A conversation with my peers

Professor Wole Soyinka, Nigeria’s only Nobel Laureate, was reported some years ago as lamenting that his generation was a wasted one. Members of Soyinka’s generation are now well into their late seventies and early eighties.  I estimate at least three generations between Soyinka’s generation and mine. This conversation with my peers is to ensure that my generation would not look back in future and conclude that ours too was a waste.

For the purpose of this paper, I will describe my peers as people who fall between the ages of forty and fifty. For the benefit of younger Nigerians, my peers were either born during the civil war or the early post civil war era. We grew up in an era when there was no fear of insecurity hence we had the freedom to socialize with friends and neighbors in street corners and open places. We were toughened through ‘fagging’ in schools, flogging by parents and parents of neighbors and a society that weaned its youths young. We had the benefit of being beneficiaries of well funded public education at a time when private school education was reserved for the not so brilliant. Some early birds among my peers enjoyed free meals and free tuition in universities, indigent ones enjoyed communal scholarships while others from educationally disadvantaged states were paid to attend tertiary institutions.

I have taken time to define my peers so that the younger ones would know that we have no reason to be angry with Nigeria, rather we ought to be grateful to a nation that gave us an opportunity to be where we are today. As I look back into the past and the periods we have lived through, I have no doubt in my mind that our generation has been one of the greatest beneficiaries of the goodness offered by the Nigerian State, we did not have to fight for independence, we did not fight in the civil war but came of age towards the twilight of the military era. We were old enough to see the good and bad sides of both military rule and democracy. Though our early adulthood came at the onset of the hard times when seeking public service jobs had become a chore we had the benefit of a first mover advantage in the private sector.

As we go through middle age and approach our midlife, we have to begin to think of the future. What is our purpose?  What outcome do we seek for our nation? What would be our legacy to the generations behind us? What would be our legacy to our children? As the generation of Wole Soyinka lives the twilight of their lives with regret at missed opportunities, what is stopping us from living our own life differently if we seek a different outcome? Does the prospect of a beautiful twilight, of pride and contentment at having left worthy successors and legacies appeal to us?

In other realms, our peers are in the forefront of political and entrepreneurial leadership and laying a foundation for a new world order; a world free of war, poverty, diseases and hate. What are we doing in this realm? Most of us are too busy pursuing self advancement goals that does not benefit our society or busy at being greedy and acquiring wealth that we may be too busy or may not live long enough to enjoy. When shall we begin to look at the world with a different prism?

As our nation passes through social and political challenges, it is time that we stood up to be counted. We are gradually (maybe without knowing) transiting into the league of elders, and the onus is on us to stand up and be counted. We are now in a position to serve as a bridge between the past and the future. The past being the generations ahead of us who have agreed that they failed us, the future being the generations behind us who are seeking for role models and mentors. We must begin to do things differently now to achieve a better outcome than the people ahead of us. In doing this we can draw lessons from our past; lessons of shared values, communal ethos, selflessness, brotherliness, a sense of pride in our diversity and knowledge that God has a hand in the affairs of men.

Those of us who have been thrust into political leadership must not continue with the divisive politics that is the hallmark of our land. Those in business must become more ambitious about building conglomerates and sustainable businesses, after all research has proven that entrepreneurs get better with age (https://hbr.org/2013/06/entrepreneurs-get-better-with/). For others who are neither in public service nor business, we should strive to be better at what we do and use our talents to make our nation better. However we must not fail to get involved in the conversation to make our nation better through improved political leadership.

To bridge the gap between the past and future, we must begin to take up roles as mentors for people around us; family members, neighbors, co-workers, church members and sundry. Just like we enjoyed communal tutelage in our youth, we must begin to give back, not through political tokens but genuine efforts to address the drift amongst our youths. If we fail to do so the vacuum that we leave would be filled by others whose values may further diminish our society

As parents we should take parenting seriously. Rather than investing in the wrong assets and aspiring to live lives for our children we should rather provide a solid upbringing grounded on God and good values, good education, proper guidance and set them free early to soar. Have we forgotten so soon how many of us left our parents in our teens to fend for ourselves? If we did not get lost then when there were limited means of communication why should we be afraid for our children who live in a better era? Children are like eagles they fly better without the inhibition of a parental cage.

My dear peers, we are the present, the future waits our leadership.

Ade Adeogun April 19,2016