We the Obidiots, Zombidients and Zombidiots: This is our story, By Owi
They say we are rude, uneducated and classless: but these are the only examples Nigeria has ever shown us. They say we're disorganized, disunited and lacking in focus: it's just to reflect where we come from. They ask for respect, civility and courtesy: but we cannot give what we do not have, and we do not have, because we have never been given.
They say we're rude, uneducated and classless. Let civil discourse be drowned in incoherent noise and troubling fanaticism. We have been relegated to the back of “real” political discourse and equated with discordant tunes or blaring cymbals. They ask for respect, civility and courtesy. They say we are disorganized, disunited and lack focus. They say our collective hopes and aspirations for 2023 are nothing but a fleeting dream or a castle in the sky; after all, "who knows Peter Obi in the north?" However, to dismiss Peter Obi's counterculture as mere political nonsense propagated by unruly young people is to fundamentally misunderstand who we are and the depth of our trauma. Here is our story:
We are those pesky Millennials and Gen Zers: the same ones who hardly ever went 24 hours without the lights going out. Those who see public services as an abstract concept that is only talked about in books or on television. We are the ones who believe that tap water can only come from a borehole. We are the generation that has seen simple local trips grow from simple light prayer to full fasting and intercession. We are the generations who, due to economic difficulties, start a family on average 10 to 15 years after our parents and die 10 to 15 years before them. They talk about us in academic terms, our difficulties buried behind rigid statistics; "Youth unemployment and underemployment are at 70%". We are here, we are human beings, we watch, we cry and we die.
To add insult to injury, we are intimidated, repressed and oppressed by all elements of the country and state. Expressions of our creativity and culture have been myopically defined by our hairstyles and phone brands; we can barely walk an inch without being pursued by agents and officers of the country. We are harassed for crimes as serious as "driving while young" and "doing that hairstyle they don't understand".
…To dismiss Peter Obi's counterculture as mere political nonsense propagated by unruly young people is to fundamentally misunderstand who we are and the depth of our trauma.
Nigeria eats its young and hates to see them grow up!!!! We asked her for bread, but she gave us stones and looked down on us because we were still hungry; we asked her for an education, but she gave us ASUU strikes and castigated us for being illiterate; we asked her to let us live in peace, but she gave us Boko Haram, IPOB and bandits and insulted us because we were afraid. We stood at Lekki Toll Gate and begged her to stop her agents from harassing us further, but she responded by sending her agents to harass and kill us in a "phantom" massacre that never happened. .
Our entire existence is a tragic pattern of continued abuse and oppression. My choice of Labor is not necessarily an endorsement of Peter Obi, it's just a rejection of APC and PDP, my oppr...
They say we are rude, uneducated and classless: but these are the only examples Nigeria has ever shown us. They say we're disorganized, disunited and lacking in focus: it's just to reflect where we come from. They ask for respect, civility and courtesy: but we cannot give what we do not have, and we do not have, because we have never been given.
They say we're rude, uneducated and classless. Let civil discourse be drowned in incoherent noise and troubling fanaticism. We have been relegated to the back of “real” political discourse and equated with discordant tunes or blaring cymbals. They ask for respect, civility and courtesy. They say we are disorganized, disunited and lack focus. They say our collective hopes and aspirations for 2023 are nothing but a fleeting dream or a castle in the sky; after all, "who knows Peter Obi in the north?" However, to dismiss Peter Obi's counterculture as mere political nonsense propagated by unruly young people is to fundamentally misunderstand who we are and the depth of our trauma. Here is our story:
We are those pesky Millennials and Gen Zers: the same ones who hardly ever went 24 hours without the lights going out. Those who see public services as an abstract concept that is only talked about in books or on television. We are the ones who believe that tap water can only come from a borehole. We are the generation that has seen simple local trips grow from simple light prayer to full fasting and intercession. We are the generations who, due to economic difficulties, start a family on average 10 to 15 years after our parents and die 10 to 15 years before them. They talk about us in academic terms, our difficulties buried behind rigid statistics; "Youth unemployment and underemployment are at 70%". We are here, we are human beings, we watch, we cry and we die.
To add insult to injury, we are intimidated, repressed and oppressed by all elements of the country and state. Expressions of our creativity and culture have been myopically defined by our hairstyles and phone brands; we can barely walk an inch without being pursued by agents and officers of the country. We are harassed for crimes as serious as "driving while young" and "doing that hairstyle they don't understand".
…To dismiss Peter Obi's counterculture as mere political nonsense propagated by unruly young people is to fundamentally misunderstand who we are and the depth of our trauma.
Nigeria eats its young and hates to see them grow up!!!! We asked her for bread, but she gave us stones and looked down on us because we were still hungry; we asked her for an education, but she gave us ASUU strikes and castigated us for being illiterate; we asked her to let us live in peace, but she gave us Boko Haram, IPOB and bandits and insulted us because we were afraid. We stood at Lekki Toll Gate and begged her to stop her agents from harassing us further, but she responded by sending her agents to harass and kill us in a "phantom" massacre that never happened. .
Our entire existence is a tragic pattern of continued abuse and oppression. My choice of Labor is not necessarily an endorsement of Peter Obi, it's just a rejection of APC and PDP, my oppr...
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