The wound-like rawness of Kayode Fayemi’s words indicates that somewhere within his privileged bulk, a humane realist lurks. The Minister of Solid Minerals’ jarring speech to recent graduands of the University of Lagos is widely interpreted as a spectacle of conceit and insensitivity to Nigeria’s shortchanged, underprivileged youth. I disagree.
Of course, the former Governor of Ekiti betrays insensitivity, sloppiness and entitlement mentality characteristic of Nigeria’s ruling class. But while this may pass as yet another intrusion of unfair generalisation or political stereotype in the estimation of Fayemi, he has done too little to establish himself as a deviant from Nigeria’s decadent political culture. This is understandable.
Fayemi, despite his impressive academic and professional record, bathes in the slurry of Nigeria’s murky politics when need be, it would seem. For instance, in the political news feature, ‘Money and Violence Hobble Democracy in Nigeria,’ New York Times’ Lydia Polgreen, on November 24, 2006, portrayed Fayemi’s governorship aspiration thus: “Mr. Fayemi’s campaign treads the treacherous middle ground between the high road, on which pro-democracy advocates have traditionally marched directly to defeat, and the bruising, money-driven politics that dominate Nigeria’s electoral contests.
“On a recent campaign swing, he handed out nearly N500,000, or $4,000, in a single day. He estimates that winning the election will cost him $4 million, a sum he has raised from allies and friends in Nigeria, as well as from his contacts in the West.
“After one rally, as Mr. Fayemi tried to leave town, a fracas erupted among some youths who crowded around his car. A dozen young men began arguing with one of his aides and blocking the car. Apparently the campaign had given money for a local youth wing to a man no one could identify, and he had absconded with the cash. Mr. Fayemi would need to pay them again, the young men explained, surrounding his car as they pressed their case. Mr. Fayemi threw up his hands. “This is what we live with,” he said.
The aide argued with the young men, but their mood darkened as the dispute stretched for several minutes. Finally, Mr. Fayemi relented. “Just pay them,” he said. The leader of the young men seized the stack of cash, carefully counting the notes in the glow of the car’s headlights: N10,000, or about $80. Once he confirmed the amount and nodded his assent, a cry went up.
“Excellency, Excellency!” the young men shouted, using the honorific for governors, opening the cordon and allowing Mr. Fayemi’s car to pass through.
“This is our politics,” Mr. Fayemi said, an edge of disgust in his voice. Such payoffs clearly make him uncomfortable, but he said he hoped that the ends would justify the means.
“Money,” Mr. Fayemi said. “It is the language of Nigerian politics. As much as you want to get away from that, you also have to be mindful of those short-term things you must do.”
Fayemi eventually became Governor of Ekiti State but Polgreen’s analysis of his personal ethics and political culture offer sullied portraits of his psyche. It symbolises his decadent flirtation with the youth and professed disdain for money-driven politics in one breadth. But this is certainly a discussion for another forum, another day.
This minute, Fayemi may be applauded for his profound admonition to UNILAG graduates and Nigerian youth in general. In a lecture titled: ‘The Successor-Generation: Reflections on Values and Knowledge in Nation Building’ at the 2017 UNILAG Convocation Lecture in Lagos, Fayemi, an alumnus of the school said to graduands: “Don’t think you are entitled to a job, just because of your parents’ influence or what they have. Don’t think things would be all rosy because you graduated from UNILAG with good grades. Be prepared for surprises and disappointments because life is bound to hand you a couple. The only guarantees you have in this life is what you do for yourself with the grace God has bestowed on us all.
“We need to get off our high horses, quit whining and start doing — for ourselves and for our country. If something angers you so much, instead of whining, think hard about possible solutions and do something about it.”
The media, in reporting his speech however, sensationalised it, casting ambiguous headlines weaponised as click-baits on news portals and social media. The tenor of some headlines portrayed Fayemi as an unfeeling symbol of the incumbent ruling class. “Quit whining, nobody owes you anything” intones one such headline.
Predictably, several Nigerians decided to shoot the messenger and ignore the message, thus committing a piteous form of ad hominem with juvenile relish and unabashed recklessness.
Yes, Fayemi symbolises yet another hodge-podge of haughtiness and entitlement from Nigeria’s over-indulged ruling class but this hardly takes the depth out of his admonishment to the youth.
Within the gamut of bitter criticism and scornful reactions to his speech, there is shamefully no true and absolute account of things except the reality and absolutism of the biased and duplicitous. In the flurry, no one is paying attention to Fayemi’s actual message.
The Nigerian youth are indeed handicapped by piteous streaks of entitlement mentality. ‘But isn’t that the affliction of youth of all epochs?’ Some would argue; notwithstanding, Fayemi’s advise to the youth addresses their most bothersome issues.
The youth truly need to quit whining and seize their destinies in their own hands. They can’t keep blaming government for their shortcomings and every inconvenience suffered by them while they do nothing to salvage the situation.
Agreed, their travails cannot be divorced from the hackneyed excuses of inept leadership, policy failures, substandard education and unemployment, the youth owes it to themselves to better their lot often at progressive costs.
It is painful to watch Fayemi’s ruling class exhibit unpardonable disconnect from the citizenry’s travails. They counsel perseverance while they dwell in luxury often acquired at the public’s expense. They send their children to school overseas to avoid the vagaries of Nigeria’s underfunded and substandard education sector while children born outside their bracket of privilege are condemned to a life of substandard scholarship, policy failure and neglect. It takes ingenuity and determination for the latter to make the most of the country’s disconcerting educational experience.
Add this to a comatose health sector, insecurity, unemployment and parlous infrastructure and you have a perfect recipe for disillusionment. At the backdrop of this rot, the youth stew in crime, ignorance, low self esteem and corruption.
The biggest misconception nurtured by contemporary youth is that a hero or heroine will someday emerge from thin air, to liberate them from the clutches of the oppressive ruling class. This lust for heroes and gods illustrates a fable. It is not of latent strength but disintegration. It reveals the weakness and shallowness of the Nigerian youth’s awfully preadolescent mind. It reiterates a very shrill cry for help that’s at once indolent, self-seeking and infantile.
A jarring lack of progressive values and sense of self-worth further reduces the youth to easy marks to the predatory ruling class and suspicious revolutionaries. Fayemi aptly advocates self-reclamation, perseverance, thirst for knowledge and excellence. He reveals his ascent the ladder of success via devotion to scholarship and honest toil. He was never wrong to advocate a commitment to the collective good in pursuit of self-actualization.
The youth should ignore spurious plots of his alleged tactlessness and insensitivity to their plight. There is no gainsaying Fayemi’s ruling class constitute Nigeria’s greatest albatross but will the youth adapt his ‘progressive’ blueprint to neuter him and his ilk? Their piteous sense of entitlement and acute bigotry should yield to the influences of education, humaneness and culture.
