Sonala Olumhense Syndicated (SOS): The Youth Of Nigeria

Columnist: Sonala Olumhense
I am embarrassed that on his second visit to Africa, United States
President Barack Obama again refused to set foot on Nigerian soil.
Those who are in the know say Nigeria campaigned extremely hard to be
one of Mr. Obama's stops. His choice of respectable destinations were
Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania.
Actually, he made it all quite clear during his first visit four years
ago when he said at the Ghana parliamenthe favoured responsible,
strong and sustainable democratic governments.
"This is about more than holding elections - it's also about what
happens between them," he noted. "Repression takes many forms, and too
many nations are plagued by problems that condemn their people to
poverty. No country is going to create wealth if its leaders exploit
theeconomy to enrich themselves, or police can be bought off by drug
traffickers. No business wants to invest in a place where the
government skims 20 percent off the top, or the head of the Port
Authority is corrupt. No person wants to live in asociety where the
rule of law gives way to the rule of brutality and bribery. That is
not democracy, that is tyranny, and now is the time for it to end."
He did not, but could also have said:
"No country is going to make progress when its leader asserts he does
not give a damn about personal probity, and in effect, about the
content of his own character.
"No business wants to invest in a place where the government confers
the nation's highest honours, in broad daylight, upon the most
dishonourable thieves or appoints them to high office.
"No self-respecting person wants to live in a society where
transparency and accountability may be spelling challenges for the
public, but not performance issues for public servants.
"No country is going to make progress when the hallways and lobbies of
the executive and the legislature look more like the Main Wing of a
maximum security prison than the revered chambers of men and women
trusted with power.
"No business wants to invest in a country where Mr. President is
afraid to tell the First Lady that she is not Mrs. President; and that
the law does not provide public resources in his name for
rabble-rousing of her own definition.
"No person wants to live in a society where governors forget they are
not visiting sovereigns who come once ina while to pick up cheques,
but are supposed to live and work in their States.
"No country is going to make progress when governance is definedas
Wednesday morning contract distribution to friends and cronies, and
the rest of the week to conspicuous consumption and travel.
"No self-respecting person wants to live in a country where the
leadershipgrades its own performance and brags about how well it is
doing."
Mr. Obama did not say those things, but they were all implied in his
call for change in Africa, especially in Nigeria. Four years later,
the danger is not simply that things have worsened; it is that
Nigerians are being told they have never had it so good.
Obama did not say those things, but the United States has not
fundamentally got around to helping Nigeria, as opposed to the
government of Nigeria, either. While the United Kingdom has taken a
proactive legal role in challenging corruption and atrocious
governance in Nigeria, the United States does not seem uncomfortable
when some of Nigeria's greatest beneficiaries from bad governance and
corruption come shopping.
But Obama did say something especially significant in 2009: The
triumph of the future, he said, would be won by the youth. "You have
the power to hold your leaders accountable, and to build institutions
that serve the people," he told them.
He assured African youth they can accomplish a lot if they took
responsibility for their future. "It won't be easy," he warned. "It
will take time and effort."
On the part of the US, he said, "What we will do is increase
assistance for responsible individuals and institutions, with a focus
on supporting good governance - on parliaments, which check abuses of
power and ensure that opposition voices are heard; on the rule of law,
which ensures the equal administration of justice; on civic
participation, so that young people get involved; and on concrete
solutions to corruption like forensic accounting, automating services,
strengthening hotlines, and protecting whistle-blowers to advance
transparency and accountability."
Four years later, while Nigeria rots, the US has not delivered on this
critical promise or outlined how it is to be implemented. Partly as a
result,while countries like Ghana and Tanzania can at least speak in
terms ofhope, Nigeria is hurtling in the reverse direction, overrun by
the most insipid and cynical government in 53 years.It is no surprise
that, with mediocrity on the ascendancy, incompetence a state value
and political promises casually ignored, only the greediest investors
come to Nigeria. We guarantee neither life nor limb. We are
committed to neither water nor clean air. Today's story is the same
as that of yesterday.
It is no surprise that the youth of Nigeria is surviving on crumbs and
leftovers, serving as drivers or thugs, or in kidnapping and assorted
crime. Mostly, Nigerian youth is idle, not because it is lazy, but
because it lacks opportunity. Governance is a treasure, just as
unemployment does not matter.
But it is not by coincidence that Jessica Matthews, co-inventor of
thesOccket,the amazing electricity-generating soccer ball that was
presented to Obama in Tanzania last week, is a Nigerian-American. In
Nigeria, she might have been selling "pure water" in traffic, as are
thousands of our educationally-orphaned kids.
The lesson is simple: while the US canachieve a lot in other parts of
Africa, unless change takes root in Nigeria, change will not come to
Africa. And no change will come to Nigeria unlesswe liberate and
empower its youth.
That is why it is to the youth of Nigeria that SOS is targeted, and dedicated.