Elliot Ugochukwu-Uko
So many people feign surprise at the sharp division between the angry Igbo younger generation on one side, and the political leaders, elite club and the elders of the land on the other hand. This unhelpful division took time to develop, and the youngsters aren’t to blame.
It all began a long time ago, during the military era.
Social, cultural and political values of the post civil war era appeared remarkably different from what was obtained during the colonial era and first republic Nigeria. Post civil war Nigeria threw up a distorted and fake value system which was willingly grabbed and assimilated by a goodlife-hungry population that just came out of a very horrific and bloody civil war. An inexperienced, naive and very young military leadership, intoxicated by both the conquest of Biafra and the fresh oil boom, drove a largely impulsive administration that would be remembered mostly for profligacy and many white elephant projects.
The Head of state was in his early 30s, some of the military Governors like Diette-Spiff of Rivers state were in their mid-20s, and the better educated and more experienced civil servants were only invited to meetings of the Supreme military council when needed. Those heady early 1970s ushered in the culture of financial recklessness, policy somersaults and impunity in high places. The discredited politicians of the first republic, who having been effectively sidelined, were jostling for favours from the military overlords, who drove around town in their impressive Land rover convoys and well starched green khaki uniforms, as they called the shots in the world’s largest black nation, just out from an internecine bloodbath that benefited not only the crude oil appetite of the colonial master, who supervised the carnage but also motley Lebanese, Indian and Arab businessmen, who saw Nigeria as a gold mine.
Discipline, accountability and patriotism weren’t important to the key players in Government at the time.
Everybody was carried away by the oil windfall, our very strong currency and the excess cash available to all, to junket the world and terrorise designer shops, jewellery stores and expensive boutiques, all over Europe and North America. Nigerians partied endlessly, blocking the streets even on weekdays, as they celebrated naming ceremonies, house warming and birthday parties for their 3rd or 4th wives.
Money to burn. Life to be enjoyed o jare. The Daily Times newspaper was thick and heavy, not with news items, but with In Memoriam advertisements. ( People remembering and celebrating their great grandparents who died decades earlier) Too much cash.
No one planned for the future, nobody worried about our children. No foundation was laid for a responsible and sustainable economic template. The cruise was too sweet, no one imagined or expected Shagari’s austerity measures and IBB’s Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP).
Nobody intelligently related our infrastructure, healthcare, social welfare, housing, agricultural output etc, with our exploding population. Nobody worried about uniting the disparate peoples of the country under the banner of equity and fairness. Most importantly, there was a total absence of youth development initiatives of any kind.
Corruption and nepotism thrived. Abuse of office and maladministration was tolerated. Some people elevated themselves as the owners of Nigeria. Other ethnic groups jostling to position themselves over others, unwittingly accepted the dominance of one section over all others. But by far the most damaging of the vices our reckless culture threw up, was the culture of hopelessness amongst the poor and the ill educated or uneducated folks, who were treated as nobodies and even sub human by the new emerging Nigeria. If you don’t know anybody that matters, then you are dead.
Before the war, under Awolowo, Okpara and Ahmadu Bello, the son of a nobody could obtain a scholarship through sheer brilliance, get a job through his performance during the interview, selected for admission, solely by his abilities.
After the war, not any more. If he does not have an uncle, auntie, townsman, boss, etc, he certainly doesn’t stand a chance. Nigeria died and in its place emerged a corrupt, rudderless, enterprise, run by a ruthless fraternity of conmen, manipulators, and political hustlers, who in time, discovered, developed and fashioned out an indescribable format that allows them to hold the country hostage, bleed her dry, while successfully playing the hapless citizens against each other, along ethnic, religious and regional lines.
This crop of the elite, heartlessly created and pilots the wobbly country we are all stuck in, entrapped in and struggling to save and grow. They weakened all state institutions, thereby making themselves unaccountable to anyone.
The low-income citizen, who doesn’t have or know anybody to help him, understands that he is an outsider and a nobody. For example, he queues up at the immigration interview at the stadium for a non-existing opportunity (the available slots have been distributed, allotted and shared amongst the politicos and their relatives), yet, not only is he made to borrow to buy the form, but considers himself lucky not to fall amongst those stampeded to death during the exercise. That is the lot of the ordinary Nigerian, who loses faith completely in his country and finally appreciates the sad reality of “them” and “us”. A sharp status dichotomy.
This dangerous class divide that has been deepening for decades, naturally, inspires a forlorn feeling of hopelessness amongst the younger generation children of the poor, who resent their country, dream of escaping even through the desert by road, engage in smuggling banned substances and find violent crime attractive, all just to escape poverty and get himself a life.
This unpleasant reality, which of course, affects the region that has been systematically marginalised, excluded and oppressed and fenced out of the country’s commonwealth, more, in terms of severity and regularity, is at the root of the anger in the land.
He is forced, out of no fault of his, to see his country as a hostile, unjust, unfair and irredeemably corrupt entity, in which he has no hope of even survival, talk less, progress and success in life.
Gradually, resentment begins to grow in his soul, towards his own country and his leaders, who only see him as being good enough just to be used as a political thug and nothing more.
Nobody cares about his future, every turn he makes, rejection, police harassment and failure faces him, day in day out.
The nepotism and favouritism officially elevated as state policy, convinces him, that since he isn’t from the preferred region, that he doesn’t stand a chance in Nigeria. He begins to dream of liberty and opportunity. He searches for where he would ventilate his frustrations. He is termed a miscreant and shot at.
The same politicos, who refused to formulate youth-friendly policies and programmes, isolate him and tag him a trouble maker.
If you are still wondering why the disconnect between the angry youths and the leaders developed, look no further.
The class dichotomy enthroned by the Nigerian elite created a huge divide that makes it difficult for the oppressed masses to believe that the elite cares for them.
In my next post, I will endeavour to connect the mindset of the agitators with the absence of youth-friendly programmes. I will also share testimony from the youths during my decades-long close interaction with them, how exclusion and rejection drove them into giving up on Nigeria. A classic case of the very people who destroyed Nigeria, branding their hapless and marooned victims miscreants.
Those who do not realise that the remorseless attitude of the government over the years towards the failure of government in accommodating the younger generation and the brazen and provocative sectionalism coupled with the highhandedeness and insensitivity of the rulers of the land, is responsible for the morass in the land, are truly the ignorant ones, not the oppressed and frustrated youngsters.
Only a holistic and sincere commitment to addressing the actual causes of the agitation and the willingness to resolve the issues will heal the land.
TO BE CONTINUED.
