Melaye, Macron and the misguided preoccupation with youth

When Emmanuel   Macron was sworn in as the Prime Minister of France, two things immediately stood him out; the age of his spouse, which became a joke, and then passé because the joke was mostly on the jokers. Then there was the fact that he was only 39 years old.
Nigerian ‘youths’ went on rampage, praising the French to high heavens for giving a voice to the young, and generally going on about the marginalization of the Nigerian youth, whom, according to them, has been prevented from taking on positions of power.

That, in one breathe. In the other breathe, a youth such as Macron has been unfavorably compared with youth in Nigeria who belong to the ruling class such as famous legislator, Dino Melaye, who apparently is looked upon with much pride by kinsmen in his native Kogi and associates from his alma mata, Ahmadu Bello University (ABU). The definition of a ‘youth’ in Nigeria is of course somewhat different from what it is in most other parts of the world. Former Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan, was largely considered a ‘youthful president’ when he first ran the country at 53, and we witness the springing up of various youth organizations run by men and women more than 35 years of age.
But age is but just a number, which is why Melaye- who is somewhere between his mid and late 40s (we might be called upon to produce a birth certificate)- considers himself a youth and Emmanuel Macron considers himself a fully grown and responsible adult who spends the better part of his time preoccupying himself with global issues which directly affect his country.
The youths of Nigeria, both real and imagined, have displayed an unusual propensity towards speaking from both sides of their mouths. While bitterly complaining about the top-heavy nature of our polity as it stands today and the reluctance of the older generation to give the younger ones a chance at running things, they are also the first to discredit contemporaries that have made good in the political sphere, as it were.
Most of Melaye’s critics appear to have forgotten his showdown with the First Lady of the Senate, Oluremi Tinubu last year, whereby he said many unprintable things to the lady. It was, in fact, act 1 scene 1 in what was to become the trilogy of public infamy to which we were treated in the course of just months, giving Nigerians a peep into what might be the preoccupations of our lawmakers on the whole. Contrast with Macron’s manner with his ageing better half and with women in general.
Possibly out of desperation at the never ending woes the nation’s youths are faced with, there is now a total preoccupation with the ages of Nigerian leaders and an obsession with the idea of getting young persons into government positions of all levels; as though this were an automatic panacea for every ill bedeviling us as a nation.
Indeed, Nigeria has had some very extraordinary young leaders even in the 4th republic, including Donald Duke, Orji Uzor Kalu and even Raji Fashola, who was only 41 when he became the remarkable governor of Lagos that he was.
On the flip side, we have had some very disastrous young leaders far too numerous to mention.
With the killing of two youth leaders and party stalwarts Desokan Baba Owo and Rasaq Bello, also known as Hamburger by other youths following dissatisfaction with the primary elections for chairmanship and councillor candidates in the Lagos State chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC, there is an increasing likelihood that things will eventually descend into total chaos in the state.
Before the stay-at-home directive in the entire South East of Nigeria, many dozens of young people had lost life and limb in the region protesting against the marginalization of the region; or simply just being in the wrong place at the wrong time at the instance of Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and a man in his mid forties.
One thing is clear in all of these: Youth is overrated, and there is no study that has shown that younger people- just by virtue of being young, make better leaders.
We don’t need young people to run the country; we need people with young ideologies such as Macron’s, who rode to his country’s leadership on the back of En Marche!   a centrist and liberal political party in France founded on 6 April 2016 while he served as a minister.