Dear Nigerian Youth,

Early on this week, you expressed so much anger. Naturally, it was better to let you express your anger than calling you to some perceived order while your heart raced and your head boiled over. Who can blame you? Two years after you trooped out en masse to bring in a new government. Your justification, you said was the desire to experience “Change” – a promise that only one candidate made. So you helped him get in on the consensus that he was better than the other option.

How could you have known that he was going fail on his promises to engage you? He’d after all employed 25,000 of you to help convince others of his genuine intentions. If he eventually fails, the shame is not on you. It’s on him for having deceived you. The lesson for you is to be extra thorough next time.

So, yes, anger is good. In fact, pro-active anger is better. You have a right to be angry and frustrated. It is however how you have chosen to articulate your points and direct your anger that is a tad bit disappointing. You chose to shame those amongst you who were brave enough to speak up against the government. You allowed your youth to cloud your judgement as you lashed out at not the culprit but your own selves – because you did vote for the present administration too.

This is the simple point of this letter to you: you are still too young to rule if you, having voluntarily voted a public servant into office do not understand that it is your mandate to call such servant out when he/she fails to deliver, or if you will still rather suffer in silence than raise your very potent voice against a failing government – whether you helped vote it in or not. Worse still, you are so not qualified to rule if you think the way to air your frustrations is by taking every opportunity to scream “I-Told-You-So” at those who did not agree with you at the polls when their choice starts to seem wrong.

All 60 million of you cannot be silly, childish and too young to rule. All 60 million of you cannot be so blinded by anger that you will forget everything the recent past has taught you. All 60 million of you cannot be so blinded by anger and hunger that you will choose to focus on what’s gone rather than engage in recalibration that will enable you to make even better choices than you did at the last polls.

#NotTooYoungToRule.

Roqeebah

Creative mind. Enthusiast. Learner. Multipotentialite. And here, an assistant editor.