State of the Nation: Candid Advice to Junglegerian Youths | Femi Ogunlana
PanNigerianNews
4 min read
My candid advice to Junglegerian youths is to leave the country – to ‘japa’ in the common lingo. This is because the country holds neither prospects nor hopes for them. Everyday points to the perpetuation of a demeaned life.
The perfidy and perversion by the political class continue to rankle – the unfolding primaries of the so-called political parties characterized by deployment of stolen money rather than sound manifestos to buy the conscience of the delegates who are equally unscrupulous points to only one end – conflict of purpose that will in perpetuity leave the unprivileged economically and infrastructurally brutalised.
Hope continues to dim for the country or rather one says the country has reached the very deepest scratch at the bottom.
So, hunger will remain, poverty will be a companion, unemployment will sit askance, bad roads will feature without diminishing, insecurity will continue to pervade the land with impunity, infrastructural deficits, failed educational system, frightening wider gap between the haves and the have-nots, injustice will, without stop, stick out. The best this jejune political class will offer will still leave a wide gulf between the Eldorado and the doldrums.
That is why l am calling out the younger generation to consider the famed Andrew option. The sanctimonious politicians are only driven by personal interests and their end is amassing stolen wealth and putting their children in line to take over from them.
No love for the masses occupies any iota of space in their hearts. Look at the pattern in terms of candidates emerging across the country – children, wives, relatives of past presidents/head of states, governors, ministers etc., those who were there before are the ones recycling themselves. it’s becoming increasingly difficult for a nobody to break into the circle of the pampered.
To make a headway and break the cycle of poverty is becoming increasingly hard; likewise, gone are the days when children of nobody got jobs in blue chip companies, in dreamed establishments – merit was the yardstick then. But nowadays, it is connections, you don’t even get to see the advertisements, not to talk of trying your luck there. So, frustration and desperation stalk the land infamously. They talk of skill acquisitions, which they won’t encourage their own children to put their fingers on, but then, you acquired it, what of the hostile, stiffling environment in which you are made to operate! They dole out okadas, dryers, etc. However, you won’t see their own eking out a living through that. They are rather tucked far away, made to appear to cream off the land’s benefits at the time they wish. These are the benefits those who maintained the land are entitled to, but they got schemed off.
The youths must think of ‘japa’ because the light at the end of the tunnel is already unconscionably taken off. Pathways to redeeming the country, the best being restructuring that will return the country to pre-independence system of true federalism and that will restore competitive relationship, and which will engender growth and development, economic buoyancy and prosperity, employment opportunities and gainful engagements, better roads and improved transportation generally, and so on. They have zeroed their minds against all these because the present warped system constitutes help to line their pockets. It forms an illicit stream of income to them.
The Fulani oligarchies are the major culprits but they are sustained by the lackeys they surreptitiously raised in the South, whom they fatten intently with filthy crumbs, and hailed on untiringly by an army of religious bigots and imbecilic ignoramuses. I used to say their time will soon be up but not anymore because nothing indicates we are ready to change the narrative.
Most countries which have positive stories today had the change instituted down – but here in Junglegeria, even, the oppressed will gleefully proclaim – let the change begin with individuals; they become the greatest supporters of the purveyors of hardlife in their vain belief of repertoire of knowledge at their beck and call. They muddle the space with groundless propositions and defences. There is also the weak link of cowardice being exploited by the purveyors of hard life. People are paranoid of meeting with death possible in face-offs with the powerful purveyors of hard life; yet, people die everyday; thus wasting the lives.
And in religious houses, the calming effects of weekly sermons will continue to make sheep of the people. So, restoration of good life is remote.
The oppressors don’t change and the oppressed here are not wired to force the change. Where the heck does that leave us? 90%, or indeed 95%, of those who attain adequate prosperity in Junglegeria make it through unscrupulous means; many toil and toil but all they would be able to scramble at the end of the day is a meagre return on investment. The investment will ultimately wobble until it crashes. In the end, because of unabated frustration arising from failed efforts, most people abandon the path of piety, and behind the scene embrace the debauched method.
It’s in the light of this that I call out on our youths to, at this time, look out beyond the shores of this country. After all, they aren’t willing to fight for the enthronement of good governance, too. There is more to life than the unending suffering till the end.
…Ogunlana, Editor-in-Chief of The Insight, sends this piece from Ogbomoso, through WhatsApp.
