Come 2023, most Nigerians await the repositioning of the nation by the YOUNG because of the failures of the old hands that have misruled Nigeria for over 50 years.
A few weeks ago was the United Nations International Week of the forest with a theme “Forests and Sustainable Production and Consumption,” and, to commemorate the week, FADE Africa, an organisation I founded 25 years ago, decided to put together a symposium in conjunction with Suzuki, with panelists made up of environmental activists such as Ambassador Ayoola Olukanni, Desmond Majekodunmi, Temitope Okunni, and myself, with Rufai Oseni as the moderator. The event was well attended mainly by young intellectuals from all walks of life, businessmen, industrialists, and academicians. Amazingly enough, in attendance was a young presidential aspirant, Khadijah Okunnu-Lamidi, who contributed to the panel discussion. I had the privilege of having a conversation with her after the event and also thanked her for taking so much interest in the environment, and her intervention.
For some of us at the event, mostly environmental activists, it was a novelty to have a young political activist and a presidential aspirant in attendance at such an event focused on sustainable development and the future of our planet, considering that most young people think very little about the future.
I also brought to her notice my activism not only concerning the environment but also on some national issues. In addition to all that, I shared with her my frustration at seeing the younger generation wasting away their future on the altar of politics by not doing enough to remove the dichotomy that has plunged the country into political rascality, lacking in ideology and lacking in followership.
I have also referred her to read some of the interventions I have made in the last 25 years on this very issue of the young not doing enough. In the interest of those who may have missed my writings and interventions, I will also discuss the past in these three articles that I have written in the recent past. The articles are one, “The young shall grow,” written some years ago, the second, “Beyond Buhari and Atiku,” was also written before the presidential election of 2015 and in this article I mandated the young to look beyond those two and start mobilizing themselves so as to be able to offer leadership before 2019, and the third one, which was written recently with the title “The Parliamentary System of Government.”
In this particular article, I referred the young to the era of the 60s when Nigeria practiced the parliamentary system of government, a system that required leaders to be accountable to those they lead as against the leader takes all system that we have today.
In “The young shall grow,” I had written that many young people I speak with today are interested in becoming entrepreneurs someday and hiring staff to work for them, yet some of this same group of young men and women are not willing to work for anyone or just downright act very lackadaisical at their place of employment. Some of these young ones tend to forget that, before the student becomes a master, the student must go through various phases of training to sharpen his skills to prepare him for the position of leadership. How can you walk if you haven’t crawled? The young shall indeed grow and prepare themselves to change the state of the nation to a better state.
With our many failures as a country, it is a time for some kind of revolution and, sadly, that revolution cannot be led by the same people who have been a part of the rot. Hence, the title “Beyond Buhari and Atiku.”
I have had the privilege of knowing these great men in the last 40 years that they have been in some kind of leadership of this country and I have utmost respect for them but, since the return to democratic rule in 1999, our elections have been a case of the devil and the deep blue sea. Considering that we have been misruled for the last 50 years, my question is, can we have anything different from the same party despite different names, especially when they have been a part of this misrule?
If we are to have a new generation of leaders after so many years; is there enough time for them to emerge? This is because, contrary to the current style for prospective leaders, emerging happens way before becoming presidential aspirants. Prospective leaders need to travel around the country to be seen and heard. Serve in numerous capacities that will build their portfolios of a proven track record both in public and private sectors.
Beyond Muhammadu Buhari and Atiku Abubakar lies our nation’s future, a future we need to seriously prepare for so that it won’t be a replica of the past. Millions of Nigerians are fed up with the status quo that only benefits the same select few over and over. Budding leaders will have a lot to deal with but, sadly, I fear 2023 might not be when they will start to clear this rot. What these budding leaders need right now are mobilizers who will sensitize the people as well as ignite their passion for a revolution. These budding leaders also need funders that won’t demand kick-backs like the ‘God-fathers’. Funders from the people who would eagerly contribute towards a better nation like were done in America for Bernie Sanders. If these young vibrant people, tired of the rot in the nation, can come together, mobilize themselves and begin to sensitize the people towards thinking of a future without the present leaders, albeit a process that may still take some years, then Nigeria stands a chance of escaping the cycle of corruption and mismanagement that has plagued it for decades.
The article that I published very recently with the title “The parliamentary system of government” created an avenue for the people to hold their leaders accountable, which is the opposite of what happens in Nigeria today, where the people’s voices are silenced. The government of Nigeria promises to hold the corrupted leaders accountable and uphold democracy, but with what has happened and is currently happening, leaders get away with any corrupt act done. It creates room for me to ask, ‘is the law made for the people alone?’ The lawmakers are the defaulters of the same laws being made by them. The people are not allowed to express themselves; the press is sometimes against the people and the government is against the people.
Some months ago, looking at our political system, I wrote a piece in this column titled “No accountability, no nation-building.” I will take a very small part of the article, “If we must rebuild the country once more, we must begin by holding those that have mismanaged our resources accountable, instead of honoring them by naming monuments and streets after them. In the last few decades, we have continuously looked like a failed state but we must not allow that to happen because we have the resources to rebuild again, to rebuild well and constructively”.
The young must grow, take power into their hands and create a sustainable and economically stable country for themselves and the future generation. The time is now, before it is too, late so that you can also offer your children a nation that is the dream of the present generation.