IBB, president at 44 years, campaigns for youths in autobiography

Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, an army general and former military president of Nigeria, stepped up his campaign for the youth in leadership positions in the country on Thursday, with a clarion call for the present leadership to embrace them more.

The call is coming at 83 years, and 32 years after his tenure as head of state. IBB became president at 44 years.

Reflecting on the importance of the youth, the former military head of state, who is popularly called IBB, dedicated the epilogue of his memoir titled, ‘A Journey In Service,’ to the Nigerian youth.

In the epilogue which is entitled, ‘Letter to the Next Generation,’ IBB, who generously highlighted the place of the youth in the future and development of the country, said that the epilogue is his most lasting legacy to youths who will inherit the mantle of Nigeria’s leadership from the older generation.

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In the epilogue of the memoir, which offered him opportunity to admit for the first time that Moshood Abiola won the presidential election conducted on June 12, 1993, IBB noted that though out of office and uniform for many years, he is still in touch with the reality of popular experience, the expectations and hopes of generations, especially the youth.

“The emergence of a new youth majority is the most significant event of our lifetime. Today, Nigeria is one of the youngest nations on earth, with a youth population of 151 million, about 70 percent of our population,” IBB said.

Considering the huge youthful population, the former military president warned that, “Our youthful population is an opportunity bomb that no sensible national leadership can ignore if it wants to succeed.”

The above, according to him, was the reason he addressed the epilogue to the youth.

The 83-year-old retired Army general also observed in the epilogue that, “Gradually, the youth have made themselves the agenda. It is no longer a manner of speaking that the youth are the leaders of tomorrow. Tomorrow is here. And the awaited hour of youth leadership is now upon us.”

He also observed from his vantage point of life in retirement that new generations are emerging and moving to the centre stage of national activity and even leadership. “I have seen younger generations of state governors, ministers, commissioners, and other high officials. From my experience here in Minna, change has been the most exciting feature of our public sphere,” he noted.

Reflecting on the youth-led leadership, which he sees as a feat, IBB said, “Above all, seeing the emergence of youth as a particular segment and a strategic proposition for national development is a blessing.”

Apart from the blessing, IBB insisted that the account of his service to the nation will only be complete with a direct appeal to the teeming youth. “No stewardship has meaning if it does not address the people to whom we are passing the mantle of national leadership,” he noted.

Moreover, he also observed that the old divisions of faith, ethnicity and region have vastly receded and no longer divide the youth. “They are united by the images on the screens of their cell phones and tablets. Their reality is not colour by faith, tongue or ethnicity. They experience common problems – poverty, inadequate infrastructure, homelessness, hunger, want and disease. These are for them, the common enemies that must be conquered. Our youth are restless because they believe we can be better, do better, and match the best of the rest of the world.”

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He therefore charged Nigerian leaders to understand the restiveness and impatience of the youth as the product of a changed world.

On the part of the youth, he charged them to be adequately equipped with the right knowledge of the country, its people, cultural peculiarities, values, and to build a network of friends, associates, and like-minded minds nationwide, while insisting that Nigeria does not need an elite consensus, but a national youth consensus.

He also charged the youth in political leadership to serve to the best of their ability, have fundamental compassion for the people, and see themselves as one of and with the people they lead.

“Our current national leadership must take a sympathetic view of the role of our youth in the journey ahead. It would be a tragic mistake for any political leader to see the youth’s emergence as a hostile political development,” he concluded.