On the need for cautious exuberance

These issues and many more, are seemingly on a cruise to victory over our psyche, propelling us to yearn, scheme and agitate for generational shift, devolution of powers, gender equalities, privatization and commercialization which amount to a phenomenon that could spell out a lot many different results, parallel to the intended scores.

Youthfulness is indeed a combination of strength, zeal, exuberance, passion and spirited quests for excellence. Don’t get me wrong. it’s not a bad thing to be youthful or exude youthfulness, for the better days of lives spent are in ones youthful days and most of the agitations and quests for revolutionary ideals are better justified than defeated. Glaringly, the youths portray a generation of disgruntled, frustrated and prodigal sons and daughters of a state who are plainly saying, “give us a chance to pull all the reins of the Nigerian chariot”.

I for one too, concur with such ideas, well at least to some extent and my attention towards this school of thought is surely fueled by the state of play of the affairs of our dear country. For fifty years, we have toiled and agreed and disagreed, waged wars and staged all kinds of turmoil lacerated with sentiments of religious intolerance and ethnic bigotry and jingoism. We all know our problems and spelling them out is actually part of the problem we keep repeating ourselves!

Several religious and traditional teachings and sayings and quotations have cautioned against hasty, impatient and unwise means of problem solving, crisis management, conflict resolution, decision making, you name it. Such sayings include: “He who is in a hurry misses the way”, “to be impatient is as sure as missing the way”. Other religious quotes include, “The cautious path is the way of the lord, and “speedy paths are the alleys of the devil”.

The castigations, contempt and insolence of youths towards our leaders and elites are not equivalent to or do not amount to solution. They have had their short comings true, they have failed us, yes, they need to take a back seat and lead us into destruction, no! Their generation was built and developed by a selfless and sincere older generation that had vision, focus and prudence. The biggest lapse in the present situation is how our elders are not paying keen attention to the fact that they are not building a legacy of continuity, both in physical development and in human resource. Depth of education has withered away, and so is the necessary passion and patriotism. The main feature imbibed in us is selfishness, sheer greed and that is the creed. We are fast developing into a generation without scruples, thus consciously edging to a cliff of no return and permanent dislocation and disarray.

In the same vein, we as youths need to understand that civilization, development and societal breakthrough is not achieved in a silver jubilee and neither is it obtained simply by the brink of a golden jubilee. Several administrations have had a lot of positive impacts on our society physically, technologically and mentally too. In some cases, the positive impact has been ironic but in a twisted way, we have learnt the hard way and I can sight here, the metamorphosis and courage of our press. The idea of generational shift is being shifted automatically by nature, as hardly do we have grandparents now who exceed their eighties. So, policies that are downwardly reviewing the maximum age limits for public office holders so as to give room for younger generations can go home to rest.

We need to exercise our due exuberances with some degree of caution. A union or an amalgamation of the two groups portend a more prudent solution to the gaps therein. We need to study from their mistakes so as to correct theirs and ours when the time comes. No matter our educational qualifications, our technical know-how, our scientific breakthroughs and inventions for improved governance, rule and productivity, we shall remain novices and naïve to our realities. We must be willing to continue carrying our jotters and pads and slates, and remain as eager pupils as we are eager leaders of tomorrow, else we will find ourselves in more destructions than our intentions are rearing us towards. We have recently had spells of youths in governance and leadership and as much as their zeal is remarkable and their intentions are sincere, we have also had quite some spells of damage and disrepair. No where in the world do you find vacancies in expertise seeking qualifications alone without requisite experience and it is only acquired in time and not in technique or style. For the time being, making ourselves all the more relevant in nation building while bringing to bear, all our cutting edge ideas and technological ingenuity will serve more as a catalyst to both our causes and the nation’s at large, largely than just noises in the dark and a few brutal or barbaric displays of uncouth behavior. Time waits for no one, yet everyone should wait for time!

Tahir wrote from Abuja