I visited a family member who lived in a flat within his property in Owerri. The man who would later become the king of Owerri asked me: “Ndubuisi, how are you doing with studies in FUTO?”.
I responded: “Sir, Abacha is causing problems in Nigeria. He is making things very hard”.
Quickly, he explained: “Ndubuisi, your Abacha now is FUTO and you need to do well, graduate with good grades, etc. Leave Abacha for us”.
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That conversation remains evergreen. Yes, one needs to know what his “real problems are”, and develop a plan to deal with them. That Elom Musk wants to relocate to the moon is not my problem today. As the paralysis deepens in Nigeria, young people, do not lose focus. Deal with things you can control and understand the ones you cannot.
There is no argument, things are hard. But understand that every generation in Nigeria has had its own challenges. When I was in FUTO, we used to leave the hostel at 3am for a class scheduled at 8am. If you go there at 7am, you will likely not see the professor’s face. They used loudspeakers in MPH (a big hall in Lake Nwaebere campus) to teach those general courses with thousands of students.
It was a mess; many broke down and dropped out! My engineering drawing exam was done on the floor because the space for the exam was not large enough to accommodate the drawing boards! Fast forward, every student in FUTO has his or her own hall with extra space to throw away.
Sure, this is not to say that young people should not pursue causes and activism. But the key thing here is this: understand when you can make impacts. Do your constitutionally protected demonstrations and show your frustrations, but destroying banks, ATMS, burning cars, etc will not advance the mission. Think about it: what has that auntie done for you to burn her family car? #focus is key. And make sure you vote in days! That would be the best response to bad situations.
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Never take your eyes off the ball, focus is the language. Do not be one of those who yammer that elections cannot change anything in Nigeria, until you install another delinquent, then you will realize that elections can actually make your life miserable.
You owe yourself and those you care about the duty of voting for who you believe can improve things, no country advances by despair and complaints.
Do your part, the rest will be taken care of. Don’t be unfortunate.