My Dear Nigerian Youth,
I am very angry and that is why I am addressing you.
You are the source of my anger and I
want to vent my spleen – maybe not at you directly – but at the
arrogance of your ignorance.
You sit in front of a computer and rant
all day through social media but with every click, you make money – not
for yourself – but for Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook).
With every megabyte of data you spend complaining and maligning, you make stupendous bucks for Etisalat, Glo and Airtel.
Over the next two years, the number of
Nigerian millionaires will jump by 47% but most likely you will not be
among because you are too busy whining and complaining. And yet about
60% of Nigeria’s 170 million population are below 35 years. Oh, what a
waste! By the way, Mark Zuckerberg was 19 when he started Facebook.
Africa’s youngest billionaire, Ashish
Thakkar, is 31. He escaped from the Rwandan genocide and relocated to
Uganda where he started an IT business.
Collin Thornton, who made his millions by fixing bad computers and setting up Dial-a-Nerd, is 35.
Adam Horowitz, an 18-year-old entrepreneur, started 30 websites in 3 years before he became successful.
The only thing you have ever started is an online petition.
Have you heard of Jason Njoku? He’s 33
and the founder of Iroko TV. He received $8 million investment into his
company just a few years ago. What he does? Sharing the same Nollywood
films that you spend hours to watch online. He didn’t just hang around
waiting for President Buhari to make something happen or blaming former
President Jonathan for not making anything happen.
Kamal Budhabhatti was deported from
Kenya but while on the flight, he thought of the opportunities in Kenya.
He found his way back after 6 months and today his company is valued at
$30 million. He’s 36.
Have you heard of Chinedu Echeruo? Apple
just paid $1 billion for his app. He’s a Nigerian like you and all he
did was attempt to fix a problem. But for you, the only thing you
attempt to fix are your nails – and your hairdo! Chinedu moved to New
York in 1995 and found it difficult to navigate the city with ease so he
developed HopStop to fix the problem.
Stop listing all the problems – we know them already but what are you doing about them?
Awolowo was 37, Akintola was 36, Ahmadu
Bello was 36, Tafawa Balewa was 34, Okotie-Eboh was 27 and Enahoro was
27 at the time they gallantly fought for the independence of Nigeria.
In 1966, the first coup was led by
Kaduna Nzeogwu (29) and stopped by Murtala Mohammed (28), TY Danjuma
(28), IBB (25), Sanni Abacha (23) and Shehu Yar’adua (23).
It brought in Yakubu Gowon as Head of State at 32 and Olusegun Obasanjo at 29.
You are in your 40s and you still sag
your trousers. Wasting precious time on Champions Leagues. You even know
all the salaries, houses, girlfriends/wives and gossips about almost
all the football stars.
Of course, you know Linda Ikeji. You’ve
spent hundreds of hours on her blog laughing and commenting while she
smiles her way to the bank. She’s just built a house for her father in
the village – just by you clicking on her gossip and sharing.
Your day is not complete without a stop by at her blog. She was as broke as you are but she turned a hobby into a business.
Are you that void of understanding?
You think those politicians have any regard for you?
That is why I referred to the arrogance of your ignorance at the beginning of this diatribe.
You have a false estimation of yourself. You have an over bloated ego.
You have a false estimation of yourself. You have an over bloated ego.
You are only as good as an election
ticket – pure and simple. You are only good to be used and discarded
like a used ballot paper. Who keeps a used ballot paper anyway? That is
why they only remember you every four years.
The word CHANGE belongs to the masses not to selected few.
Change your life.
The opinions expressed on this article are solely those of the author.
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