These past days have been full of euphoria as well as criticisms—depending on one’s perspective—concerning the Ministerial List and screening by the Nigerian Senate. The average age of those on the list is 53 years, and one begins to think about the intent of the president for not including a single young person in the list, not even one.
In a country that has about 70% of its population as youths, it’s quite difficult to believe that the primary stakeholders –the young people—have been totally sidelined in the current dispensation.
The youngest person on the list, at least that I know of, is Mrs Kemi Adeosun from Ogun State and she is 48 years old. By any standard, she’s not a youth; perhaps an “old youth” if there’s anything like that.
What Are The Issues?
Well, many have argued that Nigeria is at the point of collapse and there is need to bring in very experienced and competent, mostly old, hands like former governors, senators, captains of industries, outstanding technocrats to rescue her.
For me, I’m not against the appointment of these towering figures: Dr Kayode Fayemi, Mr Babatunde Fashola (SAN), Mrs Amina Mohammed, Ibe Kachukwu, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, and a few others but they can as well be mixed with some notable young Nigerians can’t to pilot the affairs of the various ministries.
It would be a gross disservice to say that no single Nigerian youth is qualified to be a minister in this current dispensation. Knowing that ministries like Petroleum, Power, Education, Health etc require experienced “big boys” to manage, what of, say, Ministry of Science and Technology, or Ministry of Youth.
I want to believe that the various social media platforms of various public and private organisations are managed by young, creative people. The youths ‘own’ the social media and that’s why the victory of President Muhammadu Buhari wouldn’t have been made easy, or perhaps possible, if young people didn’t take destiny into their able hands.
And I know the presidency is aware of this. On Thursday, October 15, at #TheRedSummit—a conference of technology-savvy and media enthusiasts—the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media, Alhaji Garba Shehu alluded to the fact that the president won largely because of social media. So, why can’t the ‘custodians’ of social media who helped stage a ‘common sense revolution’ be given the opportunity to be a part of the Change government?
There Is This Other Key Issue Too
Young people in Nigeria must note something very important: The political class will not willingly give power to them; it must be demanded. It would be a dream that most likely won’t come true for any youth to believe that those in power (older generation) will willingly and deliberately relinquish power to them.
In fact, if care is not taken, we might continue to debate this same issue in 2050. In my opinion, the main reason why the youths haven’t been well positioned to get to the corridors of power is the “lack of competitive ability”. And this is due to the education sector that has collapsed in the last three decades or so.
To demand for power, the youths must be socially, economically and politically emancipated; so, in reality, how many youths are? Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Nnamdi Azikwe, Ahmadu Bello, and those who fought for the independence of Nigeria were brilliant, well ‘exposed’, articulate—they were well educated. That’s also why the likes of Profs Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe and their contemporaries who had quality education were thorns in the flesh of the military government.
These Questions Must Be Answered…
Nigerian youths must be able to answer these questions: Have they demanded for power from the political class? Do they have what it takes to get power and use it appropriately? Are they better organized with a common voice? To keep hope alive, the youths must continue to hold the government accountable, be better organised and more cooperative to emancipate themselves. Speaking lots of vocabularies alone can’t solve it, action must be taken, and timely action for that matter.
It doesn’t matter how rough it is, something has to start. Having a Leadership/Political Academy isn’t a bad idea to start with. The rapid growth in Business/Entrepreneurship is highly commendable; it should be sustained and improved upon. But also more important is the active participation of the youths in politics. The development of any nation is tied to it, no doubt about that.
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Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija
Kofoworola Ayodeji is a writer and transformational speaker that’s passionately involved in nation-building. Follow him on twitter @Generalkopho and facebook: www.facebook.com/Kofoworolaak
