Open letter to the youths of Nigeria
[FILES] Nigerian Youths
Sir: Dear youths of Nigeria, everyone thought that your Movement, for salvaging your disconsolate country from the brink, would soon fizzle out but, instead, it has come to stay and grows bigger and stronger by the day. Be strong and press on, for the sake of your future and that of generations unborn. The cup of iniquity of the old-guard is full and you must have them drink it, now!
Remember that opportunity calls but once and that a leopard can never change its spots. If they should tune you away from the liberation crusade, by any means, they will terminally crush and pocket you, with the future of Nigeria. They never bothered about you. Not even your education did they care for – so that you would never draw level with their children. Instead, they are scheming for a closed system in which they and their generations will reign, with you and your generations fenced off! They are masters of deception. Do not fall for their belated overtures!
After swindling the people (by scandalous nepotism, remuneration, severance package and asset conversion) as governor or minister and what have you, they go on to corner the legislature and other strategic organs of government (rather than quit for new blood) and impose their kith and kin on choice offices they cannot directly occupy – at the expense of merit, without the opportunity for you to compete. Check the trend and profile of recruits to political offices, NNPC, CBN, NPA, NCS, FIRS, NIMASA and the rest of ministerial departments and agencies!
They have also locked you out of reckoning in their parties, by high application fees, vote-buying and cult-like cabal systems so that you will remain underdogs and never have the opportunity to attain strategic political standing to oppose them or change anything, as children of nobody.
Meanwhile, you are the majority shareholders in the Nigerian enterprise and should be calling the shots. You have the population. You are the ones brimming with ideas and energy and breaking new grounds in science and technology, commerce and industry, arts and culture, entertainment and sports and in electoral victories and political appointments around the world. You are the ones still giving Nigeria some positive mention on the global stage.
You are the ones to defend the country and lay down your lives in the event of aggression. Are you not the ones facing insurgents – from Boko Haram to bandits to Unknown Gunmen, now? You are even the polling officers and party agents. Yet you watched them compromise elections at the expense of contestants who could serve the people better but do not have the war chest!
But you must still break your back in these final days to saturate the cities, the grassroots and the rural areas with the message of liberation and to institute measures to protect the votes and the voting process. As they say, it is not over until it is over and the devil never sleeps. You cannot come this far only to buckle. Shalom!
Emma Nwosu.
