On Monday, 23rd of January 2017, the Nigerian Minister of Mines and Steel, Dr Fayemi Kayode, warned Nigerian youths to stop whining.[1] He criticised the “entitlement mentality that is commonplace among young people”[2] in Nigeria, noting that government does not owe you anything. Like other politicians, he bragged that he drove taxis and worked as a security guard in London for survival. Weh don Sir, government does not owe you anything? This is another style of claiming that “Nigerian-youths-are-unemployable”[3] by the pre-1980 free-education beneficiaries and motivational speakers.
Sincerely, there seem to be a common entitlement mentality among Nigerian youths, especially after graduation from the university. Many young people quickly replace the attitude of hard work with a habitual blame for everything but themselves. Those who failed to study in line with their true passion and talents blame parents, government and society for their misfortune. Even those who refused to study or paid for grades, also blame government for their woes. Hence, it might be justified to state that the government does not owe you anything, especially when you are not helping yourself.
Yet, the society is the custodian of the individual’s rights and liberties. And government is the society’s instrument of regulation for human wellbeing, peace and progress. Members of a society empower government with some rights for the society’s harmonious growth. In turn, government takes care of the specified aspects of the members of the society. Hence, the insistence that government does not owe you anything signals an approval of government irresponsibility in Nigeria.
Replacing the colonial powers, Nigerian government seizes rights to the people’s mineral resources[4][5][6]. These resources are the fundamental elements for manufacturing items in the society. The process of extracting, refining and distributing these resources can engage many Nigerian youths. But instead of organizing the youths for processing their resources for local production, government seizes and sells them to foreigners. Thus, they rob millions of youths of their job opportunities in exchange for forex and imported goods.
But our Honourable Minister of Mines and Steel insists that Nigerian government does not owe you anything. This comes after government seizure of mineral resources that ethnic communities should use to produce what they need for survival. Afterwards, government officials use funds from sale of resources to fund a national assembly that gulps 25% of annual budget.[7] This is in addition to other wasted or diverted funds on recurrent government expenses and inflated contracts. Even government officials from poor states, who lack education and economic activities, manage to buy foreign estates and private jets.
When challenged, government spokesmen ask you to hold your own governors responsible for not sharing the money to reach you. After using the constitution to get immunity and legal protection, they tell you to hold your government responsible. After seizing people’s resources and means of livelihood, they insist government does not owe you anything.
The effort to justify the government by flaunting few people who survived after much hardship is not only fallacious but wicked. What is the ratio of those who survived the system to the millions that are still dying in it? What is the right order of human capital development and engagement in a reasonable society? A properly formed state trains and engages its citizens to utilize their resources for producing what they need. It does not wait to display few citizens who excel as importers, counters, socio-religious entertainers without actual productivity. This attitude forces actual nation-builders into an individualistic desperation for survival through unsuitable or illegal ventures.
The statement ‘government does not owe you anything’ could be used to motivate people towards creativity and hard work. It is necessary to push citizens out of their comfort zones in order to discover their inner capabilities and greatness. However, it is used as justification for irresponsibility in Nigeria, where government seizes all resources and blames the youth as lazy. Until the illegitimate constitution is changed, and the ethnic communities recover and use their resources, the claim that ‘government does not owe you anything’ remains a lie.
[1] https://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/01/quit-whining-no-body-owes-you-anything-fayemi-tells-nigerian-youths/
[2] ibid
[3] Femi Falana, The Right To Education And The Challenge Of Knowledge-Production In Nigeria, in a convocation lecture at Dominican University, Samonda, Ibadan, on 7th June, 2017
[4] Nigerian minerals and mining act 2007 act no. 20, chapter 1, Part 1, Section 1, paragraph 2
[5] Nigerian minerals and mining act 2007 act no. 20, chapter 1, Part 1, Section 2, paragraph 1
[6] Nigerian minerals and mining act 2007 act no. 20, chapter 1, Part 1, Section 1, paragraph 3
[7] Adetutu Folasade-Koyi, Daniel Kanu and Andajibola Abayomi, Nigeria: Sanusi Insists National Assembly Takes 25 Percent of Govt Overheads, http://allafrica.com/stories/201012020945.html. 10 December, 2010. Extracted on 6 September, 2017