THE CHEATED.THE DELAYED

In the annals of man, the beauty and pride of every nation has been the foundations that each generation lays for its successors and how every succeeding generation increases what was bequeathed onto it by parent generations. As it is said and made to be, the peak of every generation is a stepping stone for the next. This has been the secret behind several centuries of empire-building, scientific breakthroughs, intellectual development, language dynamics and the rest. The result of this steady evolution is that man has continually proven and sustained himself on earth as the most advanced animal and one that is capable and in the process of conquering other planets.
The success or failure of trans-generational communication is responsible for every nation’s present conditions. Where previous generations had taken the responsibility of looking far into the future and put necessary mechanisms in the path of success for the future, and the present generation has equally worked in it in consciousness, their overwhelming societal success is not farfetched. In the case of Africa however, in fact, Nigeria, where the story is saddest, the first generation of leaders-preindependence- had great visions of building an indomitable nation where people could realize their good dreams no matter their background or creed under a reliable leadership that is people oriented. Unfortunately, the reverse has continued to be the case and the country has practical jumped from frying pan to fire. Please, let no one blame this on the protracted military rule because in the first place, the success or failure of a government does not depend so much on its mode as on the personalities carrying out the functions of that government. A visionary military government would perform wonders and a visionless civil or democratic government would equally perform wonders, but in the negative. The question is, if those military personnel were civilian leaders, would they have performed better? After all, we have had “democratic” governments since 1999, what has changed much? Nothing much.
The sad part of these lapses is that the common man and especially the youths that are in need of these developments to carry on the evolution are at the receiving end.
However, the whole blame of political failure cannot be hipped at the doorstep of active political leaders but also on people who benefitted from the wealth of good times and who stood aside when things were deteriorating. It is no news that our immediate parent generation in Nigeria always bore us with the stories of how they enjoyed the dividends leadership and depth of their education due to availability of all they needed. But my question to them is; what did they do while things were falling apart? The responsibility of failure or success must be shared across board.
African youths not bequeathed today with a foundation to build their future but a responsibility to repair the past evils, make the present comfortable and lay a foundation for the future. We must not relent in this task, or the future will be far worse. We have been cheated by our forerunners, we have been delayed by incessant strikes in the process of our education, we have been maligned by nefarious administrators and the silence of our parents has not helped matters. Failure is not an option any more.