The last sane generation

This writer accidentally stumbled upon a picture quote with the inscription ‘those born in the 80’s, the last sane generation’, and it got me thinking, there is actually a possibility that Nigerian children born in the 80’s are the last crop of kids in this county that still respect and maintain morality as taught to […]

This writer accidentally stumbled upon a picture quote with the inscription ‘those born in the 80’s, the last sane generation’, and it got me thinking, there is actually a possibility that Nigerian children born in the 80’s are the last crop of kids in this county that still respect and maintain morality as taught to us back then during the course of home training.

Those of us born in the 80’s grew up in a society where kids were taught to respect our elders, you dare not interrupt elders when they are having a conversation amongst themselves, we were taught not to receive gifts from strangers, and even if we were compelled to collect such gifts we informed our parents, then we waited for 4pm or 4.30pm from Monday to Friday to illegally watch a caged black and white television with four legs, we made an appointment with Nigerian Television Authority every Sunday by 6pm to watch ‘Tales by Moonlight’. ‘Spare the rod and spoil the child’ was a popular adage in almost every home, we had pen pals from different secondary schools, and other strict sense of discipline.

As life would have it, I was born into the legal profession in the 21st century where virtually all kids have access to all sorts of information from the internet, and can easily operate a smart device. The coming of technology and internet is not a bad invention in itself, sadly in my country it has replaced our parents as a source of morals in the society, leading to all kind of vices engaged by many kids of this millennial generation.

One would ask, what has being born in the 80’s have to do with the legal profession of today? It is my humble opinion, and I stand to be corrected, that as the last sane generation we are configured to withstand the hardship of legal practice as done by most hay day generation legal professionals who happen to be our principal partners, as opposed to the millennial generation kids who grew up with the carrot approach of correction while growing up, thereby weakening their shock absorber to withstand the rigours of legal practice.

Our elders, fathers, and mothers in the legal environment have played their part in establishing the current legal structure as it is today, it then behoves on the generation of lawyers born in the 80’s to modify the current legal structure to fit the contemporary modern-day lawyer. A typical example is a scenario that happened in one of our court of records, a senior legal practitioner approached a new wig on the brightness of the colour of his pants, and the junior replied by saying he was following the path of the senior lawyer. Now a kid used to receiving unwelcomed slaps on the face for protesting the correction of an elder either we were right or wrong, would respond to the senior lawyer in the appropriate manner.

It is true that not all kids born after 1980’s have misplaced their priority, however, permit me to say that the trending misplacement of priority by the millennial generation has stunted orientation, and intellectual growth, thereby leading to the decaying standard of our culture and morality. The children of the 80’s are currently on their maturity stage of life, and even though we rebelled or skid off the path as we grew up, we now appreciate the home training of the hay days. It is for this reason that I emphasize that the baton of change in the legal profession has been handed over to us to begin a millennial race inculcating the advent of information communications technology into the everyday life of a modern lawyer.

The entry stage of a legal professional is one of the most confusing times in the journey of a new wig; many do not know how to decipher the difference between laws as taught in the University, and Nigerian Law School, to real life legal practice, many are also unaware of the limitless opportunities that avail a legal professional. In order to achieve the desired change in the legal environment, the kids of the 80’s ought to collectively work towards re-introducing mentorship as a fulcrum of the profession.

In sum, we should practice law as it should be, not how it is practiced today, and be an example to the young ones to emulate as they grow in the profession.

Godspeed!

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