by Michael Orodare

To prove that we are not cowards like Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers state has described us, more of our strengths should be vested into inculcating and educating fellow youths…

There is no better time to start the discussion and movement on how we want the 2015 elections to be than now. But if truly we are concerned about the young generations not just getting involved, but actively involved in the political process that would usher in a better leadership for our nation in 2015, which was the talking point at the just concluded The Future Awards (TFA) Symposium, in Ikogosi, Ekiti state, we need to ask ourselves; what have we done with the resolutions of previous symposiums, conferences and forums we’ve attended? It’s high time we put limit to the talking and start taking actions. It’s time to do less of advocacy on the social media and do more of educating and sensitizing fellow youths on the streets and in our neighbourhood.

There is no doubt in the fact that social networks are important source of political information, discussion and mobilization for the youths, but sitting in our rooms or offices tweeting about the woes of  our nation, will not right the wrong or repair the damages already done. Our involvement must also go beyond the level of writing articles and opinions, it must go beyond tweets and Facebook posts castigating and condemning government policies. Our army of social media activists need to be told that exceeding the total number of tweets per day while attacking the government is not as effective as the orientation and sensitization we give to the young man on the street who has lost hope in the Nigerian project.

We cannot all be card-carrying members of political parties, and those of us who currently identify with a political party cannot afford to make politics a career, it would be disastrous to do that, but being part of a voluntary organisation and not necessarily a political party, which has a collective vision for the development of the whole nation also has a great impact in shaping our nation to the land of our dream – an organisation with clearly defined goals around which a consensus can be built to enthrone politics and leadership of development.

Rather than flexing our muscles on social media against the leaders who are not listening and are not ready to listen to our yearnings, to really prove that we are not cowards like Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers state has described us, more of our strengths should be vested into inculcating and educating fellow youths, no matter the social strata they belong to in the society. We need to take our campaigns and sensitization to the grassroots level. This should be collective responsibility of the few of us who were privileged to have attended symposiums like the TFA and other meaningful gatherings.

Still on NANS…

As expected, my last piece on the rot in the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) and the pseudo-leader presently parading itself as the ‘boss’ in charge of the body which claims to represent the interest of all Nigerian students, was greeted by condemnation and commendation.  Different strokes for different folks, so goes the popular saying. The only danger is keeping mute to the rot.

Dr Okey Okechukwu, a columnist with Thisday Newspaper made an interesting but embarrassing revelation about NANS leadership at the last TFA Symposium. He said that in the last 25years, no student has been NANS President, all those who have been occupying the office in the past 25years are former students and students who cannot identify with any institution. Yet, nobody is saying anything about it.

We are more concerned about what goes wrong at the National Assembly and Aso-Rock, ignoring the perilous state of one of our ‘constituencies;’ the NANS. Morning by morning, NANS glory is washing away, that’s if there’s still any glory left anyway. NANS has not been able to produce a credible leadership for just 40million Nigerian students, yet we are clamouring for a credible leadership in Nigeria that would do everything perfectly as we want it to be.

Until we put our house in order, and purge ourselves of the ‘Jonahs’ in our ship like we have in the present leadership of NANS, I’m afraid the campaign for active involvement of the youths in the political activities of our nation may end up as a shattered crusade, because of the devious ones amongst us, who are not ready to join hands together in moving the ship forward, but they are out to wreck it.

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Michael Olanrewaju Orodare has worked in the Office of the Chief Press Secretary to the Ondo State Governor as a Media Assistant. He has garnered experience writing in the The Nation Newspaper working with the paper’s Sunday Desk. He leans towards the Labour Party. He blogs at www.michaelorodare.blogspot.com and tweets from @MichaelOrodare

 

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