The Nigerian youth finds himself in a conundrum. We are repeatedly asking ourselves how we arrived at this current destination fraught with confusion and uncertainty. We had big dreams – quite lofty ones. We dreamt of a revived textile industry, we saw our mills operational again. We dreamt and saw mechanized farms dotting the landscape of the country. We dreamt and saw stable electricity. We even had announcements and received emails from the electricity vendors notifying us of a scheduled interruption (all in our dreams). We dreamt and saw a prosperous Nigeria where lives were treated with dignity. We dreamt and saw a disciplined armed force, we saw (in our dreams) the police neat and smartly dressed maintaining law and order. As we dreamt there emerged some neatly dressed folks pontificating about this utopia. They were telling us of how they were going to achieve our dreams with a snap of the fingers. They made us understand that they were the only better option to making our dreams a reality. They multiplied our dreams by creating dreams within a dream. They made us realise we were richer than the United States, United Kingdom, South Korea and China. They built castles with gold and roofed them with diamonds. They showed us a utopia where we were all sipping martini on the shore under the shade of coconut trees and gentle breeze caressing our skins.

In the dream they told us that we just needed to validate their mandate by briefly coming out of our dreams and endorsing them in reality. We awoke in a frenzy and dashed to the polls like people under a spell. No explanation was sufficient, the incumbent had to go. We voted and before we could dash back to our dreams the spell wore off. Don’t worry they told us, it’s just a matter of time and we would supply you with anaesthetic to take you back to utopia. We waited patiently. Then they came on board. Suddenly, power became stable (or so we thought). “We told you things are going to CHANGE”, they said. We forgot that it was July and that water levels had improved at the dams! Then we waited. Perhaps there might be no need to go back to our dreams. Perhaps our dreams are about to be unveiled here. Then it happened – recession!

All of a sudden the value of our disposable income crashed. Prices of goods skyrocketed while earnings remained the same. “Recession is just a word” somebody said. We were encouraged to embrace the hardship as it was a path to greatness. Well, let’s give them a little chance, let’s give them the benefit of the doubt. Then it happened. Salaries of staff stopped. For pensioners, it was already a norm, but this was new. “Oil prices have crashed and the previous government squandered all the wealth”, they shouted, yet they budgeted billions for their feeding. “We must buy Nigeria to grow Nigeria”, they sang, yet they budgeted billions for foreign cars. “Ah, we can no longer tolerate medical tourism”, the president said, yet he was missing in the UK for over 100 days at a go undergoing treatment. “We no longer have forex for school fees”, the president hyped, yet his kids kept graduating from foreign universities.

We thought we had seen it all. We desperately wanted to get back to our dreams. Then we heard of the Paris Club refund. Finally, money is available to offset the mounting salaries arrears across the country or so we thought. Then we never heard of the refunds again. Later, we began to hear of whispers of some of the money traced to the senate president. We read of some governors buying property both within and outside the country. Some even started building statues. We became confused. The minister of power kept telling us of his intention to generate electricity from sugarcane. Later he told us of his intention to increase electricity generation by installing prepaid meters. When that didn’t work, we started hearing of peak generation and highest generation. Nobody was telling us how much was actually distributed and paid for. Later the militants were blamed for sabotaging the pipelines leading to power failure. Other times, the previous government was accused as being responsible for the failure of the present government to improve electricity supply.

We were confused. We turned to the church for help and were warned not to fail in remitting out tithes. We are not earning salary fa! That’s not our problem they said. In fact, we were told that our tithes were only being collected by the clergy because they wanted to make us rich. Haba! We read of private jets and monstrous projects being undertaken by the church and wondered what value they were adding to our lives – nothing!

Then came MMM! “Ah, finally some reprieve” or so we thought. Tales began spreading of folks turning millionaires overnight. Whatever little savings we had were soon poured into MMM. December was fast approaching and folks were looking forward to some splendid Christmas. Even the government was envious or so we imagined. “jealousy people, them don chop our money finish, now them no wan see us enjoy life” many said. We waited and then the tales began circulating of MMM’s collapse. “Na lie’ was the response. We tried to claim our money, kolework. December came and went and we were the poorer. Folks were devastated. Everyone was on high alert, the RRS paraded the lagoon to prevent folks from committing suicide. “You can’t die and leave us to suffer alone” we said to would be suicide attempters.

Then a staff of a state committed suicide claiming to be owed 11 months’ salary. A government had the temerity to come out and offer a rebuttal – “our records show that he is being owed 9 months’ salary only”. That was the height. Then the president looked at his calendar and remembered that 2019 was just around the corner. After 30 months of being president he suddenly realized that Nigeria had south east. He came with town criers talking about the $2bn/Naira 2 bn bridge they were to build for the south east. They spread the rumour of an Ibo man being president in 2023. They talked about what they would do. They had forgotten all their promises in 2015 in the same south east.

In all of these happenings, universities have gone through strikes and are angling for another. More jobs have been lost than created. We cannot point to any tangible achievement by the government. They are now commissioning bill boards and economic blueprints. No plan in place for the youths. Over 60% of our medical doctors are practicing outside the country and no remedy in sight. Youth unemployment rising and N-Power is their only solution. They talked about diversification and yet budgeted billions to prospect for oil in the north east. They fight corruption on the pages of newspaper and have no single conviction since inception. Billions are being recovered daily and yet no one is accounting for their whereabouts.

Another election draws near and the cycle is repeating itself. The youths from the south west are voting in the brother of a late senator to continue in his stead without offering any quality opposition while the folks from the north are still shouting sai buhari! It is obvious that these same set of deceivers and crooks would get re-elected simply by distributing bags of rice and salt and plates of rice and 2k Naira.

I still think the suffering isn’t much. Perhaps another 4-8 years of torment and then Nigerians would be bold to match these criminals out of office into prisons. Youths can continue to deceive themselves and think it is wisdom to collect mobilisation to attend campaign rallies. They need not ask where the kids of the elite are. Their kids would come to rule you and I in the near future since we have decided not to act. That they have disappointed us is not strange. What miracle were we expecting from an uneducated grand-father.

The chancellor of the exchequer in the UK has just delivered his autumn budget and outlines great plans for young people. Railcards for 26-30 years old adults. Exemption from stamp duties on homes up to 300 000 GBP. Pledge to build 300 000 new homes yearly with hourly wages set to rise from next year for 25 year olds. The failure of the incumbent government at the last polls was blamed on Labour’s ability to attract young people who felt disappointed with mounting student debts and reduced wages. In order to attract them, UK is unveiling incentives to make young people owners of homes.

How many youths in Nigeria can boast of owing a plot of land? What has government done to guarantee some level of respite for young people in terms of policy – agriculture loans, free business training, business start-up funds etc. Why is the issue of minimum wage such a big deal? They demand so much from us but yet show no sense of humanity. Businesses are closing and the government is doing nothing. Poverty is increasing and the government’s response is – go farming! Schools are shut down and the government doesn’t care, because their kids school abroad.

Time is fleeting. Boys are becoming men and men are growing old. Crime rate is increasing and insecurity is becoming alarming. We must wise up now! Even if we are under a spell, juju get expiry date!