FOCAL ISSUES ON NIGERIA’S SOCIO-ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL SPACE: TIME FOR A MENTAL SHIFT BY THE YOUTHS

By Nnabugwu Chizoba

I have watched with keen interest, like most people, the efforts by Nigerians, on both sides of the political divide, especially, the youths to convince everybody that cares to listen, the commoners inclusive, of what are in most cases clearly indefensible, unreasonable, silly, and often times idiotic, immoral and myopic. 

When considered very carefully, it is clearly observed that what fires the desire of these Nigerians, including the youths, to speak for their political groups, on any issue, mostly stem out of no other thing, than sentiment, corn, and distortions, at one hand; and on the other, a function of faulty foundation, or at other times are inordinately driven by ambition, supported by lack of understanding of what role one needs to play in the socio-economic and political evolution of a developing Nation, Nigeria. 

Considering that there is hardly any information, in the true sense of it, in the public domain, concerning goings on in the polity, apart from falsehood, propaganda, or at best what could be viewed as half-truth; an indication that most of the youths bandying their ideas, feelings and thoughts, in defense of whatever camp they belong, do so ignorantly.

Events as they unfold, indicate that most commentators, especially, youths know next to nothing about the issues they file out to defend. I stand to be corrected. Meanwhile, let me invite you to share with me the thought of George Bernard Shaw, who said “A person may be ready to die for an idea, provided he is not quite clear about it”.

My line of thinking, finds favour in the belief, that the present generation of youths, going by available records, previous experiences and antecedents of the Nigerian politicians, should have learn their lesson. And on the strength of it become cautious and watch the politicians of present day office holders with keen interest; monitor every of their moves, analyze their utterances and track their performance index, tracing their background, identifying and establishing their friends, contacts, acquaintances and linkages, for better understanding of who they are, in terms of their likes, but more importantly their fears, rather than defend and make excuses for them, on the basis of political divide and parochial interests.

Working from a sound knowledge of the fears of these politicians, will help the youth to make informed conclusions, about what they (the politicians) are likely to support, defend or go against.

It is noteworthy that each successive government in the country have always had flashes of what anybody would easily and convincingly qualify as heartwarming, impressive programmes and projects, including humongous promises at  the early stage of their emergence at the corridor of power. 

There is enormous evidence, at least from experiences of the past, which suggest that, it is not intelligible enough, for the present generation of Nigerian youths, to heavily invest their trust, revered support and hope for economic and socio-political emancipation of Nigerians on political promises, without first, identifying noticeable and proven investments, in critical infrastructure, education, women and youth’s empowerment and social welfare. 

Nations are rated by the presence of the aforementioned, especially if they are managed in a way and manner that they translate into quality human and material resources.

Previous governments and political office holders that are condemned, maligned, smeared and labelled with unprintable names today, were the same governments most speakers of today, almost died for at the early days of their emergence in office. 

Get it right, I am not holding brief for any government, defending or condemning any, as has become the order of the day. This is not because, I want to sit on the fence, but borne out of the fact, that it is not the focus of this piece. 

This write up is motivated more by an acute awareness of the deplorable state of politics, corporate governance, leadership, and followership, in Nigeria.

I am in the know that bad politics, bad governance, bad leadership, and bad followership, beget bad language, bad economy and a defective system. Incontrovertibly, and indeed collectively, they constitute the derailment process and are responsible for the present state of the nation. 

If the Nigerian masses, especially the youths, would learn to calm down, deploy more energy to ask the right questions and demand for the right answers, rather than the push me, I push you approach, that has become the norm rather than the exception. If this done, the people (masses) shall sooner than later, observe very glaringly that they have become the owners of the process, rather than people brought in to quarrel, clash, argue and/or vouch for processes that are fraught with irregularities, high level scheming, half-truth, baseless arguments, irresponsible and irredeemable actions and all manners of filth and lewdness, that they (the youths) know next to nothing about.

When we consider the trend of development in other parts of the world, in terms of the quality of discussions, reasoning and remarks peddled around; and comparing such with developments in Nigeria, the sane in the society will outrightly understand, and as a matter of fact, draw a clear line of distinction and demarcation,

What is clearly deductible from the present Nigerian political space is this, there are what look like new people in town, with new clothes, and frankly speaking with new promises, but earnestly speaking, the body housing the seeming new items remains the same. Simply put; old wine in a new bottle. 

Even the stingiest of men (in terms of speaking the truth), and the most doubtful too, will agree that there is some element of truth with the above. Like my people would say “you don’t need a mirror to examine what is sitting on your wrist”. 

As efforts are made by political office holders and their acolytes, in the form of consultations at different levels, and while negotiations resulting to series of releases, policy directives, appointments, adjustments, re-organisations and also realignments and fine-tuning and others, are taking place, there are obvious indications that some of the steps are designed to address the dwindling socio-economic and political quagmire the Nigerian state is presently facing, there are also those steps considered not too good for the growth and development of the nation. 

While the goings on in the country continue to receive the attention of leaders and the led, and as the downward slope of the economy, in particular is increasingly receiving serious considerations by different echelons of government, the Professional bodies, academia, business community, labour, civil society activists, the youths, and the general public, one purpose is to bring assumptions in line with the real factors that are present when there is a lack of high quality, effective and systematic coordinated approaches to achieve worthy cross-disciplinary integration, and the maintenance of an orderly functional network of people, institutions, commerce and industry.