Hendecagon Generation: Why Nigerian Youth Must Rethink Power, Purpose, and Nation-Building

 

By Abioye Tosin Lawrence

Publisher, Oriontimes Online Newspaper & Author of the upcoming memoir, “Voices from the Fire: My Journey Through a Hollow Empire”

For years, we've clamoured for youth inclusion in governance, echoing the mantra “Not Too Young To Run.” But what happens when the young finally get there? In too many cases, they mirror the same rotten system they set out to challenge. Recently, I found myself reflecting deeply on the state of Nigeria's youth, which led me to categorise us into what I now call the Hendecagon Generation -- eleven faces of a fractured identity.

Among us are the idealists, the hustlers, the prayer warriors, the cyber opportunists, the streetwise survivors, the exiled dreamers, the apolitical, the accidental activists, the entitled elites, the unrepentant looters, and the sincere patriots. Each group represents a part of a generation caught in conflict, not just with the old guard, but with itself.

The old power brokers are still agile, still scheming, still present. But the youth, our generation has become a rescue mission with no compass. The educated among us are often too proud, too self-important to organize. The uneducated and the street-savvy? They thrive because they understand a language the system refuses to acknowledge: survival.

Meanwhile, churches are overflowing with those who have outsourced their civic responsibilities to the divine. I do not write this to betray God, I write to remind us that God will not do for us what He has given us the strength to do for ourselves.

I speak out today not because it is easy but because I have paid my dues. I love this country. And I know how hard it is for young people to sit together, plan together, and dream together. But let this be clear: even if you rise to power through chance or compromise, do not jeopardize the credibility of our generation. Do not waste the opportunity to build trust in youth-led leadership.

We must begin to build this country from scratch without the crutch of blame. We cannot keep pointing fingers at the old guard when some of us are already showing the worst tendencies of the past. Travel across Africa, and you’ll find that the Nigerian problem isn’t uniquely ours, it’s a continental challenge. But that’s no excuse to remain broken.

Power intoxicates. It makes people forget there is a life beyond the throne. Today, if you’re honest and upright, you are isolated. The corrupt plot your fall. Even the illegitimate ones scan for your errors just to cancel your legitimacy. They don’t want you in the rebuilding movement because many of them have lost the moral compass.

But we will not stop because of them. Let them stop bromancing the devil. Let them stop turning failure into fashion. This world can still be peaceful, if we choose peace. But peace requires courage. It requires standing against instant gratification and fake success narratives that have turned too many young people into short-lived stars with no lasting light.

In today’s Nigeria, a young person can die like a fowl and no one flinches. I sat one day reflecting, why did Buhari age, Shagari grow old, and many of yesterday's leaders live to tell their stories, but today’s young Nigerians don’t even have the luxury of life? Every failed system hits us first. We are the casualties of every policy error, every stolen fund, every broken promise.

When you are affected, don't become an agent of affliction. Seek the solution. Be the answer. Yes, truth-tellers may be silenced, but the truth remains. The bad among us may live in another country in their minds, pretending consequences won’t come. But history has never spared those who played gods in a crumbling republic.

There is a time for the rise and fall of every kingdom, every system, every false empire.

Let us rise, not to mimic the old ways, but to forge new ones.

Let this generation not be known for noise, but for nation-building.