Those who are lampooning Nigerian youths for staying glued to the just-ended #BigBrotherNaija (BBN) instead of focusing on the leadership mess in the country are missing a very crucial part of what would have been an interesting conversation.
Let’s get this straight, Nigeria is not the way it is because the youths aren’t showing interest in political matters. It is the other way round. The youths don’t seem to be showing the expected interest in their political leadership BECAUSE they are unfortunate enough to find themselves in a country that, it would appear, was fundamentally cursed with criminally useless leaders dedicated to sending the country to Golgotha.
Nigerian youths aren’t responsible for the sorry state of the country. They are the victims here. Let’s not confuse issues, please!
What can the righteous do when the foundation is destroyed????
If we pretend to buy your argument that the youths that watched the reality TV show are all lazy, you that is not lazy, how about using your unlaziness to get your government to organize our own system to run smoothly as we saw with the BBN show?
Even Uncle Lucifer likes A WELL ORGANIZED SYSTEM. Isn’t that why we design foreign embassies every day in our desperation to move to Europe and America?
In the BBNaija, Millions of people from all over the world were able to cast their votes for their preferred contestants with no case of ballot box snatching, no burning of ballot papers, no incident of some thugs preventing some people from voting. And certainly, no one was shot by the Police or Army.
Why??
Because the votes were cast ELECTRONICALLY through their phones and other electronic means while the voters were probably lying on their bed watching the show and the vote counting was done in an open manner.
CONFIDENCE IN THE SYSTEM, CONVENIENCE and TRANSPARENCY.
What will it cost for us to replicate the same confidence-building measures, transparency and convenience in our electoral system here??? The only thing it requires is the political will. Nothing more! And it is not the youths that have the responsibility of sanitizing our electoral process. It is the political class. And it is not even difficult to do. The late President Yar’Adua promised it but death didn’t let him. President Jonathan followed it up which gave us some of the power in 2015. Now, this current President don kukuma scatter the entire political table.
So what do you want the youths to do??
Just for our President to sign the amended electoral bill into law which would have guaranteed the use of ordinary Card Reader to minimize incidents of fraud during the last election held in February, he vehemently refused. With all your seriousness, did you make the President change his mind by signing the bill into law? How many protests did you organize? How could you have even dreamed of any protest when you knew the police were waiting to spill blood for no just cause?
Do you know how many Nigerian youths that died trying to vote in that last election?
Can you trust this our so-called Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to not tamper with our votes even after standing in the sun for hours just to cast the votes?? The result of the BBNaija votes was announced in record time but our INEC here took almost a week to announce our own result and 8 months after, you still can’t see the result in their website to know how we voted.
So why una dey compare BBNaija votes with the total votes cast in the last general election in Nigeria? How light and darkness take resemble enough to necessitate any comparison?
Do you think if Nigerian leaders allow a functioning system here, the youths will not show more interest in their affairs?
Please cut the youths some slacks. We shouldn’t be too hard on ourselves. We should even be congratulating ourselves for being able to devise a way of making ourselves happy in a country that is structured to steal our happiness. E no easy to be a Nigerian youth and still live in Nigeria.
No light, no water, no job, no nothing. Even the little job wey you try puzzle for yourself, crooks and rogues masquerading as your government takes it away from you. If you chose to go into Information Technology (I.T), just pray the police don’t see you with a laptop because you risk prison without conviction as your laptop is all the evidence the Police need to confirm your yahoo boy status. No security. Even the armed uniformed people posing as your security agents derive special orgasm from spilling your blood with impunity. Ordinary to vent your frustration for social media, you can’t even do in peace again without the government charging you with terrorism or treason or even both.
So again, I ask, na wetin una wan make the youth do want?
How will you live in a country such as this without constantly looking for something that will give you momentary happiness?? For the past 4+ years of this government, has Nigerians ever felt happy even for once as a result of government action or inaction? Na BBN cause is??
Please, stop with that faux outrage against your fellow victims of an unworkable system and inept leadership simply for choosing to make themselves happy the same way some of you do when you ignore Nigerian problem to watch your favourite English Premier League.
I personally didn’t follow the BBN TV show for reasons that do not belong here. Everything I know about it was gleaned from social media analysis of the show by friends but creating the impression that those who did are lazy or less interested in how their affairs are being managed is not exactly right. People have a right to look for distractions that could take their mind off their government-induced problem. That doesn’t make you better than them.
Una think to say me wey dey talk politics all the time, na better eye I carry dey do am? I am already depressed with the Nigerian situation, so like a drug addict, the only happiness for me is to keep talking about politics even when I know it’s only pushing me further deep into depression. For a young unmarried young man like myself, na better thing be that??
What have I even achieved with all the seriousness and political analysis here? Does our President read?? Even if he mistakenly reads, does he care about what you think? Im, send you a message? Las Las, if your own too much, they send DSS to kidnap you in the middle of the night and after holding you in their dungeon for weeks, they bundle you before a pliant Judge who himself is under compulsion to do to you exactly what they want or risk being arrested in the middle of the night amidst allegation of billions found inside his wife’s egusi soup pot. And I still the same you go begin to crucify the Judge for being corrupt without asking a necessary question.
See guys, our country don enter menopause with this government.
But believe me, we will survive this. All of us. After all, didn’t we survive Abacha? Of course, we will survive this. But to do that, we need to be more tolerant of each other and less hard on ourselves. We are not responsible for the current poor state of our country. Successive governments and leaders are!. The only civic duty you owe your country is to pay your tax and be law-abiding. The fact that you even have to constantly wail and yell for your government to do the right thing is an indictment on your leaders, not you.
Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
By Charles Ogbu (@RealCharlesOgbu)
