By Comrade Ogbu A. Ameh
To understand the fate of youths across the continent of Africa today, we must embark on a method of historical materialism which in effect says, “ To know the present we must look into the past and to know the future we must look into the past and the present.” The earliest contact between Africa and Europe was the beginning of dependency occasioned by unfavorable and vicious trade relations. The trade in black skins which lasted over 500 years decimated the demography of active youths drastically.
In the footsteps of the slave era came colonialism which established direct political and economic control and domination by foreign powers of Europe. In the centuries before colonial rule, Europe increased its economic capacity by leap and bounds, while Africa appeared to have been almost static. Imperialism is essentially an economic phenomenon and does not necessarily lead to direct political control or colonization. However, Africa was the victim of colonization since her fate was decided at the Berlin Conference of the Great Scramble and balkanization of the continent.
The era of slave trade and colonialism have come and gone, but the vestiges live with us in here in Africa since our flag independence till date. In Africa, we depend on our former colonial mother nations for virtually all our needs. This is so because, after the flag independence, their economic interests dominate the money economy of the continent. All we have is our land and natural resources while we still depend on their technology to exploit these natural resources under our soil. It will always remain a dead asset in the absence of needed technological knowhow.
We are faced in all directions by one form of imperialism or the other; from culture, religion, economy and politics, we look up to the West. As the continent capitulates under the barrage of imperialism, corrupt politicians and their conniving state actors compete to privatize public treasury through the instrumentality of state power and impunity. Virtually all social institutions are undermined and rendered vulnerable to compromise. Things have since fallen apart and successive generations of youths seem uncertain of the future they ought to be leaders of.
Today, African youths live in perpetual illusion as majority of them turn to massive drug abuse, crime, lewd explicit music, gambling and football soccer viewing of European Leagues while sport activities and administration suffer abject neglect in their countries. They are of course, victims of capitalists’ evil vicious cycle that produces a chaotic world. When a scary external world and a chaotic internal world collide, the result is often overwhelming and confusing. They are caught in the web and firm grip of media imperialism that got them hooked to the tube for a quick fix at regular intervals from the core capitalists’ core mother nations in Europe. The Calabar Viewing Centre electrocution incidence is just one of the numerous episodic calamities befallen the youths across Africa. Another dimension to their escapist avenue is morning convergence at various newsstands as soccer analysts and free-readers-parliamentarian.
‘Newspaper’, the oldest medium of modern mass communication was an exclusive reserve of the elites in urban towns and cities in the good old days. The role of newspaper in the nationalists’ agitations for self-rule in the pre-independence era was enormous with far-reaching successes. Newspapers maintained their unrivalled enlightenment pedigree until the advent of radio and subsequently, the television in mass communication. Thus, the competition and other factors such as decline in reading culture, low advert revenue; technology innovations have dramatically signalled the convergence of media landscape. However, within the topsy-turvy existence of the newspaper, a renewed phenomenon emerged. Newsstands are ubiquitous sight in Nigerian’s urban towns and cities hence pockets of persons refer to as ‘Free Readers Association’. This group pays a token to read any daily or weekly publication.
The realities of economic hardship resulting in low or lack of purchasing power, decline in elitist self-esteem, low reading culture, alternative access to information, general apathy to social, economic and political developmental information has necessitated the agreement of convenience between the vendors and readers.
In the face of this avalanche of factors, newspaper patronage by today’s young and adult literate Nigerians dwindles by the day. However, a reprieve hovers in the horizon for newspaper readership as soccer and its related activities supply ventilation for the urban and rural youths and adults alike.
This latter day re-awakening buoys newspaper patronage to sport pages and soccer-based publication exclusively. The soccer news perhaps attracts this segment of society a great deal to newsstands to catch a glimpse of headlines and scores. The debates that ensure every day at these stands dwarf debates on the floors of both upper and lower houses of the National Assembly and state Houses of Assembly.
The soccer publications and sport pages of daily publication become the saving grace for newspaper publishing enterprises in Nigeria today. Other catchy and screaming political or crime news are done justice to as snippets to enrich the parliament for the day.
So heated and lively are the topics and patterns of discourse that there seems to be uniformity among the ubiquitous group of ‘Free Readers Association’ across the length and breadth of the country. Their sights at city centres and strategic locations in urban towns and cities give hope that Nigeria will never lack future parliamentarians. The only difference is the divide between soccer and politics; while one stirs intense passion, the other stirs passion and asserts control through the instrumentalities of power. This latter variance of passion for politics is lacking in today’s African youths as they wallowed in alienation and self-destruction.
Comrade Ameh is Founder, Generation for Revolution from Below.
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