Nigerian youths and the political future

It’s disappointing to view social media videos of Nigerian youths tearing up their passports, and denouncing the nation. Two things stand out. Firstly, that they are doing so from outside the country having “escaped” the current mess, and secondly they fail to appreciate that whatever their grievances are, battles are never won by those who […]

It’s disappointing to view social media videos of Nigerian youths tearing up their passports, and denouncing the nation. Two things stand out. Firstly, that they are doing so from outside the country having “escaped” the current mess, and secondly they fail to appreciate that whatever their grievances are, battles are never won by those who run away! Added to this is the conventional wisdom that nobody should ever say “never again” because life presents many opportunities for a re-think and change in point of view.  

It is time for youths to be more strategic and less emotional. Many of them feel disappointed because their candidate didn’t win the recent presidential election. Indeed the 2023 election made it abundantly clear that the current crop of aged political actors despite their failure in governance and love of self-aggrandisement, sectionalism and nepotism are not ready to retire, but rather will cling on to power no matter the social cost.

Never before has Nigeria witnessed such flagrant impunity. The glaring deficiencies and violation of electoral laws meant the declared winner, no matter who it turned out to be, was bound to suffer from lack of credibility. 

However, this doesn’t mean youths should give up on the nation. Even though there is no universally agreed international definition of “youth”, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in its resolution 36/28 of 1981 endorsed the definition of youths as persons aged between 15 and 24. All UN statistics on youth are based on this definition.

Paradoxically Article 1 of the United Nations Convention on the rights of the child also defines children as persons up to the age of 18. Youth is best understood as the period of transition from the dependence of childhood to adult independence. It’s the period between adolescence and maturity.

The African Youths Charter recognises youths as people between the ages of 15 and 35. The period between youth and old age, 60 years, is called middle age. All said and done youth should end at a maximum of 35 years. 

The most important characteristics of youths are their generally friendly and cheerful disposition, enjoyment of social situations, desire to collaborate, adaptability, empathy, and ability to learn new things.

These personality traits are seriously lacking in the Nigerian polity, due to a preponderance of professional middle-aged political actors masquerading as “youths” foreclosing opportunities for real youths to join the political mainstream. While peaceful protest is legitimate, disruptive behaviour any breakdown of law and order should be dealt with severely. 

Youths must realize that there are many older people who support them and their aspirations but rightfully will not support anarchy. There is overwhelming sympathy with their predicament of hampered economic and political prospects caused by sub-standard inappropriate education. Today’s over-aged leaders know this and react by sending their own children to school overseas rather than increasing the budget for education. 

Keeping aside allegations of a seriously flawed electoral process, it’s essential for youths to understand that democracy isn’t designed to guarantee them what they want but simply to determine the will of the majority.

Agreed that Nigeria’s inability to organise credible elections and determine the true will of the people more than 60 years after independence is disgraceful, but the matter of election 2023 is before the courts and its proper to wait until the process is completed and look towards a better future than has been bequeathed. 

The ability to easily rig elections means that incompetence, failed policies, bad governance, corruption, subjugating national interest to self-interest, and even the brilliance of political opposition cannot guarantee failure at the polls! 

To paraphrase young environmental activist Greta Thornberg, the older generation who continue to cling to power say they love youths, and yet are stealing their future in front of their very eyes. Until they start focusing on what needs to be done rather than what is politically possible, things will continue to get worse under their watch.  They can only conceptualise moving forward with the same bad ideas that got the nation into this mess in the first place, even when the obvious sensible thing to do is pull the emergency break! They are not principled enough to confess their failures and tell the truth about our situation.

The nation is being sacrificed for the opportunity of a very small number of people to continue making enormous amounts of money. It is the sufferings of the many which pay for the luxuries of the few. 

Today’s youths must understand that when their time comes, as it surely will, they will not be able to solve the nation’s problems unless they acknowledge the situation as a crisis. It will be left to them to entrench equity and create a just and prosperous nation. If solutions within this system are impossible to find then they will have to change the system itself. The old brigade knows they are running out of both time excuses. The weaknesses of youths such as drug abuse and get-rich-quick mentality pale into comparison with the sheer avarice, incompetence, and inconsideration of the current aged political office holders. 

Since the 1970’s youths have been told that they are the future while the old brigade continues to cling to power! They must disregard protest and work assiduously over the next four years to ensure that 2023 will be the last contest between geriocrat candidates.