By Adamu Usman Garko
The idea behind nation building in Nigeria has always been characterised by fallacies and insincere commitments from those with the leverage to champion the course, so as to outgrow Nigeria from the age – long destabilizing challenges threatening the nooks and crannies of our unfortunate regions.
Today, no region in Nigeria is free from one form of suffering to the other. Every sector, from health to education, from agriculture to finance is dancing at the brink of collapse, and sadly every successive leadership has, instead of repositioning the country for better, always end up worsening issues and unfortunately, adding to the mess already on ground. And the sad reality is that, no any govenment under any party is innocent of this uncharitable input. From the very inception of our so called democracy to the present, not a single participant in our political chessboard so far dare lay a claim to innocence.
But we should not distress or give up. Nigeria is too big, vibrant and dynamic for us to be pessimistic about the possibility of having the country heading towards the orbit of progress and genuine development. Individuals, who fortunately through our votes or illegal machinations of theirs have gotten themselves to take charges of our responsibilities have woefully and shamelessly continued to fuel the paths of failure which our country continues to tow due to their selfishness, greed, avarice, incompetency and insincerity. These shouldn’t dampen our optimism as our collective will for development and dynamisms will eventually prevail.
The clique of negative elements in our midst may seem too powerful but they are too small to kill our dreams and the high expectations we nurture for this nation. However, we must be conscious of whatever efforts we are repositioning to tackle the myriads of problems we daily encounter and how we work towards meaningful changes.
This says a lot about the type of heart we channel into what we do and what commitment we nurture to turn around our challenges to successes. Another election is around the corner. It is yet another opportunity to try our luck, to try doing right by getting those capable on board. We can decide the fate of our grossly marginalized and exploited communuties for betterment or watch as the inferno of exploitation eats up our persons and everything we cherish to debris and chars.
The ultimate solution lies in the hands of the youths since it a fact that the youth constitute the highest percentage of actors when it comes to electioneering. Hence, their votes are the most and they hold the ace of deciding the fate of the country’s leadership. But have they ever effectively used this strength for good? And will they make use of it this time around? That is the one million naira question. And your guess is as good as mine.
Honestly, Nigerian youths of these days need to move beyond the endless wallowing in student bodies and union leadership tussles and youthful shenanigans, beyond ending up as media and political thugs and errand boys, beyond lack of capacity and focus, beyond immersion in ritual and cultism misadventures, beyond flexing their God given talents to cheat and defraud as yahoo boys, beyond every ill and negativity associated and domiciled in the trajectories of the youths. The youths need to brace up to the real responsibilities and challenges before them so as to chart up a path for a meaningful present and future devoid of avarice and exploitations that characterize the present political and social terrains.
The youths must make themselves capable and competent enough to lead and be responsible and responsive citizens. This, I believe is the first step. Then, self discovery and personal development should be their key priority of the youths and they should be jealously serious about their reputations. No one’s interest should cross yours or even tarnish you. Once we are done with this stage, I believe strongly that our youths will orientiate themselves to the challenges beforehand and begin to explore areas to rescue our societies once and for all.
The youths should grow beyond being used and dumped and learn to cultivate such powerful and resonant voices that can wrestle their lots from the hands of the teeming political hyjackers for the advancement of their societies. Nigeria is facing existential challenges, and as youths, the ball is in your court to save us from a long tradition of reckless leadership driving.
Adamu Usman Garko writes from Gombe.
