Dear Nigerian youths, grow some balls.
A generation that is unwilling to leave their comfort zones to challenge convention shouldn’t be taken serious.
We are that generation. Take it or leave it. We are comfortable in our zones. Instagram zone, whatsapp zone, twitter zone, facebook zone and sometimes friend zone. We revere stagnation that disguised itself looking like ‘minding my business’
Weeks ago, I heard that the bill for young people to run for office panned out well. I was elated in all honesty.
But, I was scared too. Or rather bothered. Running isn’t the problem. The problem is the destination you are running to. A headless chicken could arguably run faster that a ‘headful’ chicken. The issue isn’t your pace. It is your direction, balls and determination.
With the little idea I have with the politics of this country, you cannot run your political race without some potbelied thief telling you how to run. The godfather syndrome that downplays progress. That is why most of our leaders are obviously puppets with portfolios and security agents that follow them up and down.
Think of it: we are feeble. We are scared to say the truth. We lack balls. The only place we have balls is to snatch somebody’s girlfriend or boyfriend. The balls aren’t channelled positively. Fear rules our generation. The kind of fear that shouts “I am not afraid of you” this moment and the next moment it is asking you if you cannot be played with.
Days ago, I wrote an open letter to our president who ran away and refused to resign.
I got mails from young people telling me to be careful. Some said I should not write about the government because they may kill me. I laughed at that particular mail and replied the person telling him that anyone afraid of death isn’t living. You can’t be allergic to knowledge and enrol in a school. Even if you do, you are wasting your time. You aren’t schooling.
A well meaning woman inboxed me also and told me that I lack respect for my elders. I felt terrible not because of the fart she sent me as a message.
I felt terrible because this respect thing is what these old people have used in holding us hostage inside this mess.
Respect? Really? Respect is an award given to people who respect themselves. You don’t respect a dog that you managed to give the luxury of sleeping on your bed yet it shits on your sheets.
Such dogs should not even see the next day.
But no, Nigerian youths will follow the footsteps of an old man leading them to doom because culture said you shouldn’t challenge an elder.
Listen, an elder that is not ready to answer your questions and listen to your opinions doesn’t deserve attention. Send him or her to old people’s home. They shouldn’t interfere with public matters.
We need to purge our ideologies of things and reason with our God-given brains. We need a paradigm shift urgently.
I wonder how God feels when he looks at this country full of people who refused to use the brain he gave them as higher animals.
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Tomorrow, a young person will decide to run for office and his slogan will be: “taking back our country from the millennials”.
But at night, he will sneak into the house of a millennial with costly wines kneeling down like an animal begging for ticket or anything they beg for. This is why they don’t take us serious.
This is our collective responsibility. We should support ourselves. We should lose the excess overweight of sentiments and look at the bigger picture.
Ask questions boldly.
Tomorrow we’ll give birth to children who will ask themselves what we were doing with our time when we were young. Remember to tell them that you were busy following bobrisky on snapchat.
This letter is a sensitisation. To awaken our sleepy consciousness. A reminder that this country is our own and nobody in the history of the world took what belonged to them by being afraid or by using snapchat filters.
We actually misplace our emotions. Fear that should be shown when watching Bobrisky and his Madness is what we show when we are supposed to ask questions and do the right thing.
This is a wake up call to my fellow young people. Recognize that you have been sleeping the whole time. Wake up and let us make a difference!
Written by Mark Anthony Osuchukwu
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Mark Anthony osuchukwu is a young writer that is not playing with anybody. He is that person mediocrity warned you about. He can be reached via [email protected] or on twitter as @markosuchukwu
