In the light of the recent national upheaval in the form of #ENDSARS protest spearheaded by the youths of this country, it is apposite for us as a people to interrogate their function and place in our quest for true nationhood.
A young, active population has the potential to unleash energies which are crucial to the life processes of a nation and thus ensure human flourishing and overall national development.
This can happen in a combination of three clearly discernible ways. Acting in their individual capacities, the youths can cultivate various forms of idealism or dreams of a vigorous public life and make a commitment to nationalism and patriotism in the service of country and humanity.
The youths can also, on their own, but acting collectively become sensitive to the harsh realities of poor governance and rise in protest against the excesses of government and insist that the proper things be done by the authorities.
They can be mobilized by social agitators and nation-builders in defence of the fundamental freedoms and rights of the citizens. Either way, a positive social purpose favourable to public policy and human flourishing is usually achieved.
These scenarios played out in the life of the Nigerian youths in the early days of our Republic.
The Anglo-Nigerian Defence Pact (1958-1962) was one policy initiated by Britain in the build-up to Nigerian independence in 1960.
The policy was initially favoured by the elite but criticized by the opposition as a neocolonial move intended to drive a wedge in the country’s political independence status.
The opposition continued to mount pressure until about 800 students trooped to the streets of Lagos in November 1960.
The protest turned violent but ended up in Nigeria remaining a nonaligned country in the Cold War era.
This youth action coupled with political opposition from the Action Group combined forces to bring about the abrogation of the Anglo-Nigerian Defence Pact in February 1962.
Those were the Nigerian youths leading as the vanguard for the abrogation of a neocolonial bilateral defence policy. In 1978, a fifty kobo increase in the price of meal ticket in the universities sparked outrage and the students began to boycott lectures on the various campuses.
This became the nationwide “Ali Must Go” protest which rocked the country’s educational system under the headship of Colonel (Dr.) Ahmadu Ali, Federal Commissioner for Education.
Again, that was the Nigerian youth rising up against what was considered as social injustice and highhandedness of the government of the day.
Civil society is largely protected and nourished by the eternal vigilance of its members against unjust social policies and poor governance.
What legitimizes the right of command of any government is its capacity to superintend good governance by ensuring the welfare and security of citizens and country.
The welfare of the citizens, especially the security of life and property, is stated as the primary purpose of government in most countries’ constitutions including Nigeria’s.
Those to keep vigil and ensure that operators of constitutions follow due process at all times and ensure that justice reigns are basically activists and youths.
Within the context of the global community, the youths are the future of mankind. In the context of nations, the youths are the futures of their respective nations. They can therefore not afford to rest on their oars.
Nigerian youths are the future of the country. They were very vibrant in the early days of independence.
The contradictions of colonial rule and the political environment of robust contestations of ideas provided ample opportunity for the vibrancy of the Nigerian youths. Great people like Nnamdi Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo, Ahmadu Bello, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Anthony Enahoro, Maitama Sule, Abubakar Rimi, Balarabe Musa, Olusegun Obasanjo, Muhammadu Buhari, Kaduna Nzeogwu, Yakubu Gowon, Odumegwu-Ojukwu, and a host of others too numerous to mention came into national limelight in their youth—in their 20s and 30s—and could have remained our national icons had they played their part and vacated the scene for the next generation of Nigerian youths to assume leadership.
Sadly, the first and second generations of Nigerian youths who became leaders in their youth clung to office and kept recycling themselves until they finally abrogated the middle class and the future of the country—the youths.
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They then deployed religion and tribalism to divide, impoverish and emasculate the people including the youths.
That was how idealisms, dreams of the big picture, nationalism and patriotism faded from the verbal repertoire of the youths.
In place of these, corruption and bribery of the youths became the political strategy of the spent forces. This needs not be so.
Nigeria will die without the ingress of the fresh ideas and energies of the youths into the social, political and economic development life processes of the nation.
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