Sadly, no succession plan in Nigeria

I have never seen a country that never prepares for tomorrow other than Nigeria.  During pre-independence and the first republic, the leadership of Nigeria was composed of youth and elders. The elders did all they could to ensure succession in governing the country. The Sardauna Administration was full of young intellectuals, some of whose parents […]

I have never seen a country that never prepares for tomorrow other than Nigeria.  During pre-independence and the first republic, the leadership of Nigeria was composed of youth and elders. The elders did all they could to ensure succession in governing the country. The Sardauna Administration was full of young intellectuals, some of whose parents attended Katsina College the same time as the Sardauna himself. Some of the youth then were enrolled into Nigerian Army. A lot of them did not meet the recruitment requirements, but were nevertheless favoured by the Premier and his likes.
These and many more were what helped most of the present Nigerian elites in their careers: the background and experience in public service.
Unfortunately, today none of these elites, whether those still in power or those that have left, have adopted the succession plan. They keep appointing their age mates to hold the key positions in government, and leave the younger generation to become pirates, criminals, thugs, insurgents, militants and perpetrators of violence in the country. I agree that most of the appointees are highly experienced, but the thing is they were given the chance to acquire the experience. None of them was born with such experience, they acquired it only after the way was paved for them to have opportunity and make use of it. If the government continues to appoint old breeds in key positions, then I am afraid of what will happen when the old breeds die and take their experiences with them to their graves. Sincerely speaking, I am worried and wordless. If the trend continues this way, one could be forced to start losing hope of a brighter future for Nigeria.
Youth had lost any chance of been relevant until of recent (2014) that we fought a crucial and determinant battle: we played a vital role in the victory of the then opposition party, APC. We strove to garner support and votes for the APC in its massive campaigns all over the country. During the elections, many of us (youth) met their demise, our bloods shed, and countless of us injured. We queued under the hot sun, we secured the ballot boxes, we ensured that our votes and the votes of other Nigerians counted, we had a sleepless night on the 28th of March, 2015; we shared the results on social media before they were even announced on radio and television. But all seems to be in vain.
It is only recently that I felt very depressed and disappointed with the type of people the present administration is appointing to hold public offices. The list of the 47 ambassadorial nominees that was recently sent to the Senate for confirmation is full of old people, some of which served as ambassadors as far back as the 1980s. May be the Buhari Administration would say it is trying to reward them for their contribution during the campaigns. The simple questions I want to ask: Why is the Buhari Administration that the toil and blood of the youth brought into power ignoring competent and qualified young people in its appointment? Is the SSA only what youth needs? Why is President Buhari appointing his age mates? Do they want the youth to always remain part of the problems facing Nigeria? Do they want us to turn our backs on them in the 2019 Elections?
Engr. Yusuf Abdullahi Ahmed, Abuja