We have been waiting in vain for genuine or real leaders who can take this country to the promise land, but the futile search continues. Now, I think we should turn the searchlight on the young generation.
Our youths should understand that the APC and the PDP are two sides of the same coin. If you doubt this claim, ask yourself why politicians in either party easily switch sides with ease and increasing regularity? Yet, it would be remiss not to acknowledge that there’re some principled politicians in every dispensation, including the current one, and I dare say that president Mohammadu Buhari is one of such even though I still have some reservations about his style.
However, we all know that, every so often, a man or woman leaves the APC for the PDP and vice versa, if he or she loses an election, or feels short – changed in the appointments into political offices. Some politicians could be in the PDP on Monday, by Wednesday, they are in the APC; but the unfortunate aspect of this charade is that they move the youths with them back and forth in this game of musical chairs. Worse, the young folks follow without question, like zombies.
I identify the youths as those between 18 and 35 years of age. Those are the most productive years of anyone’s life, and they must not be wasted following or acting as canon fodders for unprincipled, corrupt politicians. Politicians in Abuja keep young girls from poor homes, in expensive hotels, and use them as playmates and sex toys during recess. Sadly, these girls are mainly from campuses near the Federal Capital Territory, who should be busy reading their books.
The wicked politicians send their own children to expensive schools abroad, after destroying our educational system with their corrupt practices. The atrocities of the political class is already well documented, it would be superfluous to repeat them here. What needs to be said is that, our youths should stop following our politicians like sheep being led to the slaughter slab. A young girl has a lot to do with her life than selling her body to a useless big man; our young men have a lot to do with their life than working for peanuts as thugs for thieving politicians.
Also, young people, know this for a truth: if a politician pays you to do a hatchet job, you’d pay for it with your welfare, and your life would be wasted, while he enjoys his loot. It is very rare for politicians to seek power because of the people; they often do it for self – serving reasons; that is why our nation is in this terrible state. You’d observe that there is scarcely any heated debate in the National assembly over high food prices, power outages, education, health care, crime, or such things than hurt the masses.
But once political posts are being shared or their welfare packages in contention, our lawmakers often come to blows, you’d see decorum go through the window; women slapping men, honorable men kicking ladies, and such show of shame before television cameras! These are not the leaders our youths should emulate; they are the wasted generation, wasting our precious time and resources.
David was 17 when he killed the dreaded Goliath of Gath who terrorized the Israelite nation. The inspiration of this story is that to achieve success, you must slay your own Goliath along the way. The tragedy here is that Nigerian youths do not even know who their Goliaths are. You have two major Goliaths – yourself and the political elite. Yourself, because you must overcome indiscipline, fear, lack of purpose, stupidity, criminal behavior, lack of focus and direction, laziness, etc.
The greatest victory anyone can win is the conquest of self. Then, you reject the political elite, the other Goliaths across faith and ethnic lines who have held Nigeria bondage for 57 years. How do you do this? Don’t allow them to use you for political riots; stealing of votes, or any dirty job in their crazy quest for power. Nigerian youths must be patriotic, honest, bold, goal–oriented, and accountable in their quest for leadership. You must become all that the old politicians are not.
Our youths must come out to be counted as one of the foot soldiers in the new vanguard to revive and restore Nigeria. According to Myles Monroe, leadership operates at two levels: the leadership spirit, which is the inherent divine deposit in everyone; and the spirit of leadership, which speaks of the many attributes of a leader.
Everyone is created by God to be a leader. We all have the inherent capacity and capability. However, we develop the spirit of leadership through training, grooming, experience and culture. You can prepare yourself to be a governor, president, local government chairman, etc. All you need is determination. Learn from good role models. That’s how you develop the spirit of leadership.
We need leadership academies in this country to nurture, train and help our youths prepare for the great responsibility of running this great nation. Many organizations are doing good job of fighting poverty, oppression, disease, etc. These NGO should also look the way of leadership training. That’s one of our greatest needs in this dispensation.
Weekend spice: Coming together is the beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success – Henry Ford.
Ok, folks, take that to heart, and stay motivated as usual, till next Friday.
• Ladi Ayodeji is an Author, Rights Activist, Pastor, Business Consultant and Life Coach. He can be reached at [email protected] and 09059243004 (sms only).