The 30th
How can we shape the ideas that become mainstream in the replacement generation for our continent?
I turned 30 two days ago and in the last few days as a twenty-something year old, I have pondered over what my worldview is and what message I would like to mark my existence for the last 10959 days. Only one thing comes to my mind — The Immense Power of IDEAS in a Society.
I spent the better part of my twenties fighting for, persuading, nudging and organising for good governance in Nigeria. When the Chibok girls were kidnapped in the NorthEast and the #BringBackOurGirls campaign went viral, I joined my friends in organising the first campus march — moving from one hostel to another until we ended at the student union building. It was probably the first student march on campus in a long while that was not about light or water or increase in school fees.
In the last one week, I have spoken on Channels TV, AIT, Instagram Live and Zoom on the need to get President Buhari to give assent to the Electoral Amendment Bill as soon as possible and on how we can broaden young people’s participation in the electoral process and holding the government accountable. When I look back at that journey of taking action as a citizen interested in living in a Nigeria where everyone can find happiness and fulfill their God given potential, I find that I (together with a lot of others) am always fighting against the implementation of someone’s idea.
I believe that Nigeria’s immense potential when harnessed will bring pride to the black race and unbelievable prosperity that countries will want to learn from but might be unable to replicate because that outcome will be a direct outcome of leveraging our diversity and youthful creativity. But this is my own idea. Those who currently control the political and economic structures of our country today have their own ideas and more often than not, it is because of the quality of these ideas that we have the chaos, insecurity, unemployment, decayed moral values and everything negative you may think of in our country today.
Ideas are powerful. A good example of this is the chilling fact that when you combine the internally generated revenue of the entire North, it is still far less than the internally generated revenue in the South West. No matter how much you find the historical trajectory of this reality, you cannot disconnect it from the radical idea that someone had sometimes in the early 1900s — the idea that children who free labour on the farms should be taken away from their parents in the South West and taken to a building from morning to early afternoon and taught how to read and write while their parents take up the work that needed to be done.
I have come to the point in my quest for a Nigeria of my dreams where I am no longer bothered about whether my generation will replace the current leadership that we have had. It is now important to me going forward to ask, what ideas are mainstream in the circles of the replacement generation. What idea is mainstream about the unity of Nigeria — going our separate ways or Forging a more perfect union? What idea is popular when it comes to the debate about how to eradicate poverty — N5000 monthly payment to the vulnerable or a focus on science, technology and innovation that creates jobs and expands value chains? I can go on and on, but I am sure you get the point.
As the fight for a New Nigeria continues, I find that the older I grow, the less I am able to make radical decisions that do not cast me as an irresponsible husband or father. This is why I respect people who have kept on fighting for this New Nigerian reality before I was born and are still fighting. What I am asking myself however is, how can we make good ideas popular amongst those of us who will be the replacement generation of our country’s leadership?
Cooking gas is currently expensive as you may know. In a nutshell, the government levied VAT on domestically produced gas and did not levy VAT on imported gas in order to meet demand and encourage cooking with clean fuel as domestic production increased. Good idea yeah? After a while, imported gas became cheaper and domestic production tanked. Then someone somewhere said, let’s free the VAT on domestically produced gas and then continued to propose levying VAT on imported gas. Bad idea! The consequence of this is that gas has become so expensive that the manager of my constituency office in Ilesha Osun State has now told his wife to start buying firewood to cook food for his family of nine. I will leave you to guess what the health implications are for his children and the multiplied effect of that on the only general hospital in the whole town one year after.
No one knows tomorrow, but answering this question will be central to how I engage as I become a thirty something year old and look forward to the taking over of the replacement generation. Hopefully, we are able to change Africa’s story for the better.
Thank you for taking the time to read this.
For the love of country,
God bless you
