Mfonobong Inyang: Young Nigerians and The Cost Of Patriotism

Writing to young people can be very difficult because we tend to unite around unimportant stuff but split hairs over the most important issues. How do you tell somebody that there is fire on the mountain when the person has no frame of reference for the existential threats confronting him or her? I remember when I used to do budget analysis on public platforms until one day when a story broke about how the budget of a particular fiscal year was allegedly padded with trillions of naira, but when I came on social media, instead of the outrage and drive for accountability from public officials, what I saw trending was the adventures of a married man and his side chick. Then I asked myself: are most Nigerian youths really interested in having a great country, or do we just enjoy the theatrics of complaining about bad governance?

For those who claim to be among the number who desire a functioning country, I’m here to tell you that your patriotism will come at a cost. We say we want a better country, but in reality most young people are waiting for others to lead the way or, even worse, do the work while they wait to enjoy the benefits. Real patriotism is an expensive business; it’s not a catchphrase. Those who threatened to start a civil war when fuel was less than N100 and claimed you were living a fake life when you bought a bag of rice for N7,500 will call you toxic today for growing a pair to demand better governance. So if you think those who are benefiting from the dysfunction of Nigeria would stand by and let you take back your country from their grip without putting up a fight, then you’re either naïve or being disingenuous.

YCee spoke about the olodo uprising and rightly so, but, as usual, it was reduced to certain demography and personalities. The fact is that we’re olodos at different social touch points; it’s classism that makes us deluded to think we’re better than others. It’s like talking down on a barely literate woman struggling to survive by selling her votes at N5,000, yet those who say they are educated have sold out their country by lining up behind the worst characters for public service. Last time I checked, it was professors who rig elections for politicians, those who embezzle our country’s wealth have financial operatives doing the dirty work for them, and it’s the supposed intellectuals that lie through their teeth for terrible leaders. So I ask again, amongst all these people, is the poor woman who sold her vote for N5,000 the only culprit in the mess we’re in?

Do we know how the world really works? How many young people, despite their education, can recognise the patterns exhibited by foreign intelligence assets who are formulating policies for interests that aren’t theirs? Would it come as a surprise to some of us in Africa that most consulates are, in reality, forward operating bases for covert missions or that most of the people we know as career diplomats or ambassadors are really highly trained intelligence operatives? Such people are trained in strategic deception; they can sing your praises in the day and plan how to destabilise your country at night without losing sleep because it’s nothing personal. Have we ever wondered why the most popular or famous people in our space are rarely the intelligent ones? Have we clocked such social engineering, or do we think it’s one of those conspiracy theories?

Have we ever asked ourselves why our so-called friends across the Atlantic are always quick to support the worst leaders on the African continent and endorse sham elections? What do you think is the endgame behind the continuous dishing out of huge loans to countries with little accountability and high levels of corruption in government? They fund our elections but write laws in their own countries that prevent foreign funds from powering their own elections? Isn’t it interesting that those who claim to be defenders of democracy have no problem with sit-tight African leaders who amend their constitutions to remain in power for decades, but leaders like Ibrahim Traore are constantly demonised? That’s simply because in the real world, it’s not necessarily a clean split of good leaders and bad leaders; what we have are patriots and puppets.

By the way, have you ever heard that any regional or continent-wide organisation summoned an emergency meeting over the abuse of children in Congo, the civil war in Sudan or xenophobic attacks in South Africa? Other than the usual “strongly worded statements”, have you seen any leader on the African continent being actually sanctioned for gross abuse of office? Of course not. However, when the leaders of three countries went “off-script” by asserting their sovereignty and pulling out of such organisations, all hell was let loose. They were threatened with fire and brimstone, but everyone quickly found that they were dealing with a generation of leaders with balls of steel who would rather die on their feet than live on their knees. To make it worse, it wasn’t even their call – it was really the voice of Jacob but the hands of Esau. Clock it.

An African proverb states that, “A man who does not know where the rain began to beat him cannot say where he dried his body.” At least you’re old enough to remember the year 2014, and hopefully you have understood, at the very least in hindsight, that the political events that followed were to a large extent a foreign influence operation with local collaborators. If you have a basic knowledge of geopolitics, you should be able to identify fingerprints of a renegade operation. Are you telling me that all those famous people who carried placards to campaign for the release of Chibok Girls are suddenly oblivious to similar school abductions on a much larger scale in the country? Have you figured that, as a country with a GDP of over $600 billion and an economy that was globally ranked the third-fastest in terms of growth, Nigeria was on her way to becoming a superpower, and this was seen as a threat by certain interests? I think we have gotten to that point; we have to start addressing issues in plain terms.

Nigeria is the way it is by design, not happenstance. So those who want a better country should know the system they are up against. In the same country, youths who were waving their country’s flags were considered a threat and mowed down with live bullets, but terrorists who should be designated as enemies of state are fettered and referred to as prodigal sons. We live in a country where some religious leaders run psyops for the political class instead of speaking truth to power. Recently I saw someone on television who claims to be a man of the cloth defending the indefensible, and the first question I asked myself was: “How come he’s granting interviews now that his political benefactor is getting heat? Has he ever publicly spoken up for his persecuted community? Who is funding his media rounds?”

There is a heavy investment into socially sedating young people because of all the demographics in the country, we have the numbers, strength and hopefully intellect to upend the status quo. So you see things like hikes in school fees, taxes on businesses that are mostly run by young people, harassment by law enforcement and a cocktail of seemingly unrelated but co-ordinated disturbances. Haven’t you noticed that whenever it seems that young people are aggregating around important issues, like clockwork, some self-proclaimed influencers would just misdiagnose the situation with narratives designed to muddle the waters, create a distraction by sharing a crazy story or insert themselves as uninvited stakeholders.

Speaking about influencers, let me share an unpopular opinion. I understand when young people nudge popular or influential people to speak up on social issues, but the flip side to that is that you’re effectively surrendering your agency. You’re saying that without popular people lending their voices to a cause you believe in, you cannot organise yourselves to do anything. Am I saying that such voices are not important in adding mileage to your message? No. What I’m saying is that if your first thought is finding people to speak for you, you have succumbed to the conditioning that wants you to seek permission before taking action. Some of the people you want to speak out won’t do so, not because they don’t know better but because their affiliation with the dysfunction you suffer from takes preference over whatever consideration you think they have for you. Hard to swallow, but I need you to think deeply about what you just read.

In a country where legislators amended the electoral laws to effectively de-criminalise forgery instead of entrenching transmission of results in real time, have you braced yourself for impact? In a country where the judiciary, which should be a third and co-equal arm of government with a first line charge, is being gifted houses, do you expect to get justice from those temples? In a country where a state of emergency was declared following a political feud but sub-nationals where actual crises have ravaged the people are seen as stable, are you ready to confront those who see this as normal? In a country where those who claim to have fought for democracy are busy using state might to undermine political opponents and their supporters see such behaviour as strategy, are you ready to stand up to those political jobbers? In a country where some graduates struggle to get jobs but the politicians who govern them can barely boast of bare minimum educational qualifications – are you ready to challenge this anomaly?

Are you aware of the dangerous precedent set by the electoral commission? An institution which spent about half of its budget on tech but at the end of the day told Nigerians about some glitch? The worst part was the ridiculous explanation about servers; they forgot that we have the most internet-savvy generation ever, and nobody needs an expert witness to know how AWS works, and if there was indeed any blackout, it would not only affect a large swath of other users, but it would also be logged on the company’s backend. Don’t take my word for it; even the PEPC admitted a report from an employee of AWS which showed that the server suffered no such glitch. For emphasis, this is not some roadside talk; these are well-documented statements made under oath in a court. At the end of the day, was anybody held accountable? So when you hear people say, we’re living in an active crime scene, this is a stark example.

All I’m saying is that if you are amongst those who want to shake things up, you must first sit down and count the cost. If you are not ready to go all the way, then don’t even bother. You can continue being entertained on TikTok, but if you’re serious about taking responsibility for birthing a better country, then educate yourself on the odds that are stacked up against you and be determined to play your part. Most of what I just wrote will certainly fly over certain heads, and it’s a tragedy, but someone has to do the thankless job. What can I say, except you’re welcome.