MY NOTE TO THE GENERATION AFTER

MY NOTE TO THE GENERATION AFTER

Today [2nd Jan] I turn 30. It’s been three decades since I landed on this side of heaven, living as a Nigerian. In the mean time I have found my hearts call working as a Youth Coach.

I have known for a while now that I am an adult and lived as such, but as my thirtieth birthday drew closer, the fact came home even more forcefully as I ponder how fast time flew past me, you clock thirty in the blink of an eye. I feel like I am crossing a very important threshold.

I look back at the ongoing struggle for what is now Nigeria, and for us as a people known as Africans. There is a lot that I would have loved to say but that will be the focus of a book that is due for release anytime soon. In the mean time I will however use this medium to talk about the great responsibility thrust on you as young Nigerians yet in your teen years.

‘..And David served his generation’. Every man is born to serve his generations and make an impact that spread to unborn generations. You generation was born to serve and save Nigeria.

Don’t believe anyone who says to you that you are the future of Nigeria, tell them YOU ARE Nigeria, and talk about solutions to the present and biting realities of being Nigerian instead. Nor should you believe anyone who says you are the leaders of tomorrow, tell them LEADERSHIP is not a function of age nor is it position. Making up your minds right here and now, you are leaders; the leaders Nigeria seek.

My generation bought those lies, now see what it has done to us. We are compromised. I’ve always wondered, ‘where were the youth of my generation in the last election?’ The whole lot of us, tooted to be highest demographic bloc in Nigeria could have tipped the result significantly, so why did the result turn out to be what we see.

There are many young Nigerians of my generation who are doing great and showing capacity for leadership, but if they decide to run for political office I wonder if fellow youths like them will even cast their votes in their favor as they have no deep pockets and money bags. We have gone the way of the generations before us, paying only lip service, we have betrayed hope. You must not tow that path. Chart a better course.

You were born for a time as this, you were born for this! By the time you turn 20 or by your mid 20s, you would wield such enormous powers. Never before has there been a generation that grew up taking for granted IT innovations and the digital media. Many of you never got to feel the naïve excitement which we felt with the advent of e mails, social network, GSM, tablets. It’s all taken for granted by you, you know no other life. These are the tool with which we can stage a revolution, if they be powered by the right beliefs, if they be held and handled by hands that are powered by hearts that are set aright with the right value system.

You are the generation after technology, after Jobs and Gates, after military rule was abolished and democracy came to be. You are the long awaited generation. The times and conditions are right for you to coast to heroic status if you will.

I do not talk about individualistic ego driven heroism, no! What I see is more in terms of collective heroism predicated on each person taking up his responsibility to stand for what is true and right and joining hands to synergize. Embrace patriotism, give your solidarity to worthy causes online, lend your voice or a signature at least, you’ll be surprise how your one ‘drop’ can make a deluge that will flood out the ills from our society.

Cultivate valued relationships. Have role models, and take it one step further, get mentors. Sign up for mentorship programs. Take courses on line. Don’t bite the false thinking that a degree or certificate holds the key to your success in life. Right now, even a Masters degree in Nigeria is next to nothing. When you go to school, make sure it is for the singular purpose of getting an education and appropriate all the benefits/advantage that comes with being an undergraduate. My generation fell prey to it, you don’t have to. You know better now. We paid the price of ignorance; don’t do same. Don’t lose any opportunity to learn. Don’t leave the campus of your higher institution brandishing a mere certificate because that’s all you think you are worth.

As you come upon the age of franchise, know what it means and what great power it confers upon you to be able to cast your vote. And how that with that one vote and no more, you have the ability to change the destiny of this nation. This is opportunity, indeed this is opportune-teen. We blew it; you don’t have to do the same. Nigeria awaits you, Africa groans for you.

Don’t be unconcerned about what’s going on around you in the polity. Government was made to serve you. Don’t drown off in nonchalance. Don’t say as long as it doesn’t affect you, the bomb blast, the flood and the preventable man caused disasters. All it takes for evil to triumph is for good people to keep silent and do nothing. But we share a collective destiny either we realize it or not. There is a poem that goes in part: ‘They came for the Jew and I said nothing for I was not a Jew, then they came for the Jehovah’s Witness, and I said nothing for I was not a Jehovah’s Witness….. Then they came for me and alas there was no one to fight my cause’. [paraphrased] John Donne took it further; ‘….. any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.’. If it tolls for one, it tolls for all. We are Nigerians. Nigeria is swooning, tethering on the brinks, the wounds of the rape of our collective commonwealth are deep. But the courage and faith and determination of the Nigerian people are even deeper.

Steve Jobs was credited to have said “Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me… Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.” That same mindset is what you must adopt. Life is a gift too precious and too short to be spent just struggling for survival or playing catch up. Know why you are here on earth. I found mine and I write this letter in that capacity as a Youth Coach. It has taken me through a windy path of great sacrifice, and I can proudly say that even though I might have had pains in the process, I certainly have no regrets.

Be aware. Visit websites that helps you be conscious about your nation. To this end I strongly recommend ynaija.com; naijateenz.com, theotosin.blogspot.com, omojuwa.com, [thinkgreatness.com – coming shortly]. Cultivate the habit of reading. It pays great dividend on the long run.

Humanity has been around for a couple thousand years. It may be around for another couple thousand years more – maybe, just maybe. But of this many thousand years continuum, 80 or 100 at worst is all the time that you have to spend on earth. You don’t have forever to be alive, make your short stay worthwhile, and make it a great time. Live life INDEED; when your time is up and you make your exit from this plane, the earth may hold your frame, but make sure the earth is too small to hold your legacy. Make your years count even as a teenager. Live on even in death, in the memory of humanity. Let Nigeria be better because you came.

To your greatness,

Theotosin Afolayan: Youth Coach, public speaker and strategist, he is passionate about young people whom he believes are saddled with the responsibility and privilege of rewriting the Nigerian and African story. His is the author of ‘What The Blind Girl Saw’ resides in Ilorin Kwara state