What manner of youth?

The National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN) recently expressed its displeasure over the exclusion of youths in the list of proposed new Ministers being “screened” by the Senate. They allege that this contradicts the letter and spirit of the Not Too Young To Run Law. The new National Policy classifies Youths as being aged between 15 – 29 years and the youngest proposed Minister is 44 years old. NYCN leaders maintain that while campaigning and appealing for their votes All Progressives Congress (APC) leaders clearly promised them appointments so as to bring fresh ideas into governance. What isn’t clear is why they believed it in the first place? After all there are a plethora of far more important promises that the APC previously made which they never kept. Disappointingly, the list of proposed new Ministers contains recycled politicians with the same old ideas, and heavy clouds of corruption allegations hanging over some of them. It’s been described in some quarters as the final nail in the coffin of the anti-corruption fight, and brought calls for proper screening to be done by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) rather than a compliant and docile Senate. Fourteen Ministers were returned, along with ten former Governors, six exSenators, one serving legislator, seven women, and no youth. Technocrats and experts in their fields were sidelined in favor of politicians whose qualification for office is based upon loyalty rather than competence. These “professional politicians” have parasitically lived off government for anywhere between eight and twenty years while the nation’s fortunes have plummeted. Yet despite their proven ineptitude and alleged corruption the powers that be prefers them to patriotic youth. So much for fresh ideas! Paradoxically, as Nobel laureate Professor Wole Soyinka pointed out, Nigeria youths were predominant in politics in the lead up to independence and the immediate post-independence era. Back then Awolowo was 36, Ahmadu Bello 26, Akintola 36, Tafawa Balewa 34, Okotie-Eboh 27 and Anthony Enahoro 27. In 1966 at the time of the first military coup when ill-disciplined soldiers first started bringing the nation to ruin, Nzeogwu, Danjuma, Babangida, Abacha, Buhari, and Obasabjo were all under 30 years of age, and after much killing 32 year old Yakubu Gowon became Head of State. There is a school of thought that their educational shortcomings and youthful exuberance led to the mistrust which put the nation on the path to the mess in which it is still trying to extricate itself, but mistrust and insecurity is far worse today under so called “elders” than it was back then. As for the today’s youth

the social media is replete with pictures of our political leaders’ children graduating from Universities overseas. This is a tacit admission by those in charges of our affairs that our education system is substandard and can’t produce intellectuals with the vision to conceptualize new ideas for the future. Year in and year out young Nigerians overseas bubbling with fresh ideas record academic feats and make giant strides in fields of engineering, medicine and social studies. Lamentably these dynamic far-sighted ingenious youth are never invited to come and serve the father land. As regrettable as this is, the problem is far more serious than whether or not youths are given appointments by administration.

Government by analogue geriatrics unable to fix the erratic power supply, defective education system, moribund health facilities, poor infrastructure, and ever worsening security situation can’t continue indefinitely. The question then remains what manner of youth would governance eventually be handed over to? The Nigerian educational system is renowned for churning out semiliterates with no marketable employment skills, then leaving them to their own devices. These youths then either try to escape overseas or occupy their time with cultism, armed robbery, 419, and kidnapping. The social media is replete with videos of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) terminating the careers of youthful armed robbers after shoot-outs. In one widely shared video the bloodsoaked dying robbers turned out to be young boys aged 18 – 24. As they breathed their last breaths and the cheering crowds rained curses upon them, one was asked about his father. He hissed and replied “that one na idiot, e go just suffer die for nothing”! As it turned out his father was a retired civil servant living in penury with his pension not being paid and nothing to show for a life of service, patriotism and honesty. The now deceased young man said he wasn’t ready to suffer as a result of honesty like his father! In other videos young boys confess to killing as a result of cult activities or kidnapping gone wrong. Ironically Nigeria’s honest, God-fearing and hard-working youths can never earn as much in employment as they can on the Big Brother Reality TV Show where they are handsomely rewarded for public debauchery! Successive governments obsessed with the perks of office and chasing down political enemies have paid little attention to the important task of social engineering and investment in human capital.

Whenever Nigeria’s aged recycled politicians eventually retire from governance the nation will have its work cut out to limit the ill-effects of leadership by the manner of youth they allowed to develop.