This Is The Future We Are Building. — by Dr Zainab S. Buhari
THIS IS THE FUTURE WE ARE BUILDING!
Nigerians have learned to bow to power instead of question it, and turned politicians into gods. We kneel for handouts, chant names of men who’ve never slept on the same streets we die on, and defend the same elites who sell our future in installments. We worship them so hard we forget we’re the ones paying the tithe with our children’s tomorrow.
Now the young ones are watching. They’re not joining politics to fix systems. They’re engaged to break into the vault. For many young men, politics is just the fastest ATM with no PIN. The goal isn’t service, it’s survival by theft.
“Better my own life” became code for “loot before the table turns.” We created a generation that sees public office as a personal investment, not public trust.
And what is in it for our young girls?
Some get pulled into the messiest rooms just to stay at the table. Compromise becomes currency. Silence becomes strategy. Relevance is bought with dignity, and when dignity runs out, they’re discarded like used campaign posters. We clap for the ones who “made it” and never ask what it cost them.
This is the future we’re building: a country where power is inherited by the corrupt, chased by the desperate, and maintained by the broken. A country where citizens defend their oppressors, youths enter service to steal, and women must trade pieces of themselves just to be heard.
The deep cut is this: every time we worship an elite instead of demanding accountability, we’re not just losing today. We’re drafting the job description for our children’s suffering.
Until Nigerians stop clapping for thieves and start questioning them, until young people see politics as duty not jackpot, and until girls can be relevant without being ruined, we’re just passing down a more expensive version of the same poverty.
~Dr Zainab Suleiman Buhari
