I am one of those people who spent hours in class looking at the clock or my wristwatch while waiting for the bell to ring so I could go home or to my hostel as the case was. It goes without saying that I’m not a fan of this form of education where so much focus is on things that have little no bearing whatsoever on everyday life or work. As a result I’ve honed my ability to daydream.
One time, I dreamt about being superman in maths class.
That probably explains why I failed it in WAEC.
I still daydream. The other day, I dreamt of a 40-year-old becoming Nigeria’s next president in my International Relations class. (Dear Lecturer, if you’re reading this, it’s nothing personal).
Like my superman dream, my 40-year-old president dream is unlikely to happen. Not because I am immune to kryptonite, but because for some un-understandable reason, my 70 something President decided to nominate a cabinet of his age mates.
It makes me wonder, like so many other youth why we were lied to in school and every other forum in our short lives. Why tell us we are the leaders of a tomorrow that they won’t allow to come after so many years. Why not just be blunt and tell us “till we die, you will have to be on a continuous chill-pill medication.”
Sometimes I wonder why I am even surprised. President Buhari, a man way past the national retirement age, was the best option to the somewhat confused and embattled Former President Jonathan. As our good luck would have it, the Youth chairman (or whatever position it’s called, I don’t really care) for the APC is also an elder statesman (Possibly, my grand father went to school with him).
Before the PDP cronies will think I am one of them, let me assure you that I belong to nobody because after ruling this country for all of my developmental life, the PDP offered just a little terms of youth empowerment. After all it’s under the PDP that unemployed youth from the Niger Delta and up North held and continue to hold this country to ransom.
This is why I’m begging any influential person under 40 to start a political party with an age limit of 40 years. In this party whenever a person reaches the 40 year mark, except they are in office, they will be respectfully sent off or kicked out as the person’s antecedents demand.
The time is now, for Nigerian youth to stand up for themselves because political parties filled with elder statesmen who are sincerely confused as to what demographic actually constitutes youth, cannot be entrusted with preparing this present generation (that they still refer to as the next generation) with the demands of leadership. Added to that, the PDP is in no condition to mount a substantial opposition (except the APC has an epic meltdown).
We mustn’t wait till grey hair and grandchildren validate our right to belong to the old people’s society before we act.
In the famous words of John Cena, our time is now.
Ugo has a blog where he rambles on about life and other things that he likes and that annoy him. His blog is Ugotalksalot.com.
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