thing is for sure, its either we do it or we do it. Its either we make it happen or we make it happen. I keep saying it, hunger should not be a recurrent thing in our lives. Unemployment should not be a genetic thing. Poverty should be an inheritance. Okrika should not be a family tradition. Begging should not be a custom. We deserve employment, fruitfulness, good governance, accountability, sound education, social and infrastructural amenities for all. This is what our generation deserves. We have plenty of confidence in this country, but we are short of good men to place our confidence in. Now, can we, the UP NEPA generation members raise our hands? Good people, Good morning.
Posted on: Wed, 10 Dec 2014 08:16:05 +0000
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