Thus, spake the children

Our children are dreaming the dreams that our founding fathers dreamed at independence 63 years ago as of this month. Our redoubtable founding fathers dreamed of an independent Nigeria like no other country on the African continent. A big, populous, peaceful, rich, an economic giant and a united nation forged from the rainbow collection of 350 tribes with the lyrical symphony of different tongues welded in unity of thoughts, words, and deeds.

Sixty-three years later, our children dream the same dreams. It is evidence that the dreams of independence managed to disappoint us. I refer you to the October 1 edition of TheGuardian newspaper. The newspaper, as it did in the past, asked our children to tell us about their dreams for the country they will inherit in the future from this bumbling and dwindling generation, generally long on rhetoric but incapable of turning our nightmare into dreams of hope.

Here is a sampler of what the children told the newspaper about the Nigeria of their dreams. They dream of “a country where there is security and job opportunities;” they dream of a “truly united Nigeria;” they dream of a country with “good leadership that won’t accept bribe;” they dream of a country “worth living for the masses;” they dream of a country “that’ll accommodate all, irrespective of background;” they dream of a country “free from all forms of corruption;” they dream of a country in which the “right of citizens should be guaranteed.”

Thus, spake the children.

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They spoke like adults because in this digital age, children mature much faster than we did in the villages. At their age, I could only name the variety of yams on my father’s farm. No prize for that. In articulating their dreams the children also condemned our failure to rise to the challenges of our independence, as indeed, I pointed out in this column last week.

I find these and other views offered by the children quite sobering. It is sobering because it is good to know that our children are neither ignorant nor detached from what we, the disappearing generation, have done and are doing to, rather than for, the country. They are fully aware of the false steps that we took and still take. They see us marching vigorously on one spot. They see us mistake motion for movement. They see individual wealth and they see the poverty of our nation, a nation unable to feed itself.

Since the future belongs to them, they are right to be worried that if we continue through acts of omission or commission to widen the fault lines that keep us divided, the country of their dreams will remain elusive. They know that corruption has corrupted everything in the country and that those most of those entrusted with guarding the treasuries at national and sub-national levels steal our common wealth. They are aware of the myriads of problems that beset us and our often-hypocritical approaches to their solution.

Thus, spake the children.

They know about solutions that aggravate rather than solve the problems. They are aware that ethnicity and religion are still strong factors in how we manage the affairs of the nation, as in the choice of political leadership and appointments to high public offices. They know that we could do better with good, committed, and responsible political leaders able to unite us in our collective dreams for a greater country. They are aware that our political leaders gaily deck themselves out in expensive flowing gowns and strut the stage like midget colossus.

Thus, spake the children.

They know that the country has problems with its unity and security. They know of the country’s indifferent attention to its educational development even as more tertiary institutions, public and private, spring up almost monthly in various parts of the country. The totality of their dreams is that 63 years after independence our collective dreams for our country are still dreams. But in the articulation of their dreams lies the hope that in the next 63 years, if things hold up steadily now, the dreams of independence will be in the pocket of every Nigerian. This will be absent of the first and second generations that carried the torch of independence but progressively dimmed its light.

Thus, spake the children.

Dreams are good because they are the real motivators of human progress. It is good for children to dream dreams for their country because in doing so, they appreciate that the future does not belong any longer to the first and second generations born after our independence but to them. There is no human development known to man that was not at first incubated in a dream. We should welcome the dreams of our children because their dreams challenge us to free our country from the iron grips of bribery and corruption.

In articulating their dreams for the country, the children raised issues that continue to hobble our country’s rise to its full potential as a great nation. A better country is possible we desire to build one. This generation of oldies can still set the country back on the path that will make the realisation of our children’s dreams possible. I think this is a good thing.

The conventional wisdom is that children learn from adults. However, if our children are this aware of our national problems, that conventional wisdom needs to be revised so that the old too can listen to and learn from the children. The country of their dreams should challenge our leaders to do better; to be short on rhetoric but long on sustainable actions; to recognise that public offices are sacred trusts that must be held dear; to recognise that corruption is a human problem and cannot be eradicated with prayers to whatever deities we worship; that ethnic and religious bigots are Nigerians exploiting our fault lines for personal benefits to the detriment of our present and our future.

Let our political leaders resolve today that they have it in them to respond to the dreams of our children to build a country in which corruption is not a way of life and leadership recruitment is a search for the best among us and not the pursuit of religious interests. The children have spoken and they are watching.