Over the past decade, many marginally Nigerian youths have failed increasingly and become confused about the tide and direction of their country’s future. The failure is not entirely their fault but that of their leaders who institutionalized corruption and bad governance.
Nigerian youth is experiencing the most severe democratic norm in the history of Nigeria. The good news is that ever since participatory democracy emerged, and the information revolution, there has been a spreading, pushing forward of priorities influenced by the forces of modernization.
In my opinion, and to the best of my understanding, the registration by Independent National Electoral commission-INEC of African Action Congress-AAC morphing from “Take it back” movement to a political party is heartwarming! African Action Congress-AAC as a political party, and “Take it back” as one of the rooming movements to wrestle power from the Nigerian oligarchs is a positive development. The registration of the new party should be a watershed in the anal of political formation in Nigeria. But the pertinent question is: will the current dysfunctional Nigerian youth take advantage of this new development to coalesce around its leaders to fashion a way forward? The naughtiness and lack of empowerment of imagination we currently see in Nigerian youths is my honest inference. For this newborn political party to achieve its aims, it must begin to conceptualize strategy at the local level, and the strategy must encompass all the authentic alliances at the grassroots. AAC must begin to plant its members at the grassroots to gradually take power from these men of yesterday.
The emergence and youthfulness of Omoyele Sowore, Kingsley Moghalu and Fela Durotoye in Nigerian politics is also a glad tiding, and a great opportunity for the emergence of a vibrant polity and political consciousness in Nigeria. Non of these three individuals will not be president in this current political dispensation, precisely in 2019. Yes! But there’s a great potential in them to be president after this current fragile and nascent democratic norm in Nigeria is deodorized and sanitized. Sowore in particular has disrupted the polity and the political consciousness of our politicians. I can’t but commend doggedness of Sowore and others for their political astuteness and emerging power of imagination.
In a nutshell, Buhari is building an enduring foundation for the offshoot of the youth’s future in Nigeria. Buhari’s war on corruption is an elixir for youth’s political education and mobilization. We must relish in taking advantage of the new development to save our country and children’s future.
In order not to fail, these three individuals and others must form a political party; seek the advice of responsible and experienced political elites in our system, be strategic in their approaches to Nigerian politics. The formation of these great minds with no ulterior motives will expose the minds of these emerging youths and others to understanding the intentions of a focused president Buhari and his administration. In the end, they will be the beneficiary of the war on corruption, and enduring foundational democratic principles in Nigeria.
In the hindsight, the current agitation and the evolving youth’s aspiration is a welcome development. The efforts of these indefatigable strong youths must be commanded in its entirety! Discerning mind shouldn’t have any objection to the political aspiration of these young astute Nigerians.
Furthermore, what we owe them as enablers of their aspirations is to encourage and support them beyond 2019 political expeditions. We must not shy away from correcting them whenever they err. We must give them honest advice and how to be strategic in their planning and execution to gradually ease powers away from these sociopath politicians. Buhari’s mien should be their catalyst in order to oil their determination.
In all geopolitical zones, these youths must not get subsumed or drowned in the foul politics of Nigeria. Religious, tribal, status sentiments and political opportunism must be jettisoned at all cost! They should remember that, the current politicians are not going to sit down and see them succeed. In most cases, APC and PDP are perhaps, in outlook birds of the same feathers! They are parties of de facto defectors and deflectors aiming at what will benefit them at the expense of the people. I have predicted this long time ago that All Progressives Congress-APC and People Democratic Party-PDP would eventually or imminently self-implode! We are seeing the ominous signs of their disintegration. But there’s a clause: for the youth to take its country back from the Nigerian political prostitution, it must unite in its aspirations to wrestle power from their mindless leaders. Buhari’s APC must take advantage of the current self-implosion of its treacherous APC members defecting to PDP to clean its house. The emerging APC must fumigate its structure never to allow the infestation of the hellish and selfish defectors. It must team up with the progressive youth group to reboot its members.
The current participants in our contrived political system aren’t going to give the youths the leverage to take power easily from them. The mobilization should start right now to consciously conscientize and educate Nigerians. Good enough, responsible Nigerians are waking up from political apathy and amnesia.
In all Federal government agencies now, everyone is watching each other’s back to avoid to wrath of Buhari’s silent disposition to corruption. Corrupt people will eventually be smoked out from their corruption hideouts. Ultimately, official corruption will fizzle out! Nigerian lives that were daily being pocketed by a few people at the juicy parastatals have got their loopholes being sealed by Buhari’s administration. Funnily, some Buharists will expect the children of corruption to be happy with Buhari! Who thinks that? Even, if Buhari paints all crannies in Nigeria with gold, political opportunists will still wail with an unending complaints and grievances. Conversely, it is now a rainy day for Nigeria at her Federal Ministries, and a dry season for the children of corruption in Nigeria.
In retrospect, “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me” -Matthews 15 verse 8. We were all witnesses to the religious and ethnic idiosyncrasies of Goodluck Jonathan in 2015 and eight years of waste of People Democratic Party. Prior to 2015 general election, Jonathan and his coterie mocked God in the houses of God, and God mocked them back in many folds. He even sacrilegiously went to the palaces of Obas and to get abominable endorsements. All savage expectations of the PDP members boomeranged to their corrupt faces. We saw another vainglorious example in Egbon Fayose in the just concluded election in Ekiti. The Jonathan’s administration encapsulated our last collective journey to the past. We’re not gonna go back to the ruinous past.
Karma is very instructive, and it’s as simple as that! You can’t engage in blasphemy and avoid the ultimate karmatic results! That should also be a warning sign to the children of corruption. The cynics don’t have to believe me today, but majority of Nigerians will laugh and say “Thank you” President Buhari for making us enjoy the dignity of our labour and the dividends of the democratic norm in Nigeria.
In the last political dispensation, we couldn’t even fathom the situation where one person usually went home with =N=500,000.00 every single day at the Nigeria customs service where he worked. Now, it is no more business as usual! The stupendous internally generated revenue at the Customs service is beyond imagination, and it is a welcome development.
Smartly, these evolving Nigerian youths should form a formidable coalition of progressive youths to begin to take power gradually from political vultures at the grassroots, state and national levels. We should have the background checks of all the people routing for political posts stating from the grassroots. Buhari should be elected through the collective voice of the people in 2019. Buhari must be supported to finish his onerous efforts to eliminate official corruption from Nigeria. Sowore and other youths aspiring politicians should form a nucleus of progressive unions around the president to take back their future. Anything other than this honest opinion will be like playing to the gallery, and it will be business as usual and a return to status quo, the anathema we must all avoid.
Finally, corruption is fighting back voraciously, but in the end, truth shall always prevail in the school of reality, conscience and consciousness. Buhari seems to be the one-man battalion in the army of political resistance in Nigeria. Sowore and others must must join Buhari to berth the ship of Nigeria to shore safety.
