Youth aspiration to leadership: Who qualifies?
Our fathers gave us an unfinished project called Nigeria. In reality, they had it so good during the colonial era. Prosperity was bequeathed to them as they followed in the footsteps of the colonial ruling class, who obviously did their best.
Sadly, making or building a nation with rules, laws and culture of development was utopian to them. Crude tribalism and religion were readily applied for power grab, instead of the hardwork required to build institutions for a modern state and governance.
Interestingly, members of the Nigerian power class have positioned their anointed cronies to take over from where they stopped, a practice that has sustained the enthronement of a leadership culture mired in poor performance and palpable underdevelopment. Such “arrangee” leaders have the apparent flaws of lack of capacity to bring needed transformation to the polity.
Nigerian youth today is better described as disillusioned and agitated. Numerous indices of underdevelopment, like youth unemployment, crime, squalor, even death, have the youth, at the receiving end. Unfortunately, not a few youth are still in the shackles of religion, ego and mindless politicking, which only benefit the ruling class.
Wallowing under the socio economic burden of misgovernance, the youth, out of frustration, mouth the aspiration to take over the leadership of the country. But we are apparently not prepared for the task of salvaging the country. This position of lack of preparation is further weakened by the unwillingness of the current leaders to yield power to any folk other than their cronies, cum the bastardized electoral process.
Every conscious youth in Nigeria is aware of the national failure but suffers from a sense of inadequacy in the face of the intimidation posed by the ruling class. Many youths have divested their energies to the ordinary like, reality shows, gambling and entertainment. We have excommunicated the local intellect, but will rather beg for money or become subservient to a rich member of the political class. Merit is no more acknowledged. Crudity and innate contempt for knowledge is the order of the day.
When I realize that the current leaders were once youths, I am bothered as to why they couldn’t act differently from their forebears. This points to the probability that the aspiring youths of today can suffer the same fate experienced by them. This realization confers the need on the youths of today to wake up and act in a manner that our children will not speak ill of us.
The turning around of our fate, as a nation, begins with the understanding that the current system is simply about preserving the worst. And for the youth to make the needed impact, we need a vision based on hardwork and intellect. We also need boldness and the flair for taking risks. More importantly, heady refusal to follow the existing course of history.
Those who will chart the course of the desired destiny for Nigeria must
a. be Youths
b. not be mere followers of ideologies
c. be ready to learn and develop their own Discourse, which must include thoughts on new institutions, new rules of engagement, building of fresh paths to building trust and Unity, and see to their attainment.
From the foregoing, to be the change agent in the dawn of a better future for Nigeria, the demand is enormous, but by no means unattainable. The pathway to the attainment of the desired qualities is what the author of the book, “8th Habit”, Stephen Covey, referred to as “Seek private victories before you seek public victory”. Those who brought the nation to this sorry pass hugely failed at leading themselves in private.
Therefore, to qualify as a change agent, a youth must, in addition:
i. embrace personal development as use same to build himself to the highest level possible
ii. be ready to give his best all the time
iii. be intellectually strong as to master the art of turning poison into medicine, a feat achievable through paying keen attention to issues.
If the majority of the youth population, in Nigeria, passes the integrity tests as highlighted, and offer to serve, Nigeria of the future will be better than now.
