Event after, mack zuckerberg and politics.
Mark Zuckerberg,
Nigeria’s Youth and the
Politics of Things, By
Toyosi Akerele-Ogunsiji
This for me is a season of mixed feelings. For
once, I think our public sector leaders and a few
young Nigerians should swap roles, positions,
offices and responsibilities for some months for
the good measure of service, work ethic,
effectiveness, vision and leadership.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, 32, worth
over 40 billion dollars visited Lagos last week,
walked on the streets of Yaba without any pomp
and circumstance, knelt behind children to see
how they were writing codes at Co-creation Hub
and visited only businesses and ventures run by
young people.
The sterling efforts of our youth excited and
attracted Mark to our country. He could sense
the potentials of Nigeria’s tech sector, and didn’t
just visit our country for a taste of Jollof rice and
shrimps, but to explore and consolidate his ties
and relationship with the next big thing within the
world tech business space – Nigeria. Mark my
words. That is a young lad who’s known for
living intentionally.
Our youth keep putting Nigeria on the global map
in a positive light around the world without much
government support or investment, while our
governments continue to display a steep lack of
empathy and understanding about simple issues
on matters that affect citizens and our
livelihoods.
Just last week too, while in the middle of a
recession, during which our people have been
barely able to feed or afford the very minimalist
standards of living they used to manage to have,
our government announced an increase in the toll
fare between Ikeja and Oshodi in Lagos, Nigeria.
There is no justification whatsoever for this, at
least not now.
I have never been so upset with the government
in a long time. After the 2015 elections, I made a
decision to lean back and hope for the best while
observing the plans and agenda of our new
administration.
Our generation has upped the game in
entertainment. We are changing the world of, in
and with technology already. Both sectors have
largely flourished through the power of
organisation and collaboration. Government,
governance and our public service have to be
next.
It is my hope that the Pope, the UN Secretary
General and the president of nations of the world
will visit Nigeria one day and it will not be merely
to shake hands with old goons, even as
afterthought, but to see how Young Nigerians are
reshaping, remaking and repositioning our
political system from one led and managed by
the same group and clique of clueless, greedy
oldies to one superintended by young savvy
leaders who know how to build roads, fix
education, create an enabling environment for the
jobs of the future to thrive, reward dignity in
labour over access or nepotism, deepen
democracy, promote unity, provide security and
clean water and deliver wholesome development
to our people.
It’s not even their visits that would be weighty, it
would be the fact that there would be key
takeaways from Nigeria’s 360 degrees growth in
the hands of a new generation with demonstrable
resilience and capacity to tackle our problems
from the standpoint of knowledge and
commitment.
Brace Up Nigeria. I am convinced more than ever
before that the generation that will salvage our
country is right before Us and 2019 will be the
beginning.
The Road is dreary and the journey is long but
we walk in faith as we conquer our fears.
To all the young people who worked hard in the
Nigerian tech space even when the internet
wasn’t commonplace, we celebrate you. Beyond
Mark’s big endorsement of your hustle, it’s about
your tenacity, courage, vision and long suffering.
I write this with tears in my eyes because I know
what real “change and transformation” our nation
can experience when our generation gets the
opportunity of political service and leadership. I
mean, it shouldn’t be too difficult for public
servants who travel so frequently to build decent
airports in our major cities but they are blinded
by corruption and self-serving tendencies.
Nigeria can keep ignoring her youth but Nigeria
cannot do without us. They may have the money
and power, but we have the voices and the votes.
Our nation is on the precipice. Jobs are being cut
daily. Our people are impoverished. Our
government representatives feed fat on our
commonwealth. The two major political parties
who display fake enimity during the day while
they unite and negotiate to loot our public
treasury at night are one and the same.
The argument is that as youth, we are
inexperienced and naive, but I hope Nigeria is
aware that since independence, anything that has
brought honour and glory to this nation has been
spearheaded by young people – in academics,
football, entertainment, and what not.
No single political leader out of Nigeria in the
past 56 years has been a reference point of
exemplary leadership, vision, integrity and other
critical values that elders bequeath as legacies.
If you ask Nigerian children who their role models
are, it will be a shame that no single president or
governor, law maker or whoever at any level of
government will fit that bill or make the list, but
ask young people in other nations who their
models are, and we can guess their answers.
America has John F. Kennedy, Ghana has Jerry
Rawlings, South Africa has Nelson Mandela,
Singapore has Lee Kuan Yew, Tanzania has
Julius Nyerere, Burkina Faso has Thomas
Sankara, who does Nigeria have?
Civil society organisations, NGOs, businesses and
individuals have the combined power of
mobilising for change and social justice but the
policies made by government are reponsible for
development.
Nigerian young people did not wait for
government for set the frameworks for progress
in the earlier sectors I mentioned, so waiting for
politicians who lack vision and compassion to
hand over the baton of political power to us is
like waiting for a ship at the airport.
This is a call to action to Nigeria’s “can do”
generation to step forward and seek political
power. There is a special space reserved for us on the pages of history.
Nigeria’s Youth and the
Politics of Things, By
Toyosi Akerele-Ogunsiji
This for me is a season of mixed feelings. For
once, I think our public sector leaders and a few
young Nigerians should swap roles, positions,
offices and responsibilities for some months for
the good measure of service, work ethic,
effectiveness, vision and leadership.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, 32, worth
over 40 billion dollars visited Lagos last week,
walked on the streets of Yaba without any pomp
and circumstance, knelt behind children to see
how they were writing codes at Co-creation Hub
and visited only businesses and ventures run by
young people.
The sterling efforts of our youth excited and
attracted Mark to our country. He could sense
the potentials of Nigeria’s tech sector, and didn’t
just visit our country for a taste of Jollof rice and
shrimps, but to explore and consolidate his ties
and relationship with the next big thing within the
world tech business space – Nigeria. Mark my
words. That is a young lad who’s known for
living intentionally.
Our youth keep putting Nigeria on the global map
in a positive light around the world without much
government support or investment, while our
governments continue to display a steep lack of
empathy and understanding about simple issues
on matters that affect citizens and our
livelihoods.
Just last week too, while in the middle of a
recession, during which our people have been
barely able to feed or afford the very minimalist
standards of living they used to manage to have,
our government announced an increase in the toll
fare between Ikeja and Oshodi in Lagos, Nigeria.
There is no justification whatsoever for this, at
least not now.
I have never been so upset with the government
in a long time. After the 2015 elections, I made a
decision to lean back and hope for the best while
observing the plans and agenda of our new
administration.
Our generation has upped the game in
entertainment. We are changing the world of, in
and with technology already. Both sectors have
largely flourished through the power of
organisation and collaboration. Government,
governance and our public service have to be
next.
It is my hope that the Pope, the UN Secretary
General and the president of nations of the world
will visit Nigeria one day and it will not be merely
to shake hands with old goons, even as
afterthought, but to see how Young Nigerians are
reshaping, remaking and repositioning our
political system from one led and managed by
the same group and clique of clueless, greedy
oldies to one superintended by young savvy
leaders who know how to build roads, fix
education, create an enabling environment for the
jobs of the future to thrive, reward dignity in
labour over access or nepotism, deepen
democracy, promote unity, provide security and
clean water and deliver wholesome development
to our people.
It’s not even their visits that would be weighty, it
would be the fact that there would be key
takeaways from Nigeria’s 360 degrees growth in
the hands of a new generation with demonstrable
resilience and capacity to tackle our problems
from the standpoint of knowledge and
commitment.
Brace Up Nigeria. I am convinced more than ever
before that the generation that will salvage our
country is right before Us and 2019 will be the
beginning.
The Road is dreary and the journey is long but
we walk in faith as we conquer our fears.
To all the young people who worked hard in the
Nigerian tech space even when the internet
wasn’t commonplace, we celebrate you. Beyond
Mark’s big endorsement of your hustle, it’s about
your tenacity, courage, vision and long suffering.
I write this with tears in my eyes because I know
what real “change and transformation” our nation
can experience when our generation gets the
opportunity of political service and leadership. I
mean, it shouldn’t be too difficult for public
servants who travel so frequently to build decent
airports in our major cities but they are blinded
by corruption and self-serving tendencies.
Nigeria can keep ignoring her youth but Nigeria
cannot do without us. They may have the money
and power, but we have the voices and the votes.
Our nation is on the precipice. Jobs are being cut
daily. Our people are impoverished. Our
government representatives feed fat on our
commonwealth. The two major political parties
who display fake enimity during the day while
they unite and negotiate to loot our public
treasury at night are one and the same.
The argument is that as youth, we are
inexperienced and naive, but I hope Nigeria is
aware that since independence, anything that has
brought honour and glory to this nation has been
spearheaded by young people – in academics,
football, entertainment, and what not.
No single political leader out of Nigeria in the
past 56 years has been a reference point of
exemplary leadership, vision, integrity and other
critical values that elders bequeath as legacies.
If you ask Nigerian children who their role models
are, it will be a shame that no single president or
governor, law maker or whoever at any level of
government will fit that bill or make the list, but
ask young people in other nations who their
models are, and we can guess their answers.
America has John F. Kennedy, Ghana has Jerry
Rawlings, South Africa has Nelson Mandela,
Singapore has Lee Kuan Yew, Tanzania has
Julius Nyerere, Burkina Faso has Thomas
Sankara, who does Nigeria have?
Civil society organisations, NGOs, businesses and
individuals have the combined power of
mobilising for change and social justice but the
policies made by government are reponsible for
development.
Nigerian young people did not wait for
government for set the frameworks for progress
in the earlier sectors I mentioned, so waiting for
politicians who lack vision and compassion to
hand over the baton of political power to us is
like waiting for a ship at the airport.
This is a call to action to Nigeria’s “can do”
generation to step forward and seek political
power. There is a special space reserved for us on the pages of history.
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