Letter To The Youth -By Muhammed Saheed Osioyemi

It becomes necessary to recap the minds back to the memory lane so that the points about to be put across are grasped with an open mind. Maybe the said youth are yet awake from their daydream to envision the hard fact brazenly before them. Who knows? This might reignite and reawaken them.

Yakubu Gowan became the first military head state at the age of 31. General Muritala Muhammad rode to the vantage of leadership at the age of 37. The man from Otta who served as both the military leader and a civilian president when he turned 39.  The list goes on and on. This depicts that the then youth wisely prepared themselves for the mantle of leadership and their high spirited commitment to contribute their quota towards the development of the country.

In furtherance to the above assertion, student activists of the period were hellbent on fighting for the course of the students. They did register their utter displeasure and disapproval towards any policy that seemed to benefit those at the corridor of power than the masses. Late Segun Okeowo led the National Union of Nigerian Students to fight for the welfare of students and protest against draconian policies during the famous “Ali must go protest” staged nationwide against “bad” education policy. 

Sadly, one won’t be wronged or swayed from glare fact that the present student activists prevail to be modern tools that the politicians use to execute their plans. Those elected to frown utterly at the unconcerned attitudes of the government and inordinate education policy are seen parading and endorsing different political aspirants. One couldn’t gulp down their acts, for it rattles so badly.

It’s apposite to conclude that the student activists are in the struggle of students’ union and comradeship with hidden intent of rubbing balms with the politicians at the detriment of the welfare of the students which they rode on their mandates to the cliff. 

Even with the passage of the Not-Too-Young-To-Run which everyone sees as the opportunity for the teeming youth to fill up the political spaces, the youth had proven beyond doubt that they are not ready to run. But their readiness to be used by the politicians is barefaced enough even for the blind to envisage. 

The politicians unleash terror in society. Disruption of elections. The kidnapping of politicians. Creating havoc in society. All these are being carried by the youth for the politicians. Due to stipend that will be stuffed to their pockets or as a result of the brainwashed heads occasioned by the faulty educational system, the youth have been turned to media dogs who bark effortlessly and tirelessly under the pretense of pleasing their paymasters. 

Incessantly, the youth who are expected to be tussling power and staging different strategies in a guise to relegate the old ones from the field of politics are displaying the peak of witless-ness. Their avarice to get quick money from the political arena has made them to be embarking on an errand of dirty coloration for their masters so as to have their ways. It’s indeed pathetic. 

Let’s reverberate to the ears of the youth that now is the time to oust the old ones from the corridor. But that won’t be achievable if the show of shame continues. Necessary it becomes for youth to team up and ditch from being stooges, bootlickers, fake news enablers, and stop being tools in the hands of the politicians to cause unrest in the society.