by Alexander O. Onukwue

How much do our elders truly value the Nigerian Youth?

Because if there is one little detail about the tweet about ACP Abayomi Shogunle that is completely distasteful, it must be the scorning description of the 25 year old as still being a child.

The ACP might have enrolled into the Police Force by ’92 which would make him a long-serving officer in the force – good for him. But that does not make a 25 year old person a child. By the new standards passed into the Constitution by the National Assembly, such a person qualifies to take a seat in the House of Representatives of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

To put it clearly, it is possible that in two years time, someone born in 1992 could be summoning the ACP to the National Assembly for whatever reason, and it would be the ACP saying ‘sir’, ‘ma’ and struggling for other appropriate prefaces and titles to use.

But that’s not the point here. The older generation always refers to young people as being the leaders of tomorrow, but if a 25-year-old person is still within that bracket, then one can only wonder if tomorrow will ever come with the elders’ insistence on the use of belittling language to describe the young ones today.

If the 25-year old is not too young to run, he or she is definitely not too young to be regarded as an adult who can engage an ACP in a conversation.

Editor