.jpg)
A Public Presentation on Youthocracy; a lasting option for generations
Tell me and I may remember, show me and I may forget, involve me and I learn: Those were the words that ghastly struck a proximate region of my hippocampus as I hovered around the crucible, encapsulating the socio-political challenges the youth face today, which in turn was borne out from the crystallization of a thinking process.
To say the labour of our heroes past shall never be in vain is commendably historic, amidst the constant dialogue to ensure that Nigeria’s future isn’t compromised, as the toiling of the present age seems to achieve an unprecedented feat.
We are tired of being tagged “the leaders of tomorrow” for tomorrow is unending. We are keen to be the “leaders of today” which then becomes imperative to place matters into proper perspective. I might not be a chief commander to authorize national integration, but I have a pen mightier than the sword in which the “cry for relevance” shall never cease to be expressed via writing.
As being coined in his book titled: ‘Vision for Africa”, Tunde Eso – a prolific writer and a one-time Governorship aspirant of Osun State defined “Youthocracy” as the government of the people, by the youth and for the people.
He believes that there is a need for the new system of government to be adopted globally, with the possibility of paving way for the young brains to assume leadership mantle in Africa to inject new ideologies that will elicit industrial revolution, political stability and economic development cum educational advancement to ensure pragmatic growth.
Sufficient knowledge on contemporary issues is germane in placing issues into proper perspectives to guide the unsuspecting members of the public against irrational thoughts and actions; to project and promote the spirit of nationalism, and to guide the young and juvenile minds to align with the vision of creating a brighter rewarding future in consonance with the ideals of a strong and virile economy as being orchestrated and laid by our founding fathers.
Yes!!! There is a significant dimension of the leadership predicament in Nigeria which bears critical scrutiny as regards the intimate connection between youth development and national development.
One side to this disjuncture is that the Nigeria post-colonial leadership has consistently been made up of old men, who have weakly supervised the alarming, and massive disenfranchisement, and unemployment of the Nigerian youth.
Truth be told – Nigeria is confronted with an acute manifestation of how the youth can be diverted from the irrational responsibilities and leadership destiny by unending and rampant centrifugal forces of religious fundamentalism, tribal and ethnic sentiments, political jingoism and economic instability. This is a nation that undisputedly and urgently needs a creative rethinking of its development dynamics in a manner that recognizes the tangible and imperative injection of a pragmatic policy framework that will invest heavily in the youth, not only as of the basis of the required human capital development but equally as a pool for leadership regeneration.
In today’s Nigeria, we are faced with stark realities that whenever the economic importance of Nigeria is recounted, crude oil, natural gas, and ample solid minerals are chiefly presented as signifying Nigeria’s wealth.
Yet, the true wealth of Nigeria resides elsewhere, if the youth are given the chance for in-depth participation, then it can abundantly put it at a more strategic resource advantage.
Consequently, if this resource is painstakingly nourished and developed, in a civilized world where knowledge, creativity and dexterities out rightly determine the competitive edge, then Nigeria would achieve a quantum jump onto modernity.
The institutional policy framework of the nation is increasingly youth unfriendly, and this to the point of constitutional reaffirmation for their irrelevance to democratic activism. The youth is regarded as a potent force for national development as being described by political elites, yet we are exclusively marginalized.
What is/are the inference(s) of a nation in which there is/are no practical and pragmatic policy framework that could channel the recognition of the role of the youth into national development thinking and the eventual evolution of the developmental state in Nigeria? Of course, your guess is as good as mine. If I may ask, are there national policies that could match the magnitude of challenges that the youth faces presently? Or are there elaborate government empowerment schemes that focus on the attention and energies of the youth? Ohh that is mind-boggling.
The Not-To-Young-To-Run bill signed into law by President Buhari glows as a welcome development to enhance the preponderance of youth participation in the national political space.
Unfortunately, we live in political societies where money politics is regarded as political apparatus in deriving inference(s) from our political experiments, and this continues to open a flurry of black holes on grounds of our struggling democracy.
As opined, the Not-To-Young-To-Run bill can fully be effective and utilize if our political lexicon can do away with corruption and shun money politics. Nepotism and favouritism clustered in the envelope of financial buoyancy shouldn’t be regarded as parallel factors in scrutinizing intending political aspirants, as this continues to rub mud on the nation’s political regalia.
It is high time for the leadership of Nigeria to embrace competencies: those brimming with innovative ideas to steer the affairs of this nation in the current and in retrospect: those filled with ideological premises to promote democratic ethos here and there: those bury in the crucibles of knowledge and dexterities to drive the integration of this nation to peace and development: those embodied in the cloth of creativity to direct the political wheel to the desired height, and those with proficient attributes to direct the think tank to a more strategic point.
Without feigning ignorance of the advent of civilization, the aforementioned virtues are chiefly considered as page-one factors in experiencing a quantum jump into modernity, and this ultimately determines the competitive edge in a sane society. If the face of the Nigerian youth reflects Nigeria’s future, then we need to give them a voice that echoes through several generations of what has been and what can be.
As a concerned youth, I am still guided by the maxim which goes thus: If determination will determine our destiny, then we must be determined to determine our determination. And what is this determination?
The determination is to see a new emergent and integrated Nigeria fully realized only if its demographic advantage is mobilized and well equipped to help drive Nigeria integration, peace and development agenda.
The participation of the new generation in the democratic and development matrix of Nigeria is a crucial dimension of Nigeria’s predicament, but it is just one out of the total framework of the nation’s dysfunctional tales, which we all need to confront and unravel.
One feasible means of doing this is to facilitate a grand inter-generational conversation between those who are aggrieved and those who supervised the injustice, in a bid to ensure the healing of a fissure that has undermined national progress for far too long.
God bless Nigeria