Nigeria’s forgotten youth

By Joseph Edgar . . .
How does it feel like to be used and dumped? I can imagine how Nigerian youths, who all came together in unison to proclaim and trumpet the message of change would be feeling right now. Like a wet towel I suppose. The new government now prefers a government of gerontocracy rather than a youthful, energy filled engagement with our destiny as a nation.
We watch as the Buhari government continues to fill strategic positions with very old people, who are very close to senility, and who really come to the table with no new ideas to face the challenges of today’s world. We see and hear of outmoded ideas being bandied around as solutions to new age issues. This same ideas that were thrown at us even before we were born when the issues of Shale Oil, terrorism, environmental desolation were all issues you only saw in science fiction movies.
Or how else can you explain the decision to look at agriculture as we try to diversify the economy. Not that I have anything against it, but it reminds me of Obasanjo’s much vaunted Operation Feed the Nation campaign of the 70s in which he also tried to diversify the economy with agriculture. Today we are hearing of National Carrier, in these days of rabid privatization and lean government. We are seeing powerful concentration of power in the centre with all its inefficiencies being thrown up thereby compounding our problems.
Nigerian youths single handedly created the industries that have today thrown us up as the largest economy in Africa. From their sweat, they gave us the second largest movie industry in the world; creating huge employment opportunities for millions of Nigerians. Nigerian youths are driving ICT, controlling the very pinnacle of power and innovation in these sectors. Driving sales and consuming Today we can fine them trillions of naira and nobody is afraid of the collapse of the industry, because the youths provide the much needed workforce and innovation to keep it going.
The music industry has created many millionaires. MTN has paid over $150m as royalty to our musicians, something the old world cannot do as a result of their inability to fight piracy.
Today the youth can lay claim to the Buhari victory. Using social media as a weapon, they took up the challenge galvanizing voters, monitoring elections, guarding their votes, screening results all electronically. They showed resilience and took up the war digitally; showing the old people how to fight in the new world. Even the president became a new world soldier opening social media handles and participating in the online movement.
They delivered this campaign, they delivered this victory, and today they have been thrown into the gutter. Our leaders are going back to the old soldiers who put us in this situation in the first place. Audu Ogbeh, Lai Mohammed and the rest need rest their tied bones. The fact that our president is in the twilight of his years does not mean he should surround himself with dragons who would be spending the better part of their lives nursing tired bones.

Read also: Wike’s sack: This gets interesting

A nice mix would have been solid, with the youths manning strategic sectors like ICT, information, culture and sports. These are money spinning areas. We have the population and the markets, so a leadership that understands the workings of a new world would not need to rely on dwindling oil receipts to provide a better life for Nigerians.
Ideas rule the world and risk is the engine for growth. Naturally as you grow older, your risk potentials also dry up. You tend to be more conservative and would just like for things to move the way they have always done. In governance, that is a recipe for disaster. In today’s Nigeria we need innovation to face the new threats that were not threats a decade ago. We need the energy, the savvyness and the sanguine mentality of the Nigerian youth to create a new economy, a new political order for today.
Funny enough, the youth have gone back quietly to what they know how best to do which is to fend for themselves without the aid of government and its restrictive policies and structures. They have decided to allow the old ones mess up the message of change while they struggle to eke out a living amidst the cacophony of confusion that has continued to dog the generation even their own Wole Soyinka called ‘wasted’.
Too bad for this government, what a wasted opportunity. I sincerely hope that they would soon realize their folly and back track, seeking solutions and help from the army of the Nigerian youths who led a revolution showing the elders how to take out a sitting government digitally.

RipplesNigeria …without borders, without fears

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now