The partisan critic parades patriotic zeal in a careless style. He is the plebeian statue sculpted of spunk and spittle. Governors, lawmakers, and the presidency consider him to be a dangerous yet compliant cuss perhaps because his activism commands insolent currencies.
In truth, he is the proverbial yowl plundering rage slipshod, a revolutionary of dubious grace. His flashing eyes and vagrant rage combine cheeky swag with gruff panache. Flashing eyes may command and pierce but they can also incinerate from within.
This is why #BringBackOurGirls, #Nottooyoungtorun, #ChurchTakeBackYourCountry, #2023Elections and other epochal movements barely redefine our lives: together, we either burn or bloom through their parochial contractions.
Some of these events unfurl, mired in acrimony. For instance, while violence and rage afflicted the #EndSARS protest, acrimony and hate speech permeated the 2023 elections.
Yet the fruits of these events are negative for the same reason that they are positive for the youth; the resultant turmoil counsels caution, tact and masterful self-containment. One positive takeaway from such events is the timeless opportunity they offered the youth to regroup and re-strategise.
There is no gainsaying large segments of the citizenry bemoan the extremities imposed by the removal of fuel subsidy and the floatation of the naira and its subsequent slump against the dollar; against the backdrop of these afflictions, Nigerians experience their most provocative descent into the maelstrom of a distressed economy and toxic politics.
President Bola Tinubu certainly has his work cut out for him. At the moment, his ritualised personality totters through the maw of Nigeria’s subterranean nature. Will his government truly serve as a vessel of Renewed Hope or will it loom like a titanic funnel with a frail voice, half shrieking, half roaring in dubious clamour?
Amid the torment of insecurity, a struggling economy and unemployment, he must resuscitate Nigeria from the gallows of misgovernance. On his watch, governance must manifest humanely.
Tinubu’s administration must make social and economic palliatives work for every segment of society irrespective of gender, tribe or social class. He must fulfil his promise to review the federal budgetary culture, revamp national infrastructure, resuscitate local industry, drive an import substitution agenda, reform the taxation system whereby the rich will pay more for what they consume, and lastly fight corruption, inefficiency and waste in government.
And while we grapple with tighter management of the exchange rate as an alternative to the current loose, open market approach, he must make good his promise to devise a national industrial plan that extends tax and other credit facilities, encourages domestic manufacturers and producers, and develop major and minor industrial hubs in all geopolitical zones.
Tinubu’s palliatives must be relatable to the people’s needs thus negotiations to increase the minimum wage must be realistically devised in the interest of the masses. His administration’s adoption of measures like affordable public transport fuelled with cheaper energy sources, among other incentives, is appreciable.
As Nigeria reclaims her corpus from the claws of economic hardship, fresh afflictions manifest in sick bloom thus presenting public officers and their billionaire associates in the private sector with interminable prospects as patriots and saviours, rhetoricians and pallbearers.
Yet, the masses chant, “Let the poor breathe!” across social media platforms. This new refrain has, over time, attained toxic undertones as a language of disenchantment and protest by agitated segments of the masses.
Under the tenor of rage carelessly spun and hurled in the social space, however, manifests a positive suasion for peace and patience with the new government. A new league of patriots must emerge through the womb wall of our travails, preaching forbearance despite the threat of grislier hardship.
This is a refreshing antidote to the radical youth segments that emerged from the political woods to participate in the 2023 polls. At the loss of the latter’s poll favourites, they weaponized their dissent and angst into a shrill orchestra.
For a generation that prides itself on its disruptive capacities, their response to defeat was frantic, juvenile, and predictable.
Contempt was a black hole of their dissent; the disdain for constructive criticism, and a spiralling convolution of the psyche. Little wonder they surged ethically knocked.
More youths have learnt, perhaps, that you don’t cherry-pick aspects of your favourite demagogue to fulfil your narrative of hope. Eventually, you deal with the results of your actions and inaction through the storms.
It is inspiring that the youth have finally woken up. But they must understand that our expectations for a better future do not solely hang on the office of Mr President. Every tier and organ of government must be brought to account.
A curious development through the 2023 elections was the fear pervasive of the corridors of power. There was a realisation among the political class of the need to reengage more productively and humanely with the youths.
Several political actors became scared of losing their clout and almighty “political capital.” Such fear is a good thing. Former Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, once warned his political class to productively engage with the youths to forestall the resurgence of an #EndSARS-like carnage. Lawan no doubt dreads an uglier revolt even as the youth romanticises its eventuality, in time.
Vladimir Lenin’s homily of a successful revolt benchmarks all three Russian revolutions in the 20th century; he said, it is not enough for a revolution that the exploited and oppressed masses should understand the impossibility of living in the old way and demand changes, what is required for revolution is that the exploiters should not be able to live and rule in the old way.
Only when the “lower classes” do not want the old way, and when the “upper classes” cannot carry on in the old way—only then can revolution win.
To rebuild Nigeria, the youth must seek more visionary participation in the political process. They must seize the moment to regroup, adopt or establish a viable political party, duly registered, and founded on humane principles of nationhood, citizenship, and thought.
They must present through legitimate means, to the parliament, a heartfelt wish to renegotiate their participation in the forthcoming elections. To achieve this, they must urge the National Assembly to normalise the use of more accessible and acceptable means of voting in the 2027 elections.
Of course, the political class will object to this given their penchant for hoarding voter cards to fulfil their rigging master plans, but it’s worth starting the debate over that.
And suppose the youths truly intend to assert themselves progressively at the forthcoming elections. In that case, they must begin to woo societal segments they have hitherto ignored and dismissed as too violent, too dumb, too compromised, and too wild.
Suppose they are truly keen on more impactful political participation. In that case, they must learn to accommodate the random hooligan, and street urchin, among others, as co-travellers in the march towards the Nigeria of our dreams.
Nobody was born to serve as a hooligan, arsonist, or assassin; the youth must initiate debates and deliberations spanning various fora, nationwide, whereby they would honestly thrash out crucial issues that aid the reduction of Nigeria’s youth to disposable social elements and cannon fodder for political violence.
They must eschew violence and the inclinations for hate speech, and their synergies must be guided and adapted through an ad hoc and premeditated coordination in repelling moles, armed goons, and saboteurs, who would be sent to disrupt their rallies with tribal toxins, fake news, religious venom, and filthy lucre.
None of these is achievable where the youths remain faceless and buried in herd feral.
