Don't
Let Them Do this to Us: A Message to Nigerian Youths
By
Nnaemeka Oruh
PORT HARCOURT
liliemmy@yahoo. com
I know how hungry
and deprived you would all feel now; the hundreds of thousands of
jobless youths walking the streets of this country. A whole lot of you
have managed to be educated. A whole lot others have found it impossible
to get educated. For those of you who are university, polytechnic and
colleges of education graduates, you have come to find out how false
your earlier belief that education guarantees the meal ticket is. You
are all angry and hungry. Quite a large number are walking wraiths and
your situation has become compounded by societal demands. Who would
blame you when you turn to weapons of destruction-and most times self
destruction? My beloved fellow Nigerian youths, here is my pre-April
general elections message to you.
Already, the
politicians are perfecting plans on how ballot boxes would be stolen and
in-house elections conducted. Political opponents would be violently
eliminated and those in power are perfecting plans on how quasi-legal
means would be used to disqualify potential strong opponents. And the
potentially strong foes that are endangered by quasi-legal elimination
are getting ready to cause general disturbances and chaos in the country
if they are disqualified. For all these schemes, the instruments of
perpetration are you-the Nigerian youths-and it seems that in your anger
and hunger, you would have no choice other than to seize this
opportunity, get the money that will come from it. And who says you are
not aware? You have always been aware that in the process, you may die
and the country destroyed. But at your present state, you do not care.
But you should care.
This is not yet our game. The time is not yet ripe for us to throw
ourselves into the battle of wrenching power. Whoever will come to power
in May, would still be a product of the old brigade whose sole duty in
leadership is to destroy the country further. So we should not aid them.
We should refuse the guns; we should turn our backs to their pleas that
we take money and destroy ourselves and our country. If the hunger in
our bellies will not allow us reject the money, please let us take the
money but we should always have the presence of mind not to do what we
have been asked to do by the power crazy and blood thirsty fools. It is
not theft or fraud, we would have only collected a token of what is
rightfully ours. Sometime soon, it shall be our turn to make right of
wrongs they have done to this country.
The embattled Vice-President Atiku Abubakar in his addressed titled
"Challenges For Nigeria After the Election" presented at Chatham house,
London, on the 20th February, 2007 has reminded us of "Ivory Coast [sic]
where the disqualification of Alhassan Ouattara from contesting the
presidency brought the former icon of economic and cultural development
in Africa to the present state of near anarchy". That was Atiku's
belated attempt at appealing to the emotions of us all, to make us stand
in solidarity with him and his cause in the event that he was
disqualified from contesting for the presidency in April. My question
is, where was Atiku during all these wasted years of our "nascent"
democracy? Has he all of a sudden decided to champion the cause of this
country because of his own problems? Let us not be deceived, they are
all the same! If he is disqualified, let him fight his battle all alone.
Let him leave us alone. His struggle to rule does not emanate from an
unselfish desire to make this country a better place. They are all
motivated by the same level of greed and insatiable desire for personal
aggrandizement. Let us also remember that in the event of any disorder
or chaos during or after the elections, we would be the direct
sufferers. Our exalted politicians and their family members will fuel
the conflict from a very safe distance, while we butcher ourselves to
the last man.
And when you go to assassinate a political opponent, or to hijack a
ballot box and you make any mistake, you will be the one to be
destroyed, and not the politician that sent you. Have you ever stopped
to ask yourself why the politicians do not send their sons and daughter?
Or is it that they do not have any? Oh! their children are abroad! I
pray we should use our senses and ensure they do not do this to us
again.
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