“Illiterates of the 21st century are not those who cannot read or write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn” Unfortunately, this has become the story of the generation before us, and more worrisome, those who are at the position of power leading those who are supposed to be protecting us are in this category. These people have chosen to be illiterates in this 21st century. A typical me would have labelled it “poverty mentality” but nah, let’s label it illiteracy at this point.
Yesterday, being the 12th of October 2020, I was scrolling through twitter when I came across this tweet.
Not going to lie, when I saw this, I was really pissed at first, but then, if even Jesus did not cast a stone at the sinners, who am I to not do same. I felt like there should be some context to this tweet, and I went ahead to watch the full interview on AIT’s youtube channel. Below is the link to the full interview on youtube.
After watching this video of approximately 56 minutes, I was dumbfounded, I never knew who the people in this video were, so I went further and decided to check their names on google, and alas, the man answering the questions in this video is a retired chief superintendent of police. (Vandefan Tersugh James). As I got this piece of information, everything made sense. lol. I mean, I understood where this fight was stemming from and why SARS MUST END.
Here is a retired police chief superintendent saying that it is unlikely for anyone who is between the ages of 20 and 30 to own a car worth 7 million naira, except you are from wealthy parents. In his words “I see you with a car, and I have accessed your age, and I know in Nigeria I know how difficult it is for a particular person who is 20, 30 to start having a car that is worth 7 million. I can’t be as a police man seeing you and not assume that something is not wrong with the way you afford the car” Nigeria has been designed to make people poor and make us remain poor, but Nigeria did not force anyone to not be aware of happenings around us. The prayer of every parent is for their children to become successful early in life, but here is a man who thinks the opposite. Nigerian youths are not lazy, many youths are earning incomes legitimately after hours and years of hard work, schooling, prayer and dedication.
To think of someone in such position think that way is really scary to me, not going to lie. I now understand why the SARS officers stereotype, harass, extort and kill us as young people. I now understand the hate, I mean, if the head is ill-informed, how then can the other body parts behave.
This to me is not a case of poverty mentality “maybe” but a case of 21st century illiteracy. The generation before us have failed to move with the tides, with the current world and they do not educate themselves. Some have chosen illiteracy over knowledge.
We have millions of youths between the ages of 18 to 30 who are successful entrepreneurs, we have thousand who are in the tech industry, working with the biggest organizations all over the world, even from the comfort of their rooms. These people can afford cars worth over 7 million naira comfortably. These guys can buy any type of gadget they want because they can afford them.
Sadly, many of the older generation think like this man in the video above. It is up to you reading this to help join educate your parents, educate your relatives, educate your brothers and sisters, be the voice of change. Let people know that not only doctors, bankers, lawyers, civil or mechanical engineers are successful. There are other legitimate businesses and career paths these days that makes young people even more successful. Teach people around you that a book should not be judged by its cover this is the 21st century, people are allowed any haircut or dress style, enough of this stereotyping, enough of this illiteracy.
Also, you reading this article today, when you see a young person what do you think? When you see me in my dreads who do you assume I am? When I pull up in a car what do you think is my occupation? Give people benefit of the doubt, speak to people before you condemn them. We all have different LEGITIMATE occupations and each influences our lifestyle in every sense. This does not make one morally upright that the other person.
This smelling behaviour passed down to us from the generation before us must stop. Together we will become the Nigeria we desperately hope to become.