I had an event to attend in Ikoyi on Lagos Island last weekend. I decided to drive through Marina. As I did, I kept at one of my favourite past-times, which is reading inscriptions on vehicles.
In case you don’t know, I learnt long ago that that is one of the best places to get entertainment and knowledge that could tide one over life’s diverse experiences.
That fateful Saturday, a particular inscription caught my attention. It was quite unlike the amusing ones. It was powerful and held out much hope for the youth of this country. It talked about the power of youth or something like that. I loved that and ruminated in my mind how great it would be to have such powerful, insightful and creative youths. Youths that have a clear view of where they are headed. Youths that are propelled towards the good and egalitarian. Youths of hope and beauty. Youths that hold much promise for nation and themselves.
Then my mind dulled by what I saw. It quite contrasted with that fascinating message and thought. I saw many able-bodied youth laying there in clusters, stoned and lazy, under the Marina bridge.
Lazy, were they actually lazy?
As if to answer my question, I saw one young lady burdened by a basinful of mineral drinks and sachet water. I saw many young men who would do great at the Tokyo Olympics wasting their talent, as they did Ben Johnson, chasing after moving vehicles caught in the perennial gridlock, trying hard to sell snack or other sundry things. I marveled at their dexterity in weaving through the vehicles without getting run over.
Then my heart broke. I saw a pregnant young woman among the lot; she chased after a bus as if her life depended on it. A passenger in the bus wanted to buy bottled water but while running towards the bus and struggling to bring out the bottle of water a bottle of Coca-Cola fell off from the big plastic bowl, perching precariously on her head, and broke, splashing its content on the scorched tarred road. The driver throttled away but the poor lady had incurred a loss, not just of her wasted strength but also money for her goods.
I condemned myself for initially feeling they were sitting idle, lazy. I remembered the young men Jesus hired at the 11th hour. The Lord had been busy all day giving jobs to those we would easily describe as lazy but so made for no fault of theirs. When He asked that last bunch as in other cases why they were idling away at that time of the day, the answer was the same. ‘Because nobody has hired us.’
Even the compere at the event I attended worsened my mood. He made a snide remark or rather took a shot at the authorities when he said he did not want a Master’s degree because the Bachelor’s he already had has not benefited him in anyway.
Will a Jesus come to hire these ‘lazy’ Nigerian youths?
That reminds me. Instead of this weird idea of extending teachers’ retirement age, would it not have been better to just enhance their welfare and let them retire at 60 as it is? It is absurd for the tired old folk to be dragging themselves to work while the children they laboured to train, who would have been taking care of them in old age, are still dependent on the weary parents. Instead of the youths remaining lazy under bridges or transmuting into bandits and pickpockets, government should find them something meaningful to do.
Please, let mama and papa retire and go home; give their children the jobs so that they can take care of their parents. Or have government snakes swallowed the pension funds and government is trying to buy time? I pray not. Please, let those that have reached retirement age be allowed to go home with their pensions. Does government want them to die in ‘active’ service? There is no way our schools can do better in the hands of deadwoods induced or suborned to continue working even when the body clock is ticking faintly.
Talking about poverty line and all that, something now worries me. Could someone help locate the whereabouts of our dear Vice-President? The man now sees nothing, says nothing, hears nothing. Is he still in Aso Rock or has Aso Rock done something to his cerebral brain? Has his anointing stopped flowing or been impaired by the Aso demons Reuben saw there?
Gone are the days when Professor Yemi Osinbajo led the national troupe of kokoma dancers into markets, distributing Tradermoni. Perhaps, that is what his boss meant when he said he had pulled 10 million Nigerians out of poverty. Well, let them know that Nigerians want to see the Vice-President in the market now, not in 2023. There is a limit to how far a people can be deceived.
By the way, I do not really know if government has actually pulled 10 million Nigerians out of poverty or pushed them further below the poverty line. Is it the purported N10,000 handout that pulled them out of poverty? What profitable business could one do with N10,000 capital? Do they think the recipients are children of the all-powerful DOT that can turn £20 into multiple billions within a decade? Nigerians are not all equally gifted. Children of the DOT are unique because of the covenant upon their heads. Though scorned and hated, they remain the hub and pivot of every worthwhile movement as evidenced in so many parts of the country and beyond. You neglect the DOT at your own peril.
I read an interview someone had with a bandit and it was very woeful. The bandit lamented about neglect and how successive governments failed them. That was why they moved into the bush to hit back at the society that hated them so much. Unfortunately, they are making fellow victims of poor governance their victims.
I have always said it: government, or rather poor governance, is responsible for the ills of this country. Whether they are bandits, Boko Haram, kidnappers or whoever has taken up arms against Nigeria and Nigerians, one thing propels them – injustice.
How can Nigerians thirst in the midst of the ocean? How can we have elders that cannot tell the truth to power and save the country? One elder statesman I used to respect is denying that the Igbo are marginalised? Haba, Baba!
This is not an Igbo matter anyway but about the lopsidedness, cronyism and nepotism in the polity. And this elder denies it? How can the country heal with elders like this? How can the country move forward with such brassy falsehood and deception? What would people tell their God when they cross over this plain to the side of life?
Nigeria will remain in the doldrums as long as truth is impaled. What ails Nigeria is nothing but a leadership marooned in the past worsened by insincere advisers. That is why we must go back to a non-existent 1963 gazette on grazing routes. Because, whether people like it or not, those who own Nigeria must force their cows upon others by fire, by thunder. With a flawed mindset as this, ‘which way Nigeria’? I almost heard the lamenting voice of the late music maestro, Ozzidi king, Sunny Okosun, wailing.