NO SYMPATHY FOR THE OLD By ADEBIYI Adeayo Isaac

  On the cloudy evening of Tuesday 13th june I joined hundreds of GreatIfe students walking towards the SUB car park calling it a day after spending ten hours navigating the labyrinths of Obafemi Awolowo Univeristy walking from one lecture hall to the other in a quest to sandwich myself with fellow colleauges to grab whatever knowledge possible in an over crowded, ill ventilated lecture hall with an helpless sound system. After a very stressful day i walked down to SUB car park to board the bus to the school gate only to behold a multitude of students queuing to also board the bus to various destinations in town, i was surprised and frustrated, i never got wind of the update that a new form of boarding the bus as been created by the student union so after complaining to myself and cursing my luck i humbly joined the queue and waited for my turn i wish i had the luxury to take a bike and not join the average students in their efforts to get home after what must have been a stressful day, but my bank account is as fit as the president.

       As we queued in our hundreds rain began to fall, it seem heaven wasnt ready to alleviate my suffering both man and nature were waging a war against me, a battle in which i had no say, i was the hero in another hemingway classic. So has my legs got weaker, my cloths getting drenched and my body lacking the super power abilities to pull me out of the situation, patience was all i was left with. Eventually it got to my turn and as i was about to board, one of the union honurables said in yoruba “E JE KI MAMA WOLE“ which means “let the elderly woman board“ mama had been standing somewhere behind me but i never noticed.

     So i wonder and thought that after spending fourty five minutes in the rain waiting for a bus it was requested that i relinquish the last seat available which was the fruit of my patience to mama, as the morals in me battle it out with my physical frame which was begging to be put out of its misery i let my morals prevail.

     I however was subjected to a series of complaints from the positivist side of my being which had the sympathy of my aching body. It asked How many kilometers did mama walked today trying to attend lectures？would mama still wake up in the midnight to read？would mama have done the same if i were to be in a desperate situation probably if i were late for an examination？and most importantly when mama was my age they had a better country where education was almost free and the university was like a vacation to Europe, mama's generation inherited a country with the prospect of becoming great and mismanaged it leaving mama and me in this pathetic situation, so shouldnt mama suffer for the sins of her peers？After all this questions i placated the positivist in me with the moral words of “Do good for the sake of God“.

        I eventually got a bus and left for school gate when i was walking home from the gate all wet like i fell into a well i began to ponder why is Nigeria like this？why does my generation have to suffer for the carelessness, recklessness, financial mismanagement, lack of foresight and the corruption of Mama's generation?

Why should we have to be packed in lecture halls like sardines and be given a three thousand naira ticket for a one year prison experience in the name of hostels？Why should a lecturer who when he was a student lived in a room of four, had his laundry done for him, ate chicken and fresh fish for free and was taught by the best of scholars in the most condusive of environment, should such a lecturer who reaped the fruits of the good works of AWO indiscreetly fail my generation who are suffering from the incapacity and failures of his generation？Do such a lecturer have the moral judgement to make life unbearable for me by giving me twice the work he was given without the privilegdes he enjoyed as a student?

    So after all this questions it was vivid and glaring that mama's generation have failed, they have failed in every aspect except probably in reproduction, In reproducing innocent children who will bear the burden of their failure.

    With the way the country is sliding fastly into the wilderness it is time for a new generation to step up and save the mess Mama's generation has created, it is time that the Nigerian youths wake up from their slumber as the Nigerian youth can no longer just strive for survival while a failed generation subject them to untold hardship. If the Venezuelan youth cant take it, if the Algerian youths cant take it, if the Hong kong youths cant take it then there is no reason why the great youths of the most populous black nation should take it.

     Every Nigerian youth would agree that the time is right for Mama＇s generation to be disgraced out of office and a new geneatoon should take over the realms of power. The political term “youth at heart“ used to define the term “youth“ by the current political generation to trick and cajole the electorate into voting them into power can no longer stand, we no longer want old leaders with a youthful and ethusiastic heart for looting the treasury. It is time for the real and true youth, the ones who have been given the tiltle of “leaders of tomorrow“ to claim the title as it would never be handed to them by the current crops of leaders. It is time the Nigerian youth realise that it matters little in how many fragments this country is shared this current crops of leaders wont relinquish power, they have been there during the khaki wearing days and most of them are still in the decision making process of this country, looting away the future of their children and grand children.

    The dream of a youth political leader would take a significant step come the 2017 Anambra state gubernatorial election. It is a big step that Mr Nonso Ozoemena is flying the flag of the YOUTH DEMOCRATIC PARTY （YDP）in the coming election. I am particularly excited at the prospect of a youth becoming the governor of a state in Nigeria and the foundation it wil lay for revolutions to come. I do hope the youth population of Anambra state share my enthusiasm and drive for the prospect, potentials and future of the YDP and i hope other youths with the resources and qualifications in other parts of the country will follow in the footstep of Mr Nonso by running for offices in all levels of government.

   I am not however lost in my excitement that i do not know the vivid fact that corruption has no age nor gender but hoewever enough is enough this current generation is unredeemable they are lost beyond salvation and i believe it is time to save the country from total damnation and the current political generation from the perpertual disgrace they have found themselves.

    I therefore charge the Nigerian youth to suceed where our grand parents have failed, not to learn and inherit the evil genuis of corruption of which our grand parents would forever be remembered for, Instead we should be the change we want to see in this country, we should confront corrupt leaders and refuse to keep quiet in the face of oppression. The Nigerian youth should know the value of their votes and use it to throw the current political class into ashes.

    The Nigerian youth should not occupy themselves with carving out a distinct socio political entity as it does not guarantee a better tomorrow for them nor their children, instead they should use the power of their votes to vote out this current generation and also rise up to take power from the old who have no sympathy for the young nor themselves.

     Nigerian youth no matter the religion,creed or party should uphold the noble law of live and let live ,eat and give to your brother. It is time to have sympathy on the old, on the current state of the country and the future of this country and the best way to accomplish this is taking over the realms of power from Mama's generation and building a nation where the future generation will have no cause to have sympathy for the old.
   
Adebiyi Adeayo Isaac
Faculty of Law
Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Osun state.