The National Awards: How to Show Appropriate Displeasure

Today, 12/10/2022.

Nigeria is presided over by the most inept, incompetent and clannish president ever and a completely clueless and rudderless cabinet to boot, piloting the country to the brink of a failed state status.

As a youth, you probably felt and expressed pain about the events of October 20, 2020. In 8 days time, you would probably again, have something to say about that on social media - the same social media this self same government denied us use of for 7 months and 8 days.

Then, this same government, hands stained with the blood of your comrades invites you to come receive some honour, and you go do that. Can a dishonourable government dispense honour? If no, what really might you have gone to receive?

In the aftermath of the events, I find it a bit nauseating that we are left pontificating about shaking of hands, fashion sense and bragadaccio. We might not care to admit this much, but we are conversing about the wrong things again.

We must know today that the presence and acceptance of any young Nigerian at and of the award speaks more volume than any act of defiance in the ceremony might have conveyed - be it real or perceived.

Considering the reputation of the honour dispensers. Considering the multitude of their unconfessed and unrepented sins against your constituency and countrymen. If we are consistent with standing with and for our fallen heroes and find it an ideal worth memorializing. We should have seen a majority of pencilled youth recipients declining to identify with those who murdered their friends in cold-blood whilst holding the Nigerian flag and singing the national anthem.

There would have been no stronger statement made to the establishment that the youths are finally tired of them and seriously consider a change of guard more than long overdue than a strong boycott of the awards by the youth recipients — a show of solidarity in line with the political yearnings and fervour of majority of their countrymen, especially as we lumber towards the 2023 General Elections.

Which makes this question pertinent again, do we really care about good governance or we just really want our turn to take a stab at the proverbial national moi-moi.

Like someone wrote, I miss Chinualomogu Achebe.