Thought Picnic: Losing the battle for the concise

Few views in many words

I would be the first to admit that I could be given to a bout of verbosity in my writings and communications.

However, I do strive hard to cut down my expressions to the bare essentials, in the process; I might use long words, complicated expressions and constructions that might have multiple meanings to convey my views.

I would very much like to eliminate ambiguity though something about English that allows you to offer unspoken assertions with nuanced intentions – rather be poetic than directly nasty which in common parlance is considered politely rude.

In all, it is still necessary to keep to the age-old dictum that I hope guides some of my writings – like a good skirt – it should be long enough to cover the detail and short enough to keep the interest.

An excess of letters and words

Yesterday, the Enough is Enough movement wrote an open letter to the governor of Lagos State and like many opinions expressed in the Sahara Reporters marketplace of vile sensationalism and perverse opinions it failed the good skirt test.

It was too long that every detail was covered but not short enough to keep my interest – for a busy man like the governor of Lagos State who might well have been interested in what they had to say, it would have been easy for him to plead the lack of time to read the tome and he probably would not have delegated the task of searching out the salient points to some underling.

The same can be said of the letter written to repudiate the activities of Charley Boy, it just went on and on, by the end, I wondered what got me into reading the stuff. [I read both letters on Facebook]

Precise, concise, short and simple

Living in the Netherlands, in official letters you notice they quickly want to get to the point in the first few paragraphs before it rambles on.

I like telling stories, but in letters we all need to acquire the fine art of the concise, the finesse of the precise and for urban acceptance sake, the punchy – short and simple can really get far – I do wonder if it is a lesson we Nigerians will ever learn.

Nigeria: My real expectations of Enough is Enough

Lessons to absorb

The Enough is Enough campaign of the youth of Nigeria marched on the office the governor of Lagos State today and it comes just within a month of their marching on the National Assembly in Abuja with a whole list of demands.

I felt the march in March was a qualified success in that it was a compelling gathering of note but it did not achieve the essential goal of delivering their letter of demands to the authorities.

This time, I held my peace to observe and then review the results of this march which one of the leaders said was a mixed success.

Indeed, they have now realised that the so-called leaders of our country in the words of one of the organisers “don’t believe that they are accountable to us”.

Select yourselves

They the leaders probably do not but it is laudable that they, the youth, are campaigning to take ownership of the voting process with the R-S-V-P call which reads as Register – Select – Vote – Protect.

We do need a voting and accountable system that counts and reveals the express wishes of the people who have exercised the right to choose their leadership.

One does wonder weather the choices we have to select from really just leave us with the best of a rotten bunch – that would in no way give us the leadership we demand and deserve.

Maybe what the Enough is Enough team needs to realise is that they are not going to effect change by looking in from the outside, then the political entities we have now would not be the best incubators for the range of aspirational and visionary talent and ability these young people represent.

They should take the next step in securing the voting process for the right selections when voting in order to protect the entity of Nigeria and the future we all hope for.

The capable youth

Looking at the poster that accompanied the call to march, this gathering consisted of professionals, celebrities, media, students and activists – definitely, much more from all works of life.

Of these professionals we have entrepreneurs and businessmen that everyday Nigerians trust to run organisations and honourably conduct business in a proper fashion.

The celebrities definitely have proved themselves capable in some sort of endeavour to have become celebrities whilst the media can give an honest, just and truthful voice to the yearnings and aspirations of the young Nigerian.

Students are supposed to be thinkers with amazing ideas and capabilities, the activists have causes that impact on lives all around Nigeria.

The youth can lead

The question then becomes as we realise that the youth make up the majority of Nigerians why these selfsame successful and youthful people cannot vie for the leadership of our dear nation.

There is where I want to see the Enough is Enough movement, a political force that competes honourably and competently for office, shaking up the fossilised body of politics that has hamstrung the nation for decades.

Yakubu Gowon & Thomas Sankara were hardly 30 when they assumed leadership of their countries, whilst it was through military coups in their case, there can be democratic rewards for the youth that take on the system for the good of the country.

Let the majority speak

The gerontocrats have failed us too many times just as the political jobbers have had no interest but theirs to heart in the pursuit of office and the spoils to loot therein.

Let your votes count by young Nigerians taking charge and voting for competent leaders amongst yourselves.

Enough is Enough – Let new blood, fresh blood, young blood in – Enough is Enough, let the youth seize the mantle of leadership and infuse us with hopes and visions that change Nigeria for the better.

That is where you should take the ground and occupy for the good all the majority which just happens to be yourselves.

Nigeria: Enough Is Enough - Looking back

Some opinions looking in

First of all and from the beginning I was quite heartened by the Enough Is Enough project which gathered the youth of Nigeria on a march on the National Assembly.

However, I was not particularly taken by the demands they made or the questions they asked because none of them looked like they could be answered and to say the least I felt they were a bit timid.

If I were in Nigeria, I probably would have taken part in the march and with the other people I have chatted to about the rally who are outside the country we probably are far from the cauldron but we do not lack insight and hopefully there are ways in which we might be able to contribute and get more involved in future rallies.

Good 1^st step

The achievements of the rally on the face of it are the ability to muster support for certain goals and when confronted by the usually obsequious to power and unaccountable security personnel they were able to withstand their menace and break through the barricades.

I believe the goals of that rally not only involved giving politicians notice that a youth constituency exists that has a voice, but to deliver a letter to the leaders of the National Assembly declaring their purpose.

From what I read, the leaders of the National Assembly were not available to give them an audience and certain of the security apparatus had already ruffled the feathers of some of the organisers but without success before the rally – the fact is the leadership knew but decided to disregard the import of the rally or acknowledge the discontent they represented.

However, it did transpire that some representative did come out to speak to them and they refused to engage him and in the process the letter taken to the National Assembly was not submitted.

Forcing the issue effectively

Seeing that the rally did include some somewhat influential Nigerians, I am disappointed that those people did not find ways of engaging some senior National Assembly person to take the letter to the leadership whilst at the same time have that letter published in national newspapers to ensure that the authorities cannot duck the issue with that common Nigerian cop-out of not being briefed.

At the time of the rally, it appeared the Twitter social networking site had the #EnoughIsEnough tag trending at number 3, an achievement you might say until you saw the content that I was compelled to post a tweet.

forakin Can this #enoughisenough campaign return to its purpose? Truth, direction, purpose and leadership - Suppose that is what it is. 4 days ago from Power Twitter.

It had to, every kind of triviality was posted, the popularity and trending was not a focused voice on the object and there was no quality to the postings even though it made the news.

A qualified success

Anyway, the rally in my view was a qualified success, some of my more youthful contacts have considered getting involved in any new plans for rallies with the hope that the ideas and demands would put them ahead of the curve.

I want to be blown away by the vision of those who come after me with whatever contribution I make being just a moderating influence, if needed – I will be so glad for our youth be so ahead of me in the promise of a place called Nigeria, I am sorry to say, the last time whilst I was happy, I was not altogether impressed.

Nigeria: Enough is Enough! March

The gathering

Tomorrow morning, the youth of Nigeria will gather at the National Assembly in protest about current issues affecting the governing and progress of Nigeria.

Courtesy of the http://whereisyaradua.com website [1]

I would believe that the collective noun of youth probably pertains to everyone who is 35 years of age and below which from certain statistics represents the majority of the Nigerian population.

I am pleased that they have gathered together to provide a significant and noticeable constituency to the leadership of the country and hope that their demands are met with some form of positive response.

When I wrote [2] about the impending protest last week, I felt their demands were hardly visionary nor bold, they have somehow fine-tuned those demands but they are hardly earth-shaking as to convince me of their readiness to seize the initiative on the leadership of the country.

Answers not easy questions

For a long time, we have known that our politicians are not given to providing answers to questions no matter how easy they are; rather they can only be out-flanked by answers that trump the ready excuses that belittle the intelligence and ability of the young and vibrant.

Much as I support this protest in spite of the difficulties of gathering the kind of support that allows them to be a noticeable voice of reason with Nigeria, I do hope their next attempt of garnering support reaches beyond détente and the comfortable to the challenging, exemplary and future-looking.

As a first step, indeed – Enough is really Enough.

Sources

[1] Enough is Enough Nigeria! Logo/graphic courtesy of the http://whereisyaradua.com website

[2] Nigeria: Enough is Enough [akin.blog-city.com]