Presidential ‘Misyarn’ & Lessons For Nigerians By Tunji Suleiman

Our nation is a theatre of the absurd serving combination comedy and tragedy by the day to a bemused audience. If it is not government shutting down economies for VIP movements, it is ‘leaders’ ordering protesters shot by trigger-happy police or army. Rarely do you see irate youths confront oppression by elites who work against their development aspirations for selfish interests as witnessed last November in Lafiagi. They usually take it all in and lick their wounds. Commonly, it’s ‘distinguished’ senators sweating belly dances or, the latest one, jumping from moving vehicles in Pirates of the Caribbean flights of fancy to escape arrest. Sometimes, public officials make snakes swallow money.

Money features prominently in the unending Nigerian drama. It is our god, regardless of creed and/or tribe. So sometimes, what you get is preposterous nonsense, when monied semi-literates and/or tabula rasa insist on having their ways with enlightened minds. Compulsive liars, misguided busybodies, insufferable control freaks, hypocritical do-gooders and others of questionable mental health think they can turn just about everyone else to serfs and zombies. Indeed, money discriminates not against the foolish, but you can tell small minds by how lascivious and/or uppity they get when they come into free bread. Bribe, kickback, loot, missing money, money abandoned at airports, lodged in soak away banks, ‘omogo’ (fool’s) money, nuisance money, ransom, etc; they say it doesn’t matter, so long as you ‘make it’. You think not. You know that unbridled love and pursuit of money is the onset of perfidy, but can only do so much to straighten crooked minds. You “look and laugh” (apology to Fela) for when a matter is beyond cries, you laugh, lest you loose your sanity.

There’s plenty to say on the theme of money, but it is not the focus of today’s piece. President Muhammadu Buhari’s uncomplimentary reference to young Nigerians at a Commonwealth business forum was the dramatic repast of the past week. Expectedly, it generated discourse. We watched with keen interest, the hullabaloo that trailed the President’s comments in London, UK. The video went viral.

For context, the question was: “President Buhari, there’s great interest in your thoughts on many issues. On investments in the North East. On the Continental Free Trade Agreement. Feel free to take your pick, but would you like to take the microphone and leave us with final thoughts from you?”

It is noteworthy that the President rephrased in his own words. “All the questions are on Nigeria’s preparedness to accept investments and secure the confidence of those who are going to invest or those who are already there”, he clarified before answering.

What caused so much brouhaha was his: “We have a very young population. Our population is estimated conservatively to be 180 million – this is a conservative one. More than 60% of the population is below the age of 30. A lot of them haven’t been to school, and they are claiming that Nigeria has been an oil producing country and therefore they should sit and do nothing, get housing, healthcare, education free.”

There is argument and commentary by hailers and wailers alike. Opposition mills turned the President’s comments to grist to vilify him and his party and spun a web of propaganda and rhetoric towards 2019. It appears like the everyday contestation for control of political space and economic power that is our mainstay.

What is distressing is that many who took or expressed offense at PMB for “calling Nigerian youths lazy” and most that defended him did so for the wrong reasons – partisanship, tribalism, religion and yes, hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is the elephant in the room of our national progress. Too many that we look up to are themselves clueless and pretentious.

There’s hardly another way to appreciate the bellyaching and jabs between some above-30, and even some 50 and 70 years olds who affected insult at the President’s words and those that excuse him. It is understandable when the angst and/or mollycoddling are from educated, gainfully employed and hardworking under-30s or their less fortunate counterparts on both sides of the argument. They can be understood for personalizing the shade. Most who criticized PMB opposed him and favored the bowler hats lover. And most that defended the indefensible are Buharideen. Matured Wailing Wailers and Hailing Hailers that joined the fray can not be validly interpreted into the demographic the President spoke about. Political mileage towards the next polls is irresistible. It is all part of the politicking. But what is the dictate of national interest?

PMB erred. The error lies in his not paying due attention or responding appropriately to a vital question. It lies in his choice of an international investment forum to do so. He didn’t tell us something some of us didn’t know. Obafemi Awolowo in 1974 at the launching of the late Gani Fawehinmi’s book said, “The trouble with many of our youths is that they sleep too much; play too much; and indulge too much in idle chatter and gossip”. The late sage – in extolling the diligence of Gani, then a youth, who despite being a busy advocate, found time to write a scholarly book on the imperatives of free education at all levels especially in the third world – identified the problem of many young Nigerians as laziness. Many other leaders have since similarly posited. They include Governor Seriake Dickson who was reported as saying “Bayelsans are so lazy, they want everything free, they don’t want to work” in a Media chat on May 17, 2016. “Northerners are lazy and unproductive” is the statement of similar purports credited to Senator Shehu Sani in the Daily Post of December 22, 2017. Of course, we may not grant standing for such pontifications to some.

From practical staffing experience as an entrepreneur and consultant, this writer has encountered many young and poorly educated job seekers who are untrainable for valuable work, lack good work ethics and/or are outright unscrupulous. I have submitted on diverse fora fears for the future of our nation with the entitlement syndrome and unproductive attitude of many of our so-called leaders of tomorrow who for most useful purposes are ill-bred, ill-trained and ill-motivated. I have had to iterate the erstwhile qualifier “half-baked” to “quarter-baked”. Someone recently used the adjective “unbaked” in reference to our young graduates. Many cannot string a single sentence together correctly or coherently, even if their lives depends on it. It is for this and related cause that I advocated that in our quest to dislodge decadent political leadership and institute good governance in our nation, we focus on the more important issues of vision, competence and integrity and not just youthfulness. The dynamism and vibrancy of youth will not avail us without noble vision, proven integrity and demonstrable competence. “Youth is icing”, I wrote back then on Facebook. I am yet to be persuaded otherwise.

The definition of ‘Nigerian youth’ is not “a lot of under 30, uneducated young people who do not want to work and want freebies”. This is most certainly not my understanding. And nothing that is written here or elsewhere implies no appreciation for our large army of above- and below-30 creative, energetic, patriotic and optimistic tech-savvy youths daily recording exploits in agriculture, commerce, industry, the professions and crafts, home and abroad. The illustrious ones make us proud and should be encouraged to step forward and be supported for political office. Hopefully they can bring their private sector Midas touches to bear on public governance.

PMB didn’t refer to all Nigerian youths. He didn’t talk about the hardworking ones making waves in IT, entrepreneurship, entertainment, music, fashion and sports against daunting odds. Neither was he talking about the millions of unsung heroes who are yet to succeed and/or are unemployed or underemployed not because they are uneducated and lazy, but because our warped system works against and frustrates their legitimate aspirations and pursuits, no matter how much they labour. He didn’t speak to self-respecting youths who do not cut corners. He might have had in mind sycophants, who, whilst sometimes being gainfully employed, still lick the asses of dishonorable but privileged men and women for material benefits they don’t merit by ideas, sweat and/or financial equity but nevertheless seek, and are ready to pervert their conscience to get. He wasn’t referring to youths and not-so-young Nigerians who toil day and night to survive and positively know they are not lazy, whether or not they make ends meet with ease.

He referred to that subset of our youthful population under 30 who have not attended school or learned trades, and do not like work but crave the good life. Can we in honesty deny existence of such youth? What about area boys, motor park touts and ‘omo onile’ that do nothing worthwhile but daily extort hapless citizens by nuisance value what they can’t obtain by begging or praise-singing? What of perpetual public service job seekers and young civil servants (who prefer government jobs to private sector openings or entrepreneurship, not because they are motivated to serve or that the pay is better, but for the opportunities for truancy, indolence and graft)? And the assassins, political thugs, wannabe militants, insurgents, kidnappers, fraudsters, prostitutes and sundry young undesirables? Are not many of the suspects and masterminds of the recent multiple bank robberies and dastardly killings in Offa, Kwara State, not youth? Did they choose noble and productive work? And do they not want the good things of life? Many of the commentaries I have encountered and those now trending the #LazyNigerianYouth hashtag as a battlecry for 2019 miss the point if it ends there. It should also urge youth and indeed all Nigerians to a wholesome change in our ways.

Mr. Buhari told no lie. My issue is not what he said but where he chose to say it. Given the question and setting, one would have expected him to respond more positively than to berate his citizens before strangers on foreign soil who had likely heard the negatives about Nigeria and Nigerians but looked to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria for reassurance as he had himself surmised. To me, that just wasn’t the time or place for what he said about our young. Were I to be the President, I would see the question as a national/regional investment promotion opportunity. PMB either did not recognize the opportunity for what it was, refused to seize it or was too consumed by frustrations back home to take the initiative on a global stage for all-round positive showing to his immediate audience and for his citizenry.

A president queried on the preparedness of his country or part thereof for investment at an international business forum is like the CEO of a company and employer asked by a prospective client, ‘What is the readiness status of your company for business?’

The words of a country’s president are far weightier than a CEO’s. Yet, no savvy CEO will say, ‘We have 100 employees of which nearly 60 are poorly or not trained and have poor work ethics’. The appropriate response would go like ‘We are good to go on new business and strengthening our capacity to deliver better on ongoing projects. We have considerable equipment for what we do. We also have trained and motivated project staff that we can deploy in good time. We recently enhanced our delivery capabilities with the procurement of new kits and successful training of key staff. We are ready for business and hereby invite you to join us for mutually beneficial joint ventures, especially in our so and so areas of undertaking’. The president of a country should respond in similar vein, but be even more circumspect. If a president is not particularly articulate or given to extempore oratory, he can be concise and still make sense. Such a president would best say something like, “We are ready. Come and invest in our country. We have a youthful population, hardworking labor force and large market for your products/services. On our part as government, we will provide incentives and enabling environment for you to hit the ground running and generate ROI in no time, especially in our agriculture, solid minerals and electric power sectors”. QED.

Herein lies the crux of the matter: the President said the opposite of what was expected of him. Whether or not a nation has education and ethical youth issues, an international business forum is no platform to chastise citizens. That should be reserved for state-of-the-nation or other in-country addresses. The attitude must be positive. It is irregular and irrelevant for a president, who at that moment is also the Chief Marketing Officer, to de-market his country by volunteering shortfalls information upfront or unbidded. Every statement must be calculated to charm and endear prospective investors to the country and issued on a need basis. If responding to a callout on inadequacy of national preparedness for investments, an upbeat tone is best to positively spin any negative feedback.

Though some of the question’s imperatives may have been met by the President’s later remarks, on his administration’s exploits on security, Boko Haram, agriculture and his announcement of the promise of $15b dollar FDI into Nigeria by Shell; it is inconceivable that the shade on Nigerian youth would not have vitiated the assurance he attempted to give. He might well have negated the positive impacts his earlier remarks that generated interest had had with his now famous parting words. In the circumstance, everything else he said paled in comparison as reflected in wide-ranging reactions to the viral video by local and international observers. Many were scathing in chiding PMB for the unedifying wash of Nigeria’s dirty linen in public. All the spirited defense by hired aides and Buharideen now comes across as damage control for an avoidable diplomatic gaffe.

The President’s handlers should be more up and doing to guide him against such unforced errors. PMB must also allow himself to be guided on presidential conduct before international audiences by people he has hired and pays with public funds to do so. And where they fail, he should replace them with more capable hands. Only thus can he shut the mouths of his political enemies intent on having the last laugh at his expense and at the same time not continually embarrass his supporters and admirers, some of whom are now swelling the ranks of his opponents in disappointment and regret for his perceived failings.

The address by the President of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo–Addo, at the National Governors 2018 Winter Meeting, on Sunday, 25th February, 2018, in Washington DC, USA is instructive as a model for presidential communication in aid of the quest for foreign investment by developing nations and for projecting inspiring leadership and engendering national pride in citizens back home. I commend it to the Nigerian president and his team for emulation, regardless of who occupies the exalted office in 2019 and beyond.