By holding the youth in contempt, I mean that the nation fails to plan for the education, health, housing, employment and generally to equip the next generation with critical life skills and tools that will position them to compete with their peers from other parts of the world. Nigeria is exactly in contempt of its younger generation. And to a great extent, it is indoctrinating the younger generation to become worse than the present.
The fact of the dominance of the Nigerian society by men and women whose ideas are stuck in the decadent moral jurisprudence of the last four centuries, essentially that might is right and that subversion of the system is the norm instead of being an aberration, leads us directly to the underdevelopment we find ourselves today. The atrocities and crimes that have been committed in the name of democracy since 1999 bear eloquent testimony to the subversion of God’s plan for Nigeria which is a stable and prosperous nation, where the populace live in dignity. Let us recall the fact that virtually all elections conducted since 1999 have not truly reflected the real voting patterns of the people of Nigeria. Billions of naira have been severally allocated on a yearly basis to poverty reduction and these have never been accounted for. As a result, poverty is deepening and laying siege to the doorstep of the majority of Nigerians, especially the youth.
All the people get are budget documents with very large figures and yet nothing ever changes except the lives of a few in the corridors of power and their cronies. From the power probe scandal involving over $16b, to the Halliburton, Siemens and Malabu scams, all the financial felonies documented in the Auditor-General of the Federation’s reports that have not been addressed, to the latest oil subsidy thievery, there is a surfeit of reasons to be angry and to insist that perpetrators of these scams be brought to justice. Over 80 per cent of the scammers are alive and walking free, some occupying positions of authority. Yet, these are ordinary felons that should be occupying prison cells in sane societies.
However, all hope is not lost. This is a new generation. The generation of the internet, the Occupy Movement, fast trains, innovation, great thoughts and redrawing of boundaries. I have a direct message to the youth who for no fault of theirs have been marginalised, brutalised and oppressed by the system. You have a right to reject all sorts of tyranny, intimidation, oppression and domination. Yes, you have the right to ask questions about how public resources are generated and spent and if the answers are not satisfactory, to demand that such resources be returned to the treasury. The legal system may be slow and outdated but you can still use it to seek redress and expand the frontiers of whatever the system can offer. May I remind you that you have the constitutional right to freely express your opinion and disseminate your ideas, the right to mobilise and assemble and to occupy public spaces as part of your constitutional right to freedom of movement. You have the right to the dignity of the human person which essentially means that you must have access to the means of living a life in dignity either directly provided by the state or the state providing the right enabling environment for you to live out a dignified life. You further have the right to refuse to be recruited as thugs and hoodlums to perpetrate evil. Essentially, there is no duty to obey the devil, there is no duty to obey illegal orders and there is no duty to work for the preservation of a decadent system! In the alternative, there is a fundamental duty to work for positive change; to preserve your future and the generations unborn.
The challenges that you face should be seen as inspirational, although the thoughts may spring some level of confusion as to the right direction. You do not need to listen to prodding that implore you to join the decadence and madness if you can’t beat them. I feel ashamed each time I see Profs Wole Soyinka and Ben Nwabueze, Tunji Braithwaite and other elders who should be resting and enjoying some good time with their grandchildren still leading the charge against tyranny while some younger elements prefer to look the other way. These men have paid their dues and there will be no proper documentation of Nigeria’s history without a record of their contribution to the struggle to make Nigeria a better place. Thus, this is the time to concretise the abstract ideas about change into a coherent ordered whole that will produce results. A time to start building a mass movement that will serve as a bulwark against corruption, ensure that thieves will not be allowed to rig the 2015 elections and that the vote must count. This is the time to weed out ethnic and religious trends of thought and seek out the man or woman of vision, mission, passion and great ideas who would begin the process of cleaning the system.
Traversing four cities in the last seven days and talking to hundreds of Nigerians on fiscal governance issues and challenges gave me a clear idea of the burning desire and passion for change that run in the heart of many Nigerians especially the youth. They are angry about the level of decadence and the fact that impunity is rife. They are angry because the federal, state and local governments are simply working for the occupants of the seats of power. They perfunctorily do one or two things in remembrance of the fact that they are supposedly elected. But the bulk of their time is spent to foster their personal agenda, which is the agenda of corruption, subversion and oppression of the majority. But the anger of the majority needs to be properly harnessed and channeled into a movement for social change.
To the civil society and the youth, let us get back to the starting blocks, begin afresh and restart the process of mobilising and empowering our people; build vast and large movements and networks with ability to respond timely and pointedly to violations of public trust. We have done it before and the military were forced to retreat in 1999; we can still do it again. If the youths are the leaders of tomorrow, the way Nigeria is going, that tomorrow may never come if this decay continues unchecked. It may overwhelm all of us and lead us to a full-fledged failed state in the mould of Somalia. We must step out of our comfort zones and rescue Nigeria from the brink. This we must do before the system finally implodes on us.
- Onyekpere, a lawyer, is the Lead Director, Centre for Social Justice, Abuja. He wrote in via censoj@gmail.com.
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