In what appears to be Nigeria’s most dramatic “return on investment” complaint yet, a man on Thursday stormed the All Progressives Congress (APC) national secretariat in Abuja with a message as blunt as it was unsettling: reward me or kill me. The protest, captured in a now-viral video, shows the visibly distressed man holding a placard and demanding recognition for what he described as his personal sacrifices during the party’s 2023 campaign. According to him, loyalty was not just emotional, it was financial, physical, and, ultimately, total. In a country where political support often comes with expectations, some spoken, many implied the man’s outcry reads like a tragic audit of misplaced trust. His claim that he sold his house to fund campaign efforts has not been independently verified, but the symbolism is hard to ignore: a citizen liquidating stability in exchange for promised political dividends. Observers at the scene watched as the protester oscillated between anger and ...
..... _the elders had ideologies and manifestos; we repost, react, and ridicule those who dare to think deeply
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We gather at polling units. We chant slogans. We click "like" on candidates’ Instagram posts. But beyond the noise and numbers, the bitter truth stands tall: elections are not leadership. And in the absence of civic education, our votes become seeds cast on concrete full of potential, but destined not to grow.
Our generation is drifting. We are quick to participate, but slow to understand. We shout for change, but don’t study what change demands. We mistake election cycles for civic awakening, when in reality, they have become ritual performances of uninformed hope.
We do not lack numbers, we lack orientation. Leadership is not just about putting someone in office. It is about systems, accountability, history, and vision. And if we cannot define those for ourselves, then we will keep electing shadows, not servants.
Our elders had ideologies even if flawed. They had grounding, movements, manifestos. Many of them read, debated, sacrificed. Today, we scroll. We repost. We react. We ridicule those who dare to think deeply, calling them "too serious," "too local," or "too old school."
And so, we march blindly. Not because we don’t want progress, but because we were not taught the map. No civic education. No history of governance. No exposure to the machinery of policy, law, or sustainable reform. Just vibes, anger, and ballot boxes.
But it doesn’t have to stay this way.
We must replant, not in concrete, but in fertile minds. We need civic classrooms, online and offline, where youth can learn what government is beyond power. We need student unions, digital platforms, and community groups that aren’t just loud, but literate in leadership.
We need to stop looking for messiahs every four years and start building accountable citizens every day.
This is a call to those who still feel something burning in their bones, who know that hashtags cannot replace hard truths, and that change doesn’t come because we want it, but because we work for it.
The soil may be dead. The march may be blind. But if we choose to reorient, we can still redirect.
Let’s make this generation one that grows, not just one that votes.
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