..
A compelling read from Toyin Aiyedogbon, but essentially self-defeating! Oh, of course, I understand the sarcasm, the irony and the inverted rhetoric in which the whole piece is stylistically embedded; but what is obvious is that Aiyedogbon's way of protesting the failure of my generation to set a good example for his/her own is to refuse to use the technological and intellectual facilities available for his/her own generation to make a difference. Okay, we are all talking in rhetorical extremities here, because, let's face it, not all members of my generation are bad role models and not all members of Aiyedogbon's generation are intellectually challenged (as ably evidenced by his/her rejoinder to Professor Adesanmi), but the problem we have today is that those who are not are the exceptions, rather than the rule. Yes, it's that bad.
I'm hugely impressed by Aiyedogbon's intervention and fully share his/her polemical standpoints, but in terms of the practical need for the reorientation of our society, I would suggest that this inter-generational discourse be encouraged and replicated everyday in all areas of our national life until we attain the class of conscientious citizens we want and a country we all can be proud of. Yes, I'm saying that the individual, the family and society must collectively prove a bastion of communal hope, because it rests on that tern to resuscitate dying values and promote the symbiosis that leaves no generation behind.
Paradoxically, it does not need a whole generation or a whole population to effect or facilitate that needed change. What it needs is a critical number committed to that vision. Pius and Aiyedogbon are evidently part of that critical number. So I urge them to keep their hands on the plough and their eyes firmly on the road! They and those who think and agonize over this nation like them must not allow themselves to be distracted by the residues of semantics! After all, I recall us in our tadpole years berating Soyinka's "Wasted Generation" for what seemed to us then as their scandalous failure, brimming indignantly with an unsoiled vision of a tomorrow that we ourselves were ultimately going to arrest and asphyxiate! Now, the horned chickens are coming home to roost, but we need not feed them any more corn. At a point, the curse must be broken! So, be the change you crave, one and all!
…
On Wednesday, 11 June 2014, 19:29, 'Ikhide' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> wrote:
"I don't get it. Why is a generation with a handset, Google, and Wikipedia (the minimum in their endless world of immediate e-possibilies of knowledge) so resistant to knowledge? A piece of knowledge that I could acquire only after one week of reading till 5:00 am everyday with a lantern in the lecture halls of Unilorin, tons of kolanuts on the study desk, and mosquitoes for company, is now just on...e click away in the numerous effizy devices of this generation. Why the effing heck do they refuse to click? Why the effing heck do they insist on publicly wearing the inevitable consequence of not clicking - ignorance - like a badge of honour? Why do they invest in those devices? Just to denge pose? When I go to Nigeria, I see these kids carrying phones and devices that could cause Boko Haram-level damage to my Canadian Professor's salary if I dared to invest in such. Why the heck don't they click?"
Professor Pius Adesanmi, posting on Facebook, June 11, 2014
Professor Pius Adesanmi, posting on Facebook, June 11, 2014
Great question. In response he gets a powerful response from a 20-year old, that includes many gems like this:
"Sir, in your own words, your generation, Nigerians in their forties, fifties, and sixties, "are making such a thorough mess of Nigeria today". I couldn't agree with you more sir. Let me also add sir, that your generation is the generation parenting my own generation. You are our parents but how are you parenting us sir? All around us, we look at your generation and we see thieves who have stolen everything from Nigeria and they are never punished. They are given national honours sir. Millions of my peers in polytechnic all over the country have been seating at home for over a year, their lives ruined by members of your generation who are ruling Nigeria sir. So, why should we click on knowledge sir when your generation is telling us in words and in deed that it does not pay to do so in Nigeria?
Sir, a member of your generation is the President of Nigeria. He recently went on national television to say that stealing is not corruption. That is an open invitation to steal at worst or a message that says that stealing is not all that bad at best. This is what your generation is teaching us sir, why should we click on knowledge?
Members of your generation are Senators and Reps sir. They are some of the biggest thieves in Africa sir. Why should my generation bother with knowledge when we see them? Members of your generation are state governors sir. The only message we have ever gotten from all of them is that after looting for eight years in the states, you can retire to the senate after awarding yourself scandalous pension at the state level. Why should we see all of this and be eager about knowledge sir? Your generation is telling us that knowledge is the surest path to hunger and poverty in Nigeria."
Please read...
- Ikhide
Stalk my blog at http://www.xokigbo.com/
Follow me on Twitter: @ikhide
Join me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ikhide
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
No comments:
Post a Comment