14/08/2017
Someone wrote and sent to me.
The piece is titled...COMING GENERATION SCARES ME...REAL HARD!
While we have been busy talking about Nigeria of today, I wonder if we have spared a thought about how this country will be in the next TWENTY-FIVE years.
On October 1, 1979, when Alhaji Shehu Usman Aliyu Shagari was sworn-in as president, Goodluck Jonathan was just a 22 year-old undergrad of University of Port-Harcourt. Shagari was 54 years old. Ayo Fayose was 19 years old. Bukola Saraki was 17. Yemi Osibajo was 22. The generation of the likes of Shagari has gone.
Some of us in our 40s and 50s, when in school, either in the university or secondary school, had lofty dreams, both personal and otherwise. We were always motivated by nationalists and inventors who had impacted positively on the cause of humanity. We were voracious readers of novels and other books.
We were always flaunting our knowledge of current affairs. Inter-school quiz, Literary and Debating competition were the in-thing. Nowadays, students can hardly string a sentence together in English without errors.
Fast forward 35 years on and you are shocked and disturbed. Have you ever spoken to or engaged a 20 year-old boy or girl in a conversation? Ask him or her the motivation and u are likely to hear music, hip hop to be precise. He has hundreds of downloaded songs on his phone. He can sing all of them off hand. He knows all the singles of Nice, Neato C, Timaya, Davido, Whiz Kid off hand. The babes among them take pride in enticing men old enough to be their father on social media with buxomly physique. But s/he does not know anything about history of nationalism in the country. Ideas about good society, responsible family and good conduct do not motivate them.
He just wants to make money because his friend who does yahoo is rich and rides a good car, her friend who has numerous ‘aristos’ drives a SUV! The things that interest him/her are things that do not add value. S/he has google but never uses it for advancement of knowledge but to download p**n and other inanities. Yet, in TWENTY years time, they are the ones that will be contesting to become governors, senators, Reps members and even president. They belong to a generation that does not care about morality or God.
They belong to a generation that is motivated only by money and its acquisition. By 2035 to 2040, they will be our senators, Reps, governors and so on. I wonder if we have ever spared a thought for how this country will look like under them.
How did we get into this mess?
How can we get out of this predicament?
I am worried, deeply worried.
Are you?
