I remember when I was 18. Though I went through school fast and was already at 300 Level in university, but I was still largely innocent and playful. I didn’t see myself as a leader of anyone. I just enjoyed my own space and the few friendships I had. Some of our friends were bolder, and went into student union, faculty or department politics. I would later find out that a lot of times, politics at that level was even dirty, and a lot of guys embezzled the little contributions that students were making those days. Those who went into university-level politics would be lucky to find a ‘koropo’ (minibus) that was branded with the logo of the university with ALUTA JET! emblazoned on the sides.
Today things have changed. You don’t even have to wait to get into university to become a big man. Mere secondary school students have millions of followers. In a world that pushes hype, even some eight-year-old kids abroad have millions of followers. The first danger is if you don’t know where you are heading yourself, what destination are you likely to lead your millions of followers to? Still, they follow. What does it take these days to have a ‘blue tick’ as a ‘verified’, ‘certified’, ‘followable’ personality on Twitter or Instagram? Just notoriety. Get on Big Brother or be famous for walking around naked, and you get it. Write all the long turencis and make all the sense in the world and it wouldn’t matter.
Recent revelations by a whistleblower who was a staff of Facebook revealed that there is an internal policy that subscribes to the idea that sensationalism sells and makes the profit. Sometimes, these organisations ignore deliberately false information and utter rubbish because they know that is where the clicks come from. Each time we go for each other’s heads on social media, cursing our own mothers and fathers and country, these companies make more money. Data is king. Their businesses are the smartest business of all time. Why? They are in the data business. We gift them the data. We beg them, and even pay them to take our data, which they later repackage and sell back to us or to our states/countries. Brilliant.
Seun Kuti recently said there are only two sets of people who call their customers ‘users’ – social media companies and drug dealers. Again, brilliant!
So, as student unionists, the youths of today are no longer used to suffering. We see NANS vehicles in all shades. From Lexus SUVs to plush Mercedes Benz cars. Yet, more students are suffering, but the intellectualism that drove us as students, way back then, has disappeared. Otherwise, the students of today could have understood that only they could bridge the income gap that now exists among them, whereby they are now divided into oppressor bourgeoisie students and poor-as-church-rat ones.
The youths of today don’t seem to be aware, that they are already leading. APC or PDP will never vacate the space for you. But the agglomeration of your actions and decisions and inactions are part of the leadership fabric of Nigeria today. The best way to reform, is to reform from inside. Whereas student unionism has been hijacked by politicians, in my days there are ways of pressing reset from inside. I believe those ways can still be explored.
But my issue is not with student unions today. It is with the youths in general. If at 25 you have 20 million followers on Twitter, Youtube and/or Instagram be aware that the fame has driven many people nuts in the past, and you may be in that zone too. It is what fame does to people. People will hail you from everywhere and since your opinions count, you may start to feel infallible as the high and mighty invites you to their events even as they ignore others. A government, like the current one, will likely fall into that trap more often, because it mismanaged time. So, for them, anything that can bring some legitimacy is welcome. Still, humility is the key. But humility is the first attribute that went out the door in the new age of instant fame.
The youths must know that there is still a whole lot for them to learn. No one knows it all. And as sure as there is night and day, the current crop of leaders will depart in the natural selection process, leaving you stark naked one day. Those ones you criticise on end today will go. And you have to do the work yourself.
Do you know that governance is hard? Are you ready for the ascetic required to help this our nation? Are you willing to let go of the ‘soft work’ that you are used to? Are you ready to trust your fellow youth, because without trust nothing will change, as no singular person or a few people can do all the work? Are you ready to select a few leaders from amongst you and not heckle them to frustration? How do you build credibility enough to be able to catalyse and galvanise the vast majority?
How do you de-escalate the mistrust and distrust, especially of people in government, upon which you rode to fame, when it comes to your time to lead? Or you intend to remain in your moneymaking corner, pointing fingers till the end of time? Where will you find the humility to sometimes let go of your anger and forgive past infractions of others even as you grow more famous? Who will de-escalate the abusive environment that you have created whereby you put others down, de-platform them, cancel them, ruin their lives, drag in their families, malign and try to destroy them, sometimes simply for a mistake or two they made since they offered themselves for leadership? Where and how will you gain that vision to enable you to tackle the challenge of leadership in your time; a challenge you have made even more complicated than ever? As you push the envelope on your human rights, when do you think the reciprocal human responsibility – with which other great nations attained greatness and built their nations, kick in for you and the vast majority of Nigerians?
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