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

Nwaokobia.

"My crime was to have taught the young to THINK" - Patrick Wilmot.

Happy NEW YEAR, Esteemed Countrymen and women, I am grateful to the Almighty for allowing us another time and moment in history, it is indeed awesome to be here in God's most engaging planet, in God's most challenging continent, and in God's most blessed Country, Nigeria. I am glad to be here, and I hope you are? If perchance you are not, we can work together to make it better, and to make the years ahead awesome and sublime. Blessedness.

The deluge of response that attended the first part of this effort rekindles my faith in the fate ahead of us as a nation. I am thankful for the kind words of encouragement from young people across the Country and for the critique of friends and foes alike. Even more encouraging is the fact that those who consider my piece too hard on the 'old', accept that our Country is in dire need of a NEW DEAL, and that we must all work together to take back our Country for the good of the masses of this nation.

Many thanks to my friend and brother Okey Ogunjiofor, who called and sent a message on WhatsApp, to update me with the true story of Nollywood, and how in his twenties, he assembled a team that gave birth to the success our motion picture industry has become. I cannot forget the hit movie LIVING IN BONDAGE, and the many others that came after it. To Compatriots Okey Ogunjiofor, Kenneth Okonkwo, Gabe Okoye, Ralph Nwadike, et al, a heart of love and respect.

It does appear that decades after that movie which can aptly wear the garb of the pioneer Nollywood hit, the Nigerian Youth sits in the back waters of political engagement at the Federal level, LIVING IN BONDAGE, fighting each other in the social media, spewing invectives and seeking to make a difference between worse and worst, between two evils, between the rock and the hard place, between the devil and the deep sea, and between six and half a dozen, which best defines the leviathan, the APC, and the behemoth, the PDP.

Since 1999 when this democratic voyage, nay civilian rule began, it has been a chequered tale of woes, of pain, of pang and of little pleasantness dotting far between. A child born in 1999 is today an adult, and old enough to vote in 2019. All that young adult knows is the PDP and the APC, all they know are bungled hopes, bungled dreams, bungled promises and bungled expectations. Now is the time, therefore to try something new, and to try something different.

I have watched the growth of the Music and the Comedy industry in Nigeria, and cannot but applaud the ingenuity and the industry of our young people. They broke the jinx of the lethargy that hung over that industry, one that The Great FELA, Sunny Okosun, Majek Fashek, Chika Okpalla (Zebrudaya), Baba Sala and a few others tried so hard to diminish. Today, that industry gives our Country about her best P. R. rating the world over, and it holds an immense potential for huge revenue to government. It is a Testament of the awesome ability and capacity of our Youths. A lucid epistle of our competency, and the fact that we can create something just out of nothing, speaking deeply.

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I am compelled to appreciate once again DJ Jimmy Jatt, Babatunde Okungbowa aka OJB of blessed memory, Atunyota Akpobome aka Alli Baba, Julius Agwu, Okey Bakasi, Michael Collins Ajereh aka Don Jazzy, Mandy Uzonitsha and many others who with no boot straps made lustre out of nothing. To Innocent Idibia aka 2Baba, now is the time to do the GAGA SHUFFLE, 'come follow me....', we must organize to take back our Country. We must peacefully shuffle the 'old' to retirement, and make our nation great again.

One of the most striking rejoinders to the first part of this effort came from someone who queried my applaud of the banking revolution that was pioneered by young people in their twenties, thirties and forties. The writer argued that in the quest for huge and quick profit they repudiated professionalism. And the writer maintains that Buhari is the best bet for our Country, now and come 2019. But I understand how politically correct some are. I have also seen that the benefits of the Banking Sector revolution pioneered by the Fola Adeolas, Jim Ovias, Tony Elumelus, Pat Utomis, Femi Pedros et al, and how it made our financial sector and business life easier and better, it may not yet be perfect, but it is certainly better than the 'old school'.

With Nigerian Youths breaking records in the Academic world, worldwide, with the biggest IT Driven companies worldwide unable to function without Nigerian born experts, with Nigerian born intellectuals wowing our planet in just about all fields, and with the universe looking Youth-ward, what better time is there to redeem and revolutionize this nation?

All we have had since 1999 are same of the same, POLITRICKCAL PROFITEERS jumping from one big party to the other, merchants of power and merchants in power whose complete quest in politics is the key to our collective till. Men and women to whom nothing about the people matter, all that counts is access to our collective wealth, they steal and loot what they do not need in ten lifetimes, and argue that Youths are ill-prepared for leadership, and sadly, some self-serving and crumb picking Youths buy into the hubris.

Can the present generation of leaders particularly at the Centre, fix Nigeria? The answer is capital NO. Why not, you may ask? Because as posited by Albert Einstein 'To attempt to solve a problem the same way it was created, is insanity'. Again, because one cannot give what one does not have. We have thus been unfair to Buhari and his generation, we have placed them beyond their capacity and capabilities, and we demand of them feats they cannot reach. To this end we must accept our collective guilt, and repent.

I had a debate on one of the 218 WhatsApp Groups to which I belong, and on what you may ask? I opined that we cannot redeem Nigeria by upholding the same divisive normative that brought us to where we are. I argued that to mobilize Nigerians into the redemptive vehicle that must birth and berth a NEW DEAL come 2019, that we cannot delineate Nigeria along the old fault lines of North and South, but deal with Nigeria as a Country of 36 States and a Federal Capital Territory, but was called an idealist, another argued that the North/South normative is for ease of mobilization. Such is the foulness of the lessons we learnt from the 'old', how can you truly unite Nigerians for greatness holding on to normative that divide. This is one truism that the 'old' and the politically correct are unable to grapple with.

Another is the six geopolitical zonal protocol that has further divided us, and deepened our fault lines. The old messed up our Country by creating vehicles of political convenience rather than creating a nation centred on equity, fairness and justice. Unfortunately, some of our young people are sold to the North Central, North West, North East, South West, South South, and the South East normative that only deepens regional prejudice at the expense of the whole. May God give us THINKERS for Leaders.

Have you also wondered how illogical it is to argue that our unity is not negotiable whereas billions of Naira is spent yearly on the NATIONAL YOUTH SERVICE CORP NYSC in a Country with national forms and protocols providing for State of Origin, rather than State of Residence or Birth, what an irony. How can you unite a nation divided by just about every State normative? An intense x-ray of the problems with Nigeria, reveals a collosal failure of leadership, and those who canvass the continuation of the APC or PDP are unfair not only to the Country but to the present crop of leaders, so unfair you want them to give what they do not have. THINK.

I have been challenged by many of my friends and followers, both old and young, to take up the gauntlet, and run again for the office of President in 2019. And my answer is, for this cause was I born. I was born with an inexplicable love and passion for my Country, a matchless faith in the matchless potentials that the Almighty has blessed Nigeria and Nigerians with, for which I presented the best manifesto in 2011 when I ran for the high office of President at 40, and I am persuaded that for this mission have I been divinely blessed and gifted with overwhelming grasp of the many problems with our beloved nation, and the solutions thereto.

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Have you wondered how easy it would be to attempt a rework of our national normative and structural programmatic without the North/South divide now deepened by the six zonal hubris? Have you wondered how the bonds of unity would deepen if we replace State of Origin in our national protocol with State of Birth or Residence? And have you wondered how easily Nigerians will understand RESTRUCTURING as a win win normative if we do away with the North/South divide, and jettison the dichotomies engendered and deepened by the unconstitutional Six Geopolitical Zones?

Countrymen and women, we must cease to look up to those who do not know the WAY to lead us, or we crash, and perhaps at best remain uneventful, mediocre and lethargic. Now is the time to do things differently, and now is the time to take back our Country.

I, CHRIS MUSTAPHA NWAOKOBIA JNR, a citizen of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, do hereby declare my intention to run for the office of President of the the Federal Republic of Nigeria come 2019. I have elected to do so because we cannot continue to watch God's greatest Country remain a laughing stock. I have elected to do so because we cannot allow mediocrity to thrive, as the present watch turns falsehood and propaganda to an Act of State. We must redeem our nation, we must rework our collective values, and halt the pervasive deep in the morass.

This race is not political qua political, it is a peaceful ballot based ORDINARY PEOPLES revolution come 2019, our trust is to build a great Nigeria for all Nigerians, and to bequeath to posterity the greatest nation in our continent, for this cause the COUNTRYFIRST MOVEMENT exists in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, in Lagos, and in some of the States of the Federation.

To all who believe in the uniqueness of Nigeria, and in the challenge before us, it may suffice to inform you that we are pulling through with a merger of like minded political parties, and shall update you in due course with the platform by which our peaceful ballot based revolution shall be prosecuted.

We are however on course with the COUNTRYFIRST MOVEMENT, and are open to volunteers across the 36 States of the Country, who believe with us that A NEW AND A BETTER NIGERIA IS POSSIBLE. #YESWECAN #COUNTRYFIRST. To the Bridge, Dear Compatriots.

God Bless Nigeria.

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