Open Letter To Nigerian Youths, A Must Read

Arise O Compatriots! Arise O ye Nigerian youths

By: Emini Memo 

This is a clarion call to all Nigerian youths no matter where you are or what you do, it doesn't
matter your tribe, religion or the language you speak, what really matters is that you are a Nigerian youth. I think it is high time we arose to our basic responsibilities of leading.

It has been a longtime (childhood), that we've been called the leaders of tomorrow, when will our tomorrow come? It has been a long time we have been dreaming of becoming Governors, President, senators etc.

When will this dream come to reality? When shall we wake up from our slumber? Won't we stop dreaming? Those that ruled us in those years when we were called the leaders of tomorrow are still the leaders of today. I ask again, when is that tomorrow?

Is it that our current leaders don't have replacements? No, it isn't. We have better youths that can creatively replace them. In fact God has not created anyone that is irreplaceable except God himself.
Is it because we are still young and don't know how to govern? No, in fact most of them are not as qualified, skilled and responsible to be a leader even though we may have our lapses it is because no one is perfect.

Firstly, In my humble opinion, I think the major reason why they're still there is because POWER IS SWEET. Don't forget that even after Obasanjo's military regime and two terms of four years each under democracy he still wanted a third term. The sweetness of power killed Gaddafi of Libya. The sweetness of power recently sent Yahya Jammeh of Gambia on exile. No wonder President Donald Trump blasted African leaders.

In the Yoruba tradition there's an adage that goes thus ''kosi nkan ta nfi agba se ju pe ka fi re omode je'' Meaning, "Seniority is only to cheat juniors". These elders have cheated us long enough, we are tired of being cheated, we want a game over for the elders and a take over by the youths.

Furthermore, power is not released on a platter of gold, power doesn't come easily, even the Bible says:

 "From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force"- Mat11:12. Don't get it twisted I'm not a prophet of doom or violence, I didn't say it I only quoted the Bible.

I'm saying all these to awaken and rekindle the fire in our bones. That we should rise up to where we are supposed to be. We, the youths have a larger population to the elders, let's get involved in politics and come out for political posts. We should be tired of being used, we should be useful to ourselves. We are no longer the leaders of tomorrow, we are leaders of NOW because our future starts NOW.

Most of us are football fans, have we ever wondered the power of age in football? Age goes a long way in determining the price of an average player, the length of a player's recovery from injury, his pace and general performance on the pitch. Also remember that young coaches are taking over from the old ones and achieving what some older coaches couldn't achieve like Zidane winning the champions league at 44, Luis Enrique won it at 45, Roberto di Matteo won it at 42, Pep Guardiola won it at 38 and 40 while my dear Arsene Wenger 67, Claudio Ranieri 65 , Big Sam Allardyce 62, Sven Ericsson 69 and the rest of them couldn't.

Young players are more valuable and sold at higher prices, they recover faster from injury and perform better because when they are young they are strong, more creative, technologically brilliant. They will have a fighting or never  die spirit like the one David(30) used to conquer Goliath when the older King Saul was trembling, the spirit of excellence like the young Daniel in Babylon, the spirit of wisdom as of young Solomon and a spirit of understanding as of Joseph (30). Note that these people started shining and leading as youths, so who says we can't do it? WE CAN AND WE SHALL.

It has happened in the Bible before and even here in Nigeria so I BELIEVE IT CAN HAPPEN AGAIN.

Let me remind you of the pre-independence struggle in Nigeria which was led by Dr Herbert Macaulay, Ernest Ikoli, J C Vaughan, Nnamdi Azikwe, Obafemi Awolowo etc.
In 1966, the first coup was led by Kaduna Nzeiguru(29) countered by Muritala Mohammed(28), Theophilus Danjuma(28), Ibrahim Babangida(25), Narven Garba(23), Sanni  Abacha(23) Shehu Musa Yar'Adua(23) and brought Gowon(32), Ojukwu(33), Obasanjo(29) and Buhari(24) into power.
Matthew Mbu became a Foreign Affairs Minister at 23
Pat Utomi became a Presidential Adviser at 27.

Don't forget the youths of South Africa in 1976 spearheaded by Nelson Mandela.
Don't forget that the independence struggle and subsequent liberation of Ghana was anchored by youths.

It was the youths of Tunisia, Egypt and Libya who started and overthrew their governments in the Arab spring. The overthrow of President sokarno of Indonesia is also a case-study. The recent history of Czechoslovakia, Cambodia, Pakistan and France among others lends credence to the invaluable force of the youth movement in the 21st century.

We are youths, we constitute a large force of energetic, smart, enthusiastic, zealous and willing to deliver quality set of lads. We should not just be a part of the cast in our country's movie, we need to be involved in the script writing, directing and production of the national movie. We should leave a mark on the blank pages of our country's history.

Most importantly, the major solution to all the problems listed is God, He's the solution to every problem, remember that except the Lord build a house, then those who build it work in vain (Psalm127:1). He's the master planner with perfect implantation, We need Him.

Also, I started by saying that it's not about our different tribes, language or religion. For example, the youths that led the pre-independence struggle and the subsequent coups were from different tribes and religion. What really matters is that we are youths, we are united and cooperative in unity.
Finally, if the strength, power & resources that we put into drugs, alcohol, fornication, cyber crimes and all other crimes can be diverted into making ourselves and our society better, we will definitely hand over a greater Nigeria to our children.

Yours in the struggle,
Memo
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Emini Memo writes from Lagos State.