Letter To Nigeria Youths: Now Is The Time -By Okereke Nnamdi Nwafor

My Dear Fellow Young Nigerians, I’m writing this to you In the spirit of Patriotism, for the sake of our future survival and that of our dear Country Nigeria.

It was Albert Einstein that said ” No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it “.

That, unfortunately, is what we are doing. We complain about the problems and challenges but that’s all we do. We still follow the same people who created the problem and eulogize them to high heavens. We are guilty of lack of depth and originality. Our level of thinking is pedestrian. Since one can rise beyond the level of their thinking we have remained at the aboriginal state of being- the same with our progenitors. Universities and tertiary institutions shape and mould their products such that they stand out in the originality of their ideas.

Alexandria, the first University in the world was a centre of enlightenment. Harvard turns out products who impact the world. Yale and MIT products leave their indelible footprints everywhere they go. Our own local universities and tertiary institutions due to bad governance churn out mass ignorance. They produce graduates who should know but don’t even know that they don’t know.

We only have weight and occupy space. We constant thought is only about today while we don’t seem to know that tomorrow is already here with us. We wallow in the past while our contemporaries the world over leave us behind. Africa is behind the Western world by almost 250 years. We know what that means? We’re a relic. We’re a museum piece. We’re stuck in your ways. We’re becoming a liability to the entire world.

While youths all over the world are innovating and inventing things, all we do is to fight over one politician or the other. You carry placards at the screening of ‘wannabe’ ministers when your brains actually need screening. There is no other country in the world where people love their oppressors like we do. You think you change governments but all you do is change one oppressor with another.

While the demographics of leadership the world over is getting younger, yours is getting ancestral. The youngest person in our government’s cabinet is 53 while the oldest is 80. Sanna Marin, the new Prime Minister of Finland is 36. If she were to be a Nigerian, she won’t even get a cabinet position. In 1973, Yakubu Gowon was 39 years when he visited Canada and shook hands with Justin Trudeau who was barely 2 years then. Today, Justin Trudeau is the Prime Minister of Canada.

The future is here with us while we remain stuck in the past. While others are carrying the destiny of their nations, you are carrying the bags of politicians. In 2021, 26-year-old Simoncini Giacomo was elected President San Marino. Now 27 years old, he is the youngest person ever elected to that office not only in San Marino but also the youngest President in the world today . While some are solving the problems of their nations, we Nigerian youth are one of the problems of the country. Go to Finland a 33 years old lady was elected the Prime Minister and she is doing marvelous well in the leadership of her Country, same at France, but in Nigeria we are still been deceived with peanuts from recycled Leaders.

Does it not bother you that once you’re above 40 years, you have lesser years to spend as you arrive at the departure lounge of life? Should you not be thinking about the future more than the present? For instance, by 2050 Nigeria will hit the 1b population mark. Twenty- eight years before 2050, we are still stuck in subsistence farming. We can’t feed 200m people now so how can we feed 1b people? We can’t provide housing for 200m people now, so how can we provide housing for 1b people? While the rest of humanity is trying to land on Mars with 200,000 applicants vying for just 100 slots, we still find it difficult to run an airline.

Why am I so angry with you ? Upon all that is happening I still see majority of young Nigerians defending and Marketing the same consciousness that created our current situation. Shouldn’t my anger be directed at your dealers erroneously called leaders? It’s because the destiny of this nation lie in our hands and we know not. A nation is as hopeless as its youths. A nation is as helpless as its youths. A nation is as creative as its youths. A nation is as clueless as its youths. A nation is as energetic as its youths. The strength of a nation lies in the promise of its youths. The greatness of a nation lies in the potential of its youths. A nation’s destiny is then essentially that charted by the young population. Whatever a nation will be, look no farther than the youth. I look at you and I’m afraid for Nigeria.

We are a mass production from the factory of ignorance. We are victims of a dysfunctional society. We are inheritors of an estate of crass foolishness. We are like Nabal of whom it was described that folly is with him. All we know how to do is wear designer labels- from Gucci to Prada, from Versace to Armani- you’re obviously well dressed but you’re a well dressed fool. We refuse to dance to the beats of the future rather preferring to wallow in the shallowness of the past. Wole Soyinka described his generation as a wasted generation. Will you be wasted also?

It is time to force our way to relevance. It is time to take responsibility for the future because the future will not be inherited- it will be earned. Stop playing the blame game. Stop blaming your circumstances because we can rise in spite of them. Stop blaming your ancestors because they bequeathed a legacy of ignorance to you- they don’t know any better. Organize rather than agonize. Don’t just think outside the box. Throw away the box. We have the numbers- use them to force a real change. As we ask questions, go further by seeking answers. Rather, be the answer. As you talk about the challenges, go further by seeking solutions. Rather, be the solution.

But nevertheless, I sincerely appreciate our boldness and efforts in the #endsars protest October 2020, When for the first time in Unity and one voice we stood up and demand end to bad governance in our dear Country, although our efforts was still frustrated by the evil elites but that is to show or a testrunning of our power as Youths. Still It’s no longer news that the 2023 elections is almost nine months ahead of us, Millions of Nigerians are going to be exercising their power as Citizens by electing leaders who will be saddled with the affairs of our great nation for the next four years, But permit me to just draw our attention that what we demanded in October 2020 will become reality if will stand up to build and reshape the destiny of our giant Country by electing Capable individual as our leaders.

We should remember, if we vote for the sake of peanuts, we are equally betraying our Future and our destiny, we youths are powerful and influential as we constitute a greater part of the nation population, therefore the Future of our dear country rests on us and we must act now to save it.

In conclusion, Dear Young Nigerians let’s us engage the power of one mind in securing our future, nothing can stop us if we are united and stronger in electing those that will represent us in the government. Let’s use 2023 to correct what we couldn’t correct in the #endsars protest of October 2020.

Together we can make our nation a better Place.

God bless Nigeria Youths.
God bless Federal Republic of Nigeria.

~ Amb Okereke Nnamdi Nwafor
08108331379
nnasono2020@gmail.com