Should We Revolt? -By Kareem Itunu Azeez

Should we revolt?.. Mbeki had asked his fellow comrades. Those were words used in the novel, Traces and Tribes of Dogoria. Those words are as a result of heavy suffering merged with hardship in a place arguably the best among its counterpart, but due to the rule of people who have forgotten, when they die they take nothing with them, corrupt political leaders, corrupt elders and bad generation of parents, dwelling among us, putting their future at risk. Then in the imaginary state of Dogoria.

So should we revolt once more I ask?. Walking along various slumps and ghettos, I realise how lucky I think I am or rather some of us seems, yet we are not satisfied with the way we live, we hardly survived a day, and smile when the oppressors come to town, Lets take for example, having watched a jungle justice metted out to one young individual between the ages of 21-26, caught for stealing around the Ajeromi Ifelodun local government area, he was beaten to a pulp, meanwhile the real thieves are our elected political officers, who have refused to do our roads, who have refused to make our electricity work, how then do we survived in the Midwest of high inflation yet wages and salaries are stagnant, what choice do you leave unmotivated youths with?

It is true that the today’s generation youths are negatively oriented about the ways of life culturally and political wise, one might even accept it that they have forgotten their rights as citizens as enshrined in the 1999 Nigeria constitution. It is to this fact that they may not ask questions, and it is true that, they don’t really care anymore how wealth are gotten as long as they are successful in whatever form, because the society and the elders have heavily dissapointed and the politicl animals elected into office, have only their selfish interest at heart. What hope are they left with, in the midst of plenty and destitution is all they live with.

In the early 1960, according to history, it was the norm that every student across the federal tertiary institutions in Nigeria, already has a job waiting for them, according to their respective discipline, however since the turn of the new millennium, and as at 2018, the unemployment Rate in Nigeria increased to 23.10 percent in the third quarter of 2018 from 22.70 percent in the second quarter of 2018. Unemployment Rate in Nigeria averaged 12.31 percent from 2006 until 2018, reaching an all time high of 23.10 percent in the third quarter of 2018 and a record low of 5.10 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010.

While in the late 60’s towards the early 70s The problem of food shortages and imports was addressed in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In the late 1970s the military government of Olusegun Obasanjo embarked upon “Operation Feed the Nation.” His civilian successor, President Shehu Shagari, continued the program as the “Green Revolution.” Both programs encouraged Nigerians to grow more food, and urged unemployed urban dwellers to return to the rural areas to grow food crops. The government provided farmers with fertilizers and loans from the World Bank. The food situation stabilized, although Nigeria still imported food.
In contrast to what we have today, Nigeria now import almost everything we use, except for the air we breathe, simply because our elders cant determine how and where it all went wrong.

Stealing, losing of jobs, corruption, killing and violence may never end in this our generation, Opara Michal, a casual worker, in a factory expressed his dismay, he was a business man, but the inception of the current administration made him who he is, he now lives from hand to mouth. With many others like that, which I have encountered, listening to their sad stories, I came to a conclusion which is not news to anyone, that Nigeria is truly blessed, but Nigerians are suffering, for reasons we know, the bad politicians, the bad leaders we have, we do not know if this is as a result of the people we are, but if this is not because who we are, but just some bad eggs among us, then I ask one more time, to the responsible and brave youths, should we revolt?

Of all the geopolitical zones across the federation, the dominant population falls between the bracket of individual within the age ratio 18-35, thats the degree that the universe accept as youths, although a wholesome of about 70% of this people have not completed their tertiary education, that’s if at all they have, another 65%, of this able men have no job to do, even with the educated among them, outrightly not their fault, but because the society and the government have really not put into place enabling environment for this people, with the current trend of the economy, there is a possibility that the unemployment percentage would jump to 90% in the next two years, which ultimately will keep the whole country on the brink of lockdown, we can as well see for ourselves how things are going for worse, as foreign investors are shipping out their wealth to neighbouring countries, thereby rendering more people jobless and more home, looking towards the streets for sustainable air to breathe.

However it is even more unfortunate that as we know the truth, we still out of favouritism clamour unnecessarily, that one political party or one politician has the answers, even when quite well we know they don’t, but because the weapon of poverty has been used on many of us, we forget our essence of education. Let’s take for example, the vietnam protest of the 1960, majority of the protesters were all studenst, which till today has giventhe youths of the vietnam a largervshare in the political realm ofbtheir country, another is the Arab spring whuch changed the story of the arab community forever, For some, Twitter and Facebook embody the stereotype of a disconnected, smartphone-toting young person. But during 2010’s Arab Spring, social media helped youth organize an unprecedented revolution that started in Tunisia and spread to Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Syria, Bahrain, and other Middle Eastern countries.

Frustrated by police corruption, economic woes, human rights violations, and oppressive regimes, youth took part in a wave of pro-democracy protests that turned public plazas like Cairo’s Tahrir Square into sites of struggle. The demonstrations were sparked by the death of a young Tunisian street vendor who set himself on fire after a police officer confiscated his cart.

Young activists weren’t the only people who participated in the demonstrations, which roiled the Arab world for over a year, fed into ongoing conflicts like the Syrian civil war, and resulted in the ouster of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, many other exceptional movements even herebin nigeria, the west africa student movement of the then also inckuded, all this has been initiated by youths between the ages of 18-36, youths who have been pushed to the wall, in a place they know they should be living large.youths who are rather determined to change their country into a safe haven, but today, I can’t say or vouch for any of our generation.

During the early years of our self rule, military coups have always been carried out by individuals not older than 34 years, an average age of 25, in the Nigeria history, of which the current president was once a successful coup detat successor, all their mission was to liberate Nigeria from the grip of corruption, while their inner motive, is just for their self esteem and like Maslow would put it, in the hierarchy of needs.

If we should revolt, as the angry Nigerian youths, though we there might be justifications for the government, as to why things seems to head in this negative way, just as one administration blames the former for wreckage panning for many years ago, using us to play blame games. Our revolt would likely achieve a system where the rule of law might prevail, where rigging of election might be limited if not washed away, where the educational system would come back to life, from the rotten soil is dwells currently, where hunger would be wipe away from every face of the indigenes of her country, its not by political election of the current cabals or refined old men, but a newer version of Nigeria where the youths won’t just dominate population wise, but power would also belong to them.

Before the larger world is condemn for it ills, ones house should be in order, in Lagos to be precise, various sources had it that, the incessant traffics, on our roads benefits some group of people, and at one time, on a radio show, a federal road safety corp FRSC once disclosed the affairs of why the gridlock would not be out of sight any moment from now, he said, the trucks are been extorted at the expense of lagosians, to at least #10,000 per truck before they could be allowed into the wharf long the Apapa coast, the roads already are bad, and the inactive government have nothing to do about it, why then should some people still make it difficult for the average man who still does not depend on the government for survival live life. I believe the narration of the safety corp, when the president visited Lagos, for its party campaign, along the surulere axis, where daily workers where shut off their daily bread, simply because of an unnecessary campaign, by the morning of the eve day of the president visit, no one can explain where the trucks had gone to, and a day after the campaign rally, everything had come back on the roads again, and even dangerously, on the bridges. Should we still not revolt, until hunger begins to take us one by one, as already 91% of us are regards as desperately poor, would you wait till you directly be among the helpless but not hopeless in a country where you have equal rights.

As much as the youths are blamed for their unrepentant ways today, the elders have also failed us, gallantly, they have recklessly made decision which only shows their selfish attitude in which they likely would end their life with. Endless and unacceptable excuses have been given days without number for issues that with common sense and a patriotic heart, could have been avoided.

The postponement of the election isn’t the issue, but the implications on the countries social economic aspect, those who survive base on daily income were rendered helpless simply because they decided to be patriotic, those who own industry, were given a forced shut down, which has spanned to another 24hours to come, more on this will be talked about in due time. God bless Nigeria

Ikareemazeez@yahoo.com