Obamamania: Lessons for our Youth

By Chido Onumah
Some commentators have called the victory of Barack Obama a bloodless revolution. Whether we agree with this position or not, there is no denying the fact that it was a welcome reprieve for a nation founded on genocide and built on the unmitigated labour of slaves; one which for many years denied women the right to vote and has over the years sidelined its minority populations politically and economically.
The election of Barack Obama seems to have changed many stereotypes about the United States of America and buried some long-held beliefs about American politics, including the WASP doctrine – the theory that only White Anglo-Saxon Protestants have the right to be Presidents of the United States. It is too early in the day, however, to state emphatically how Obama’s victory will change the US. Expectations are really high. Of course, posterity will be the best judge in this regard!
Obama’s victory was hinged largely on young people, many of them first-time voters. These young people contributed their time and money, donated their $5 and $10 to build the largest political campaign fund in US history. This generation which had been criticised and vilified for its apathy over the years overcame its cynicism and, using the power of new media technology – YouTube, Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, etc., – mobilized, from college campuses to community centres,to ensure Barack Obama was victorious.
It has been reported that “On November 4, approximately 24 million 18-29 year olds cast ballots, more than in any election since 18 year olds won the right to vote in 1972”. As one writer put it, “This historic election has proved to the world that youth are capable and have the power to change the world!”
It remains to be seen whether Generation O can, in light of the current global economic meltdown, muster the courage to go a step further: to rethink the disastrous free market doctrine, capitalism, globalization, the military-industrial complex that seeks to keep the US in wars around the world perpetually and, perhaps, change a system governed by unqualified self-interest.
While there are many ways to look at the events of November 4 as they relate to Nigeria, my focus is on the lessons for our youth, the proverbial leaders of tomorrow. So, what is the lesson for Nigerian youth of the Obamamania sweeping the world? Success, they say, has many friends. While our rulers are drooling over Obama’s victory and pontificating about the US election, to make themselves relevant, they have managed to keep the country divided, underdeveloped and impoverished.

It was Frantz Fanon, psychiatrist, philosopher, revolutionary, and author from Martinique, who noted that “Each generation must out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, fulfill it or betray it”. The current generation of Nigerian youth – the generation below 30 -- must discover its mission and fulfil it. A betrayal will not bode well for Nigeria and Nigerians.

Clearly, there is an unprecedented level of political apathy among youth in Nigeria today. In March 2007, I visited an older comrade whom I had not seen in over a decade. Even though it was a short visit, it was as enriching as any of my past visits which usually included lessons on the history and political economy of Nigeria.

After the initial banter, my comrade asked, in his usual jocular manner, if I had thought of an exit strategy in my job at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). His position was that the new regime would decimate the leadership of the Commission. Of course, everything else he said about the Commission has come to pass. But that is the subject of another essay.

Before I left him, my comrade expressed concern that the younger generation of social and political activists in Nigeria, to paraphrase him, were not availing themselves of the benefits new media technology. They hardly organise, even though it is much easier to do so now than it was a few decades ago. And even when they organise, the level of commitment and discipline is deplorable. My host was very active politically and knows too well how progressive youth and student organisations in Nigeria operated before the advent of the Internet and cell phones, so his concern was justified.

The more I “studied” the Obama phenomenon the more my mind went back to this discussion and to my experience as a university student in the late 80s. I have yet to come to terms with what happened to our youth, particularly students in tertiary institutions. Could this nonchalance and criminal apathy on the part of our youth be attributed to what some people refer to as the “bread and butter” issue? “Man must wack,” they say. So our youth are comfortable not questioning the status quo. They are content looking for different ways to survive the system.

But youth in Nigeria have had a glorious history of social and political participation. Nigerian youth were in the forefront of the fight for independence; they opposed and fought gallantly the profligacy and highhandedness of the military regimes of Yakubu Gowon and Olusegun Obasanjo.

During the brutal and inglorious regimes of Ibrahim Babangida and Sani Abacha there was an entire generation of youth and students organised around umbrella organisations like the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), Campaign for Democracy (CD), Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO) and Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR). They took the struggle -- whether it was against the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP), abuse of human rights, the increase in prices of petroleum products or the June 12 pro-democracy campaign -- to the streets of major cities across the country. Today, there are as many factions of NANS as there are fishes in the ocean. This once militant and progressive organisation has been turned into an appendage of the ruling party. Students will readily serve as party thugs than oppose, in any form, the system that oppresses and dehumanises them.

Where is the outrage on our campuses? Why are our students not mobilizing against the egregious corruption in the country? Where are the protests and marches to express anger and indignation about the rape and pillage of the Niger Delta, the poverty in the country, the wanton sale of our collective wealth in the name of privatisation, and the violation of press freedom and the rule of law?

One lesson our youth can learn from Obama’s victory is that power does not concede anything easily. If our youth are concerned about unemployment, they must stand up against a system that keeps them unemployed. Nigeria is in the throes of death. Talk of a revolution has become so clichéd. Let us hope and pray that we can find among our youth those who are inclined to sound the death knell of this rogue republic and fix the current social, political and economic disorder. That is the mission of our own Generation O!

Rest assured that you will get all the support you can imagine from the generation before you.

conumah@hotmail.com