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I thought that the lack of interest in addressing the peculiar Nigerian condition- unemployment, hopelessness, poverty - stemmed from inertia until I began calling up youths to organise around #TPACT
I misjudged it as the problem was far from inertia. Here lies the problem: everyone wants to hit big in the rotten country where folks Instagram their Hushpuppi hustle.
Like Christ, I asked a few to take the lead and become the fishers of men and women. They gave one excuse, or two, and other excuses. I moved on. One accepted the call and eleven others followed.
How can one redirect the attention of those who gather around folks who tweet & Instagram ostentatious wealth with dubious sources like the moths to light? How can one educate them on shared prosperity
Of their nation that has been cornered by a few and their lackeys? That they are in the endless rat race they call hustle because the prosperity of their country isn't being shared?
In a country that works for its citizens, owning a car or a house isn't ROCKET SCIENCE. That you're assured of meaningful employment after school means
That you can buy a car or own a house on the basis of your credit worthiness. Ownership and possession of the good things aren't on the basis of hustle. This isn't Latin.
There are things that true knowledge and education will expose to you. Not the kwashiorkor-ed education our higher institutions offer today. Do the youths seek this knowledge? Does BBNaija offer it?
In 1988, I walked into the expansive office of a scholar whose name I encountered in my A/L class. Dr Iyorchia Ayu, who later became Senate President and Minister.
I introduced myself as a law student. He showed me to a seat. How can I help you? He asked. I began by commending his seminal on military vanguardism. He smiled.
Then, my clincher. "Sir, I don't think, with my little knowledge of classical Marxism, that a bankrupt military like ours can become the vanguard of the revolution. I think you overstretched the importance of our military ".
This conversation came as an afterword to the debate that raged in the mid-80's on the role of the military in revolutions. If I recall correctly it was essentially Bangura v Tyoden debate and it drew scholars and students
I had sufficient education from Dr Ayu. I became his young friend and a regular guest at his home. When IBB blocked my admission to the law school in 1992, a call by Ayu as Senate President to IBB changed everything.
While wa are waiting to get you into the law school, you can go and get your things and begin work as one of my SAs, he offered. I politely declined. A few years later, while as Min of Education,
I walked into the press conference he was addressing at TBS Lagos. He broke protocols and announced my presence as his President. "Stand up for recognition, my president", he said.
After the press conference, he gestured to me and I walked to him. "That position is still available", he suggested. Again, I politely declined.
The knowledge I gained from him that prepared me for other things in life, that we met as delegates to the 2014 National Conference, he was proud to call me his boy. I remain eternally grateful.
Life isn't all about glam and Instagram and the Big Wheels of the Hushpuppis of the internet. If you've political education, you'll understand why you wear the handcuff you claim is hustle.
Good afternoon from the sanctum sanctorum of the shrine.
