By Salihu Moh. Lukman
"If you wanna be somebody, if
you wanna go somewhere, you better wakeup and pay attention" was the message of Whoopi Goldberg to her exuberant young
students in Sister Act. At a time when everything was crashing, lawlessness
became pleasurable, conventions no longer tenable and all initiatives end up
producing negative outcomes, something different was needed. What? And how?
These are issues that needed very practical, not hypothetical responses. In the
context of a rigid Catholic setting and without really planning for it, a
Whoopi Goldberg, acting as accidental Sister Mary Clarence, who on account of
running from a criminal gang found shelter in a Catholic school offered unique
and ingenious services that saved the school from closing.
That is the situation Nigeria
require today. It is a situation that is best reflected in the lives of our young
people - Nigerians under the age of 35, people born between 1978 and today.
Unfortunately, these are category of Nigerians who have never experienced
anything near a functional society, a society with guaranteed water, power,
healthcare delivery, quality education, etc. Many, although born in our
so-called urban centres, have never witnessed water flowing from public water
source. They have never seen electricity from PHCN (NEPA) uninterrupted for up
to 6 hours, sometimes less. Hospitals have regressed from what Gen. Buhari
while overthrowing Alh. Shehu Shagari in December 1983 described as consulting
clinics to public mortuaries and in the circumstances therefore most Nigerians
when they are sick look for Babalawos of all types of miracle/magical healers
across all religions rather than go to hospitals. The narrative is endless and
pathetic. It basically mirror the lives of the exuberant youth in Sister Act,
requiring something different to pull Nigeria out of its current mess.
One of the major challenge is the
expectation that government initiative is what is needed to produce something
different. In the circumstance, there is a dominant attitude among young people
concentrating energy towards contracting relations with government, largely
because of the notion of government being a reservoir of "free money"
on account of which being in government or close to people in government may
not be more than access to "free money". And since our curriculum of
education at all levels is increasingly becoming abstract, government for our
young people is fictional and at best obtainable in foreign, mainly European,
North America and in some ways Asian and South America countries with emphasis
on China and Brazil. It is hard to explain to this category of Nigerians that
our educational institutions were among the best in the world in the 1960s and
1970s. At that time, our Ahmadu Bello University, University of Ibadan,
University of Ife and University of Nigeria Nsukka were in the league of
Cambridge and Oxford. This is now Tales by Moonlight as even graduate from
these universities produced in the 1960s and 1970s have to (or believe they
have to) garnish their qualifications with some, often short term (in some
cases one week) certificate qualifications obtained from leading commercial
educational centres, mainly in the US.
Since the notion of government is
that it is a reservoir of "free money", politics simply means being
part of the team that lead to the reservoir and eventually control it. The
leaders of this political teams are mainly 'successful elders', mostly these
graduates of 1960s and 1970s with few among them products of the 1980s and
rarely any of the 1990s. These 'successful elders' provide the finances largely
based on personal aspirations for political offices, if you like aspiration to
control part of the reservoir. Being a reservoir therefore it just means
unregulated supply, not tied to any projected outcome other than transfer of
'free money' to 'political loyalists', which are often unreceipted. Because of
the absence of projected outcomes, almost everything goes. Qualification is
first and foremost raw courage and formal education, as they often say in human
resource language, it is an advantage but not a requirement.
In the context of Nigerian politics
whereby the major preoccupation of politicians is not about winning the support
of citizens but preparing to rig mainly through ballot box snatching, writing
results of elections, voter intimidations, etc. and against the reality that
many Nigerians are unemployed or under employed with poor means, our young
people become a major source of patronage. Based on this reality, it can be
argued that politics is today the biggest industry, perhaps more on account of
the amount of resources being expended but hardly on account of employment. It
is an industry that is in the real sense worse than the informal sector of the
economy. No records are kept, nobody engaged has anything near formal contract.
In terms of our young people, it is
an industry that destroy virtually everyone on accounts of the dirty job of
ballot box snatching which requires some levels of insanity on the part of the
individuals carrying out the task. Insanity produced more by substance abuse.
Alcohol are weak and not attractive. Like some officials at federal levels have
promoted certificates from Harvard, etc. as attracting some jumbo pay package,
at our local levels, the equivalent of Harvard is drugs and substance
consumption by young people which enables them to execute all the dirty work
for our politicians.
As a result, we have in our major
cities serious cases of abuse of young Nigerians, resulting in high
disorientation, psychological and psychiatric incidences among young people.
Unfortunately, these are incidences that have assumed a reality of normalcy.
Those affected are regarded as normal human beings with many protected by
powerful politicians and sponsored to offer 'protection' to these politicians,
which may include violent conduct.
This is predominantly our unfortunate
reality today around which majority of our young people find themselves. This
is a situation created by the generation of Nigerians that had good education
provided exclusively by public schools, Nigerians that enjoyed good healthcare
services while growing up, in summary, Nigerians whose humanity was
guaranteed by a state that was responsive and responsible to all irrespective
of status. Unfortunately, years after, these Nigerians have collapsed into a
hobbesian state of mind and downgraded citizens, especially Nigerian youths to
nasty and brutish condition thereby shortening their lives. It is a situation
whereby our leaders regard government as their private estate and every other
citizens, apart from members of their family, are animals that deserve no
dignity. It is just about crude obedience without any decorum, more to produce
a political victory resulting in taking control of position in government.
In the circumstance, our youths are
coerced or drugged to playing very critical dirty role. Can this be halted? Is
it possible to create a new reality similar to what we have in this country in
the 1960s and 1970s? If the common saying that "the youths are the
future" is anything to go by, negative answers here simply means that
Nigeria is doomed. Already, the signs are evident and traumatising.
Perhaps, we need to remind ourselves
that Nigeria as it is today is a product of inspiring interventions of young
Nigerians into politics of the country. Names of people like Samuel Akinsanya,
Ernest Ikoli, Kofo Abayomi, H. O. Davis, Adeyemo Alakija and even Nnamdi
Azikiwe were young Nigerians who in 1933 formed the Nigerian Youth Movement
(NYM) that challenged and ended the political dominance of the National
Democratic Party led by Herbert Macauley. By October 1938, the NYM won
elections for the Lagos Town Council. The same year, they launched the Youth
Charter and in it they articulated their demands, which included opposition to
the British indirect rule.
One of the important attributes of
the membership of NYM was its diverse orientation, comprising leaders of other
groups such as students, trade unions and other associations. Rather than being
a source of division, it strengthen them. They utilise their diverse membership
in these various groups to build an effective national campaign for Nigerian
independence. A major plank of strength was their ability to give new radical
orientations to Nigerian trade unions, students organisations and other
associations based on which the campaign against British indirect rule and for
Nigerian independence was given an active life.
Up to today, the political legacy of
the generation of Nigerian youths of 1930s still has expression in our national
life. It was a legacy that is manifest in especially the radicalism of Nigerian
trade unions and students movement. More fundamentally, it was a legacy that
was stimulated by levels of formal education. In many respect, it could be
argued that the collapse of formal educational system in Nigeria since the mid
1980s accelerated the process of extinguishing radicalism out of Nigerian
youths. Partly, as a result of poor access, but more on account of crash of
standards, the energy, vibrancy, adventure and aspirations of Nigerian youths
are weak, shallow and peripheral, if any at all.
Like the Nigerian leaders,
aspirations is limited to material acquisition, which hardly go beyond cars,
houses, marriage (in the case of men) and pilgrimage. It is hardly about
development in terms of production, services, etc. which come with the
requirement for infrastructural development. Everything is about personal
consumption without even the modest effort to attempt to influence the source
of supply. Against the background of high oil revenue in the country therefore
it is possible to earn without labouring and many Nigerians accept this reality
as normal.
A reality that is apparent is that
such a perspective leads to the destruction of all organisations. With politics
mainly about individual aspirations, organisational objectives are limited to
the promotion of individuals. This could include sabotaging organisational
activities resulting in death of organisations. On account of this, many
organisations have crashed, some of our militant and radical organisations have
lost their edge. New form of radicalism, very close to, if not terrorist, have
emerged. Our old radical organisations have lost their youthful colouration
either on account of completely being run by old guards or become appendages to
interests that regards young people only as tools.
Organisations such as the Nigerian
trade unions and student movement, which since the 1930s served veritable
national political agenda have been reduced to legal expression with hardly any
substance with respect to meeting the expectations of members. That is the
unfortunate state of Nigerian trade unions and student movement. It is a
situation in which even their primary responsibility of improving the welfare
and lives of members has been compromised if not sacrificed. It is a sad
complex reality that leaves Nigerians with virtually hopeless situation. It is
a situation that requires something different!
As a nation, we need new
organisations. These new organisations must have clear vision and driven by
committed and selfless Nigerians. Above all, the organisations must be
political. The truth is that as a nation, there is a deficit of national youth
organisation with a clear political objective. The National Association of
Nigerian Students (NANS), which played that role in the 1980s and early 1990s
is today a commercial enterprise. None of our parties has bothered to develop
framework for tapping the energy of Nigerian youths. The approach has always
been short term, limited to using young Nigerians, often drugging them, to
promote the personal aspirations of politicians.
Producing something different
therefore should translate into getting any of our political parties to develop
a clear framework towards the organisation of young Nigerians on a national
scale. For such a framework to come with potential of contributing to pulling
Nigeria out of its current mess, it has to have a component that seek to
mobilise Nigerian youths around a demand for quality educational delivery, mass
employment and social welfare programmes. These are issues that should be
developed into charter of demands similar to those of NYM of 1930s and NANS of
1980s and early 1990s.
Like the NYM, it should have strong
political objective. With more than 60 million Nigerians being young people
below the age of 35, majority of whom are today unemployed, such a political
demand has potential to produce the winner of any election if backed by strong
organisation. A major drawback has always been that it is very easy to express
all these but very difficult to get anything started. This is where our
opposition parties negotiating the current merger to produce APC can produce
superior commitment and to that extent as part of the rollout plans for APC
produce a national youth political framework.
It can be readily predicted that
this will not happen if initiative is to come from the leadership of the
parties. What will make this to happen will be a situation whereby some young
Nigerians are able to take the initiative and develop the framework and some
organisational strategy. In order for this to be effective, it has to be
nationally oriented. For instance, as part of the strategy to give the
framework and strategy national coverage, in order to promote the demands for
quality education, mass employment and social welfare on a national scale, seek
to produce party youth leaders who are guided by the organisational strategy at
all levels. In addition, since the challenge of achieving the implementation of
these programme require budgetary allocations, it then means some
representation in the legislative arm of government. Could such a framework and
organisation come with a commitment to ensuring some minimum number of APC
candidates for House of Representatives and Houses of Assembly in all states? Also,
could the framework and organisation include strong mechanism for delivery?
These are not questions that should
be answered with hypothetical answers. They require practical answers with
clear vision, leadership and organization. They are not answers that can be
satisfactorily answered based on virtual activism. APC just need to shape the
way forward and reincarnate the glorious achievements of Nigerian youths of the
1930s.
Nigerian shall be born again!
(Lukman can be reached on: smlukman@gmail.com
)
