Nigeria: Litany of failed generations, fears for generations unborn

The path of science is strewn with skeletons of discarded but hitherto ‘believed to be true theories’. This simply tells us that science, in spite of its objectivity, admits of the possibility that a theory can be falsified. And once a theory is falsified, it is thrown away, hence, the many skeletons on her path.

Welcome to Nigeria, a nation that is blessed with enormous human and natural resources but still flounders and fails. Unlike science’s discarded skeletons, she recycles failed skeletons and expects miracles. She brings back failures and expects an el-dorado. The Nigerian path is strewn with skeletons of failed leaders who keep returning and keep failing!

In 1983, the late Prof. Chinua Achebe published the ‘Trouble with Nigeria’ in which he pinpointed leadership failure as being responsible for Nigeria’s woes.

And he was right.

“In 1983, the late Prof. Chinua Achebe published the ‘Trouble with Nigeria’ in which he pinpointed leadership failure as being responsible for Nigeria’s woes.

And he was right.”

The malfeasance of the ruling class right from the days of independence accounts for why we are where we are today. The history of Nigeria since independence is the history of failed generations.

The independence generation- Zik, Awolowo, Sardauna of Sokoto, Tafawa et al failed us. They secured independence quite alright but when it came to governance, their selfish interests and personal ego got the better of them. And once one is unable to control the urge for self-glorification, that’s failure. It is not enough to mount a lady and get her pregnant. You must cater for her till she delivers and of course, care for the child till he is able to stand alone. The independent generation failed in caring for us. They rather dwelt on frivolities and as a consequence, won the battle and lost the war!

It is the above failures that resulted in the military’s sudden love for governance in Nigeria. And of course, they too failed. A snake will never fail to give birth to a long thing. The point being made is that the military men were ‘inspired’ by the corrupt tendencies of their predecessors and consequently sought to eclipse them. The result? Our continued march in failures!

At the inception of the fourth republic in 1999, Nigerians went crazy once more. Nuances like ‘generational power shift’ and all manner of jaw-tearing slogans rented the air but in the end, the shift was in essence a recycling of a member of the generations that had failed us. Do I need to say that he failed? A snake will certainly produce its kind!

The history of path of Nigeria is strewn with failed generations that have continued to fail us. This failure is still here with us as any discerning mind knows that Buhari has failed us once more. But what do we hear?- give him four more years, the challenges he met on ground are enormous and manner of ‘failure-oriented-excuses’!

The problem with our country is not likely to go away as the failed and wasted generations have bequeathed us with wrong morals on how to govern an ideal state. But what can we do?

The only way to exit this history of failures is to return to ourselves- I mean, the youths not the failed generations. We need to take back our country from the failed generations and pledge to make our children see hope in Nigeria. There is no better time to start this than in 2019.

We can break this curse of eternal failures and chart a new course for ourselves and the coming generation. Now is the time to move from generational failures to generational greatness- a greatness that will be achieved without the failed past leaders.

“The problem with our country is not likely to go away as the failed and wasted generations have bequeathed us with wrong morals on how to govern an ideal state. But what can we do?

“The only way to exit this history of failures is to return to ourselves- I mean, the youths not the failed generations. We need to take back our country from the failed generations and pledge to make our children see hope in Nigeria. There is no better time to start this than in 2019. 

“We can break this curse of eternal failures and chart a new course for ourselves and the coming generation. Now is the time to move from generational failures to generational greatness- a greatness that will be achieved without the failed past leaders.”

Chikwado, Uzoh is a graduate of Philosophy from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. He is a humanist, social critic as well as an expert in contextual communication. He is based in Badore, Lagos, Nigeria. He can be reached via: [email protected], or +2347038052721. He sent in this from Badore, Lagos.