HARD TRUTHS WE MUST FACE AS A NATION’
KOWA PARTY NATIONAL YOUTH LEADER’S ADDRESS TO THE INTERNATIONAL LAW AND DIPLOMACY STUDENT’S ASSOCIATION IN BABCOCK UNIVERSITY, OGUN STATE ON THE 16TH OF MARCH 2018
All protocols duly observed.
I am grateful to the organizers of this conference for inviting me to speak here in your midst. To say the least, I am honoured. Thank You!
I was at the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology just last week and I had a great time engaging with young people who had not just the hunger to listen but the craving of a better country entirely different from what we have now. I hope that today, I will be able to continue the conversation I started there calling for our generation to take interest in politics.
I have been asked to address two topics, one of which I am more interested — Youth Participation in Partisan Politics. To be honest with you, I am yet to deliver myself from the captivity of the overall theme of this conference — Activating Trailblazers for Nation Building. I have recited the words of this phrase over and over again like a ruminant animal regurgitating its food.
What immediately appears to my sensibilities and I want to assume the average readers’ sensibilities is the word ‘trailblazers’ and then of course, Nation Building. But for me, and for the purpose of my speech, I have found myself thinking about the word ACTIVATE.
I then had to check the online dictionary for what exactly the word means. Dictionary.com says — to cause to function. Can it therefore be inferred that whatever it is you are activating already existed? Will we be right to say that whatever you are activating, or in simpler terms now, whatever you are causing to function already exists and is not just functional?
The answer to this question for me is yes and it is the crux of my message to you today. I have chosen to title my speech — Hard Truths About our Generation. This is intentional. I also hope to challenge everyone who hears this and inspire you into action.
Truth No 1 — We have been largely dysfunctional!
I understand this is a Christian-based campus. I am therefore assuming that I should be comfortable with speaking the truth. I hope my assumptions are correct! As far as nation-building is concerned, we have been largely dysfunctional! We have built for ourselves an island of comfort in the midst of poverty. As a generation, we have devised intelligent means of blindfolding our eyes from the prevailing rot of our country. In largely all sectors, we have refused to work towards establishing a society where things are functional!
Truth No 2 — Majority of us have continued to live in denial!
One of the first steps towards any form of change is accepting responsibility for the problems that currently exist, not denying them, not transferring them, not insisting that they do not exist. Our country as it currently is is the reward for our denial of our problems and their root causes. Our leaders, they are corrupt! Our police officers, they are rough and brutal! Our graduates, they are unemployable! Our civil servants, they are incompetent! Our political parties, they are all the same! They! They!! They!!! It is no news that this current administration has taken the blame game to another unprecedented level. What they are doing on a large scale is what we all have formed as habits as a people. We have refused to take responsibility.
In fact, there is a school of thought who as the sophists of old, tell you to shut your mouth when you say our country is a poor country, or when you say we are headed for destruction if we continue on this path, or when you say we are building an army of millions of youth with low quality education with no skill, no job and no hope, or when you say we can never get rich in the dark especially with regards to the dismal electricity generation capacity of the country after 57 years of independence.
They tell you to say that Nigeria is rich and not that we are poor! They tell you to say that we are a beautiful country and not that our mega cities are filled with rubbish on our streets. The conditioning of our mind that this brings is what this school of thought hopes to bring about supposedly without prejudice that this same mind conditioning is what happens to elected leaders when they assume office and everything suddenly becomes great. After 7 years of dismal performance for example, the governor of my state now claims that everything is good and perfect.
Until we realize that telling ourselves the truth and the reality is a prima facie requirement from leaving our pseudo-comfort zones to take action, we WILL NOT go far as a nation.
Truth No 3 — Majority of us have been docile!
Another hard truth that we must face is our docility as a people. It is said that this is a generational transfer of attitude from one generation to the next, reflecting in parenting, child training, classes, games and the likes.
A child that has too many questions is a troublesome child. A child that challenges the rule is a stubborn child. Our definitions of certain virtues have been distorted even till today. Most of us therefore grew up without questioning standards, why they are the way they are, why they can’t be changed or even in the instances where these standards are necessary, why they have been placed there in the first place.
The notion of constituted authorities that must not be challenged continues to be entrenched in our national life. And as what is left of the value system continues to fade away, we have remained docile in challenging those who are expected to be the champions of virtue in our society.
We must not only face these truths and admit them as a people, we must begin to work towards setting our society on the right path and this is where partisan politics becomes important.
Unfortunately, our constitution is yet to be amended to accommodate other societal institutions outside the political parties as the vehicle for the presentation of political leaders for our country. As “holy” and excellent as some churches have been, they cannot present candidates for elections. No matter how vibrant a civil society organization is, if the leader chooses to serve, it will still have to go through political parties. Why then have we shied away from partisan politics?
Let’s take a little journey back to our theme for today’s conference — Activating Trailblazers for nation building and ask ourselves, Is it that we do not have trail blazers in Nigeria at all?
Day after day, Nigerians continue to defy the odds in every area of endeavour- from computer science to economic planning to entertainment to sports to academics to religion. The DNA of the average Nigerian has the winning mentality impressed on it. (This is not evidence based). Our fellow compatriots are blazing the trail in every sector in every nation! Why has it been so difficult for us to repeat this same feat in nation-building.
In answering this question, we must also face some hard truths!
Truth No 1 — Most of our leadership material are found advocating in CSOs rather than leading in Agencies.
Truth No 2 — There is a growing school of critics who build a fence as far as governance issues is concerned and then sit on it
Truth No 3 — Those who should be leading society are hiding in churches and religious houses as ministers, team leads,
Truth No 4 — Most of us, especially youths are locked in an economic rat race
Truth No 5 — Most of us have refused to appreciate any understanding of what our future holds
This is therefore my challenge to everyone here today or listening to me. If you are blazing the trail in some sector different from politics, it’s time to pay some attention to partisan politics. It’s time to organize with other like minds like you who believe in a certain way of running government and society. It’s time to get off the comfort zone and be bold. It’s time to step out into the ring.
Because in the end, the hausa wo/man is unemployed, so also is the yoruba wo/man, so also is the igbo wo/man. There is chaos in the middle belt, so also is there in the south south, so also is there in the north eastern borders. There’s a dearth of leaders with a vision in the North, so also is there in the South. Everywhere we turn, there is a need for great political leadership.
We need to understand that our politics is a primary determinant of all other determinants and it is dirty because we have chosen not to clean it up. Our politics is dangerous because we have chosen not to make it safe. Our politics is devoid of intellect and issues based debate because the intellectuals have chosen to be consultants!
Let’s be bold! Let’s step out! Let’s step into the ring like our lives depend on it because our lives do depend on it. The lives of those murdered in cold blood in Benue early this year depended on it. The lives of the dapchi girls looking for an education depended on our politics. The lives of countless others struggling and hustling day and night, avoiding crime and escaping road accidents on a daily basis depends on it. And everytime, the system fails.
We have to fix it. We have to! and unfortunately until our constitution changes, the political party is the vehicle to do that.
I believe that if our generation rised and comes together as a coalition of minds bound by the vision to establish a political system where the best of us leads the rest of us, we will overcome, we will deliver.
