DECONSTRUCTING THE AGE HUBRIS...YOUTHS, WHY NOT YOUTHS? PART I, -BY CHRIS MUSTAPHA NWAOKOBIA JNR

"The young do not know enough to be prudent, and therefore they attempt the impossible, and achieve it, generation after generation." -  Pearl S. Buck.

I have elected to bequeath this effort as a priceless Yuletide gift, to my generation, to the old and indeed to all of humankind, if by Jove we can torpedo the deceit in the public space that seeks to undermine the Youth, placing undue premium on the concept often referred to as 'experience'. Who says 'experience' is the preserve of age, nay old age?

I have read unresearched writings, and listened to debates where some proudly declare that to move our Country, and indeed any nation out of the woods, the age debate must be jettisoned. Plausible as that sounds, it is however true in human history, whether you elect to assess ancient historicity in leadership, or you elect to research on contemporary leadership normative, the world, and indeed our universe owe her greatest feats in leadership to Youth.

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Now that there is a sweltering harmattan of discontent amongst the Youths regarding the failure of leadership in Nigeria, you hear such questions and refrain, 'It should not be about age?', 'The Youths are not prepared', 'The Youths do not have the experience', 'Governance is serious business, for which experience is needed', 'The Youths need mentorship', and so on, and so forth. Assuming but not conceding that the concern so expressed is true, who failed?

Read these words of Franklin D. Roosevelt, 'We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future', unfortunately everywhere across the Nigerian space, we have elders who have failed in mentoring the youth, who otherwise should cover their faces in shame telling us that the Youths are not ready. We have men and women in their mid-fifties, sixties, seventies, eighties and nineties who cannot point at a mentee of theirs, and rather than accept that they are failures, they blame the YOUTHS.

Everywhere in the space, we see the old whose experience in governance is looting, thieving, nepotism, cronyism and prebendalism, seeking to school us on why we must wait and be mentored, mentored perhaps in corruption and malfeasance. Need I ask, why are we where we are as a nation? Your guess is perhaps as good as mine, the failed leadership superintended by those who seek to mentor us, brought us to this sorry trajectory, pure and simple.

A nation almost sixty years old, rumbles from ravenous rape and continues to bleed unendingly, seeking redemption, and we are told that it must be gradual. We are told that we must be mentored by those who raped her directly or indirectly, and by those complicit in the impish rape of our nation. God forbid. Now is the time to stop the rape, now is the time to heal her wounds, and now is the time to make real the promises of nationhood. The time to rise up and answer the Redemptive call is now. To the Bridge, Dear Friends.

Taking you back to the opening quote of Pearl S. Buck supra, would you rather the 'experience' of the old as we have them today, or 'the not enough prudence of youth that makes them attempt the impossible, achieve it, and have made generation after generation better'? Have you forgotten how our Creative/Entertainment Industry was practically lethargic, mediocre and at best nostalgic, until young men and women in their twenties, thirties and forties, rose to the challenge, birthing and berthing what has become one of the fastest growing Movie, Music and Comedy industry in the world. Remember Gabe Okoye (Gabbosky), Zeb and Chico Ejiro, Fidelis Duker, Innocent Idibia (2Baba), Don Jazzy, Jimmy Jatt, Alli Baba, and others too numerous to mention.

What of the Banking Industry? Remember how 'old school' our Banks were, until young men and women between the ages of twenty and forty rose to the challenge and revolutionized the Banking Sector. On my mind are Fola Adeola, Femi Pedro, Jim Ovia, Tony Elumelu, Pat Utomi and many others.

The Internet is awash with prolific, profuse and profound news of our young men and women breaking old records and setting new feats in various fields of human endeavour, and yet they say we must wait awhile and be mentored, but I ask, what is the scorecard of the leaders who should mentor us? Please tell me?

Another hubris almost always bandied across the space is the most ludicrous, 'what has he done for his people, community or Country?', and when this refrain is thrown up, the narrative is often pecuniary, financial and mundane, undermining the many patriotic and selfless service many young men and women render the nation and society, sadly the undiscerning and uninformed benchmark hardworking young people with looters who pillage our collective patrimony, giving crumbs as social empowerment projects to a few. THINK.

The Not Too Young To Run  movement and the several Youth vanguards that bestride our space seeking a NEW DEAL come 2019 is not only a question mark on our collective conscience but an indictment of the present class of leaders. Our young people are saying to the present, having ran down Nigeria, having destroyed our Country, having sold our national assets to yourselves, having divided our nation on many fronts with ethnicity, religion and region as devious tools, having left our nation mediocre and her infrastructure comatose, and having made our Country a laughing stock, please give way and let us try the seemingly impossible.

Our young people are saying that a NEW AND A BETTER NIGERIA IS POSSIBLE. Our young people are saying in the words of Albert Einstein, 'that to attempt to solve a problem the same way it was created is insanity'. Our young people are unwilling to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism anymore. And our young people are saying that our Country can ill-afford the luxury of cooling off, as nothing but a peaceful ballot based ORDINARY PEOPLES revolution come 2019, and a system rework can redeem Nigeria.

I am inclined to this position without an ounce of equivocation, because I was taught by my late Dad, Chris Nwaokobia Snr., to dare a new course where the usual, where the old, and where the known has left one with little promises, such is today's leadership and such is today's Nigeria. A new order, a new tendency, and a new Paradigm is thus inevitable. #YESWECAN. It will always be #COUNTRYFIRST.

God Bless Nigeria.

To be continued...

-Chris Mustapha Nwaokobia Jnr, a legal practitioner, is the Convener, COUNTRYFIRST MOVEMENT