We live in an age when being young and indifferent are no longer synonymous. We must prepare for the coming hour. The claims of the future are represented by suffering millions; and the youth of a nation are the trustees of posterityBenjamin Disraeli (1804-1881), British politician and author.You are the leaders of tomorrow, politicians always assures the youth. Over the years, this has become the stock-in-trade of many a Nigerian politician. They trot out this same old cliche, not because they have the interest of the Nigerian youth at heart, but because they see it as something that would make the youth feel a sense of belonging. For many years, they have successfully made the Nigerian youth complacent with the status quo. They continued to mouth platitudes and make heart-warming promises all in a bid to make political capital out of the mess into which they have plunged the nation. They are more Machiavellian than Niccolo Machiavelli; they are more Mephistophelian than Darth Vader, a character in the Star Wars movies.But it is particularly worrying that some Nigerian youths are still playing ball with these ill-wishing politicians, who only use them as political pawns to achieve their sinister agenda and then relegate them to the dustbin of irrelevance. Pray, for how long will this unholy alliance continue What about those who are still indifferent and lukewarm, hoping that someday, e go better. When will the Nigerian youth set forth on the journey to reclaim the soul of this nation from the grip of the oppressorsOh, Nigerian youth! You must set forth at dawn, to borrow the title of Prof. Wole Soyinkas booka memoir that tells of the trials of a man in search of democracy and justice. Imprisoned, declared wanted, dead or alive, alienated at different points in his life, Soyinka never gave up his resolve to oust totalitarians, despots, fascists, autocrats, and anything in between that is far removed from democracy. His commitment to the struggle for democracy is legendary. Not long ago, precisely last year (January 12), the Septuagenarian and other notable Nigerians led a mass protest to save the nation from a dangerous slide into a failed state and quasi-dictatorship arising from a power vacuum that was created by the absence of late President Umaru YarAdua from the country.Interestingly, some young Nigerians finally got angry as they stormed the National Assembly on March 16, 2010, to make their voices heard. In the words of Tolu Ogunlesi, a young superb journalist, they went to the legislators with a noise borne of frustration, but not defined by it. A noise packaged and delivered by responsible youths to politicians who were letting us down in grievous ways But not only did they not show up, they gave their security men a blank cheque of sort to keep us in check.Now, the zero hour is at handa time to elect our leaders for the next four years. Never in our history has there been a greater need for responsible and responsive leadership than at the present. This is a most auspicious time for the Nigerian youth to stand up and be counted in our national quest for credible and purposeful leadership. It is time we rose to take our collective destiny in our hands, if we really want to experience a Nigeria that works. We must rise up to the challenge of determining who our leaders should beleaders that will be able to correct the errors of the past and put our nation on the path of progress, not leaders who cannot be touched by the feelings of our infirmities (pardon my biblical allusion). I mean leaders who will be sensitive to our yearnings and needs; leaders who will respond before we say what about usYes, Nigerian youths! We must set forth at dawn. What dawn You may have asked. It is still the dawn of a new era. The first 50 years of our independence ended last year. We are a new generation. Our challenges are significantly different from those of the independence generation. At this momentous moment, it behoves us to rebuild our fatherland. And need we build on the old, rickety foundation No!This election, the very first in this era, must not be allowed to go the way of the 1959 elections that delivered the first post-colonial government, the First Republic of Nigeria. It is no longer news that the elections were manipulated. Hear Soyinka: The memoirs of some of the British colonial officers note that they were instructed by the home office to rig the first elections, so as to give power to the less progressive side of the nation (You must set forth at dawn). They taught us the art of rigging and we have perfected it! There is, indeed, no better time than now to get down to business and change the status quo. The business of election, nay of governance, must not be business as usual. We cannot continue to do the same thing over and over again and expect different results; that is called insanity.In the words of columnist Olatunji Ololade, let us not dream nor speak of toppling the status quo; let us topple the status quo, if it be the last resource of our intellect and spirit, for the status quo was hardly the stuff the dreams of our founding fathers were made of What use is scholarship that incapacitates us to change our stars What use is knowledge that lowers the standard of knowing What benefit is learning that leaves the most promising of men gormless and ill-assortedArise, o Nigerian youth! It is not the neutrals or the lukewarm that make history. We must set forth at dawn. Why should we continue to have people who are bereft of developmental ideas in our corridors of power Are we not fed up with watching their preening, their ostentatious spending and their cultivated condescension, even disdain toward the people they were supposed to representSoyinka again. If the status quo remains the same after this election, the fault, dear fellow Nigerian youth, is not in our stars, but in ourselves that we are underlings, as Cassius said to Brutus in William Shakespeares Julius Caesar. And posterity will certainly hold it against us that we failed to act in a moment of moral crisis.Nigerian youth, beware! We must not be deceived by their sanctimonious humbug, hypocritical preachings and hollow promises. They are, as George Orwell notes in his Politics and the English Language (1946), designed to make lies sound truthfuland give an appearance of solidity to pure wind. Or as Prof. Niyi Osundare said in his poem, A Villagers Protest: They come armed with sweet words, inflated promises and a chest that bribes with countless prostrations like the agama on the rock. Well build schools. Well build hospitals. Well bring water to every backyard. And turn all nights into day. Well turn every footpath into a motor way. And fashion out a city from every hamlet. Well give the farmer the best for his sweat. And make poverty a thing of the past. Alas, some of us are being zombifically driven by their rhetoric and theatrics. Did they not promise us an El dorado before now What did we get A hellhole!Asu wrote in from Ebonyi State.
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