Mary Ekah
A group of youths under the auspices of First Massive Literati are spearheading a crusade that may soon lead to the handover of the power to them by those they termed, “old leaders”. This set of youths, who recently gathered at conference held at the University of Lagos, believe that in so many decades of leading the nation, these “old leaders” have not brought about the desired impact on the citizens but rather have made things difficult and even worse.
First Massive Literati, formerly known as National Youth Movement was formed to create a dynamic society built on the principle that a nation is strongest when its young citizens work together in unity to accomplish a better standard of living for all.
Speaking at the vent, the National Coordinator, James Useghan said that the statement that the youths are leaders of tomorrow is never going to come to existence if the young ones don’t take full responsibility and action to that word. He expressed the belief that very soon that statement will come to be.
“The event is the gathering of intellectuals and youths that are ready to take leadership responsibility in the country. A lot have been going on and right here and right now we are here to proffer solution, we have here people from different states representing, we want to take the bull by its horn. We are not fighting anybody; we just want to do what is right. We are preaching a just and an egalitarian society, where our resources are meant to be used for the people.”
Useghan who said that although old leaders have tried their best in the past, noted that there was an urgent need for them to give a chance to the present day youths to take up the leadership of the nation for good.
“We appraise our old leaders in the sense that they fought for independence for us, they have tried their best but it is time they take a back seat and have the new fresh set of people to take leadership responsibilities in the country. The older generation can be as guide to us but not technical political godfathers but they can always advise. What do we have when we have a man that is above 70 years ruling us? What is the political age, what is the structure? Does Nigerians really have a structure they are working on? Or is it based on favouritism and nepotism? These are some of the things we need to look at. So the gathering of the intellectuals is here to proffer solutions to all of these problems and we want like minds to come and share in this dream and vision,” he noted.
On how the gathering is going to translate to the change that the young intellectuals desire, Useghan said, ‘There is a time line and a target to what we are doing right now because we have a lot of associations and gatherings here and there but most of these associations have been bought over by politicians. It is high time we called a spade a spade so we have new set of people that are taking over.”
He explained further that the gathering was made up of youths from about 12 different states in Nigeria, adding, “Some could not come because of financial issues, we are having financial issue because there is recession everywhere but the point is we have mobilised ourselves, as great intellectuals. Most of these youths belong to different associations in their various institutions, so we are going to spread our tentacles. We know it would be very difficult but we would try and use other medium to spread our message across to every youth.”
He added that the most populated set of people in Nigeria are the youths, noting that majority of the votes any politician will get are from the youths. “We must do what is right. Even if we are not given the mandate to register a political party, we must-have every right to detect the move of the society through our leaders. So as a movement, we are coming out very strong and the mobilisation is seriously underground. And we are starting from the grassroots, so believe me, it is going to work.”
On if the group is strictly focusing just on politicians and political affairs of the country he said, ‘Yes, we are focused more on political leadership. Now, if you ask me who a politician is, the dictionary defines it as someone who cares about the affairs of the people. So how I care about you matters a lot and that is where leadership comes to play but that is not happening in Nigeria. Even when the good ones are doing it they are not seen nor heard. There are lots of unemployment in the country at the moment and yet what are the leaders doing about unemployment? Rather the rate of unemployment is increasing day by days. Are these so-called leaders active enough and in the meeting that they hold every day, are they really putting action to it? We are talking about competent leaders and not just the youths taking over. A lot of things are wrong and these things need to be fixed and this is why the First Massive Literati was created and this is why have like minds coming together to say enough is enough.”
