A lot of tweets and comments have been flying all around concerning the Presidential youth lunch that held yesterday. While some are asking the obvious question of – What Would You Do If Invited? I think we must rise beyond that level and call a spade a spade.

It is germane to note that though the Nigerian youth is suspect when it comes to matters of money, we still have many with great levels of integrity and ideology. I know at least one Nigerian youth that was invited but turned it down as a matter of principle. I also know one that went and spoke his mind. But can we say the same of every other young people that enjoyed the banquet? I guess no.

I am not attacking those who went for the lunch and stood their grounds by not soiling their hands with the Greek gift. I am pointing out the harm done by those who attended and collected ‘transport fare’

Below are the lessons I think the Nigerian ‘Yoot’ must take from the charade that the lunch turned to:

1. There is no free lunch even in Freetown: When you get an invitation such as that, the first step is to analyze the impact on you and your stand. If you are one of those without a stand as long as money is involved and maybe recognition, go ahead without thinking. There is always a price to pay for everything we do in this life.

2. You might have justified the Legislooter’s fat sitting allowances: Youth from Lagos were paid 50 Thousand each while out of state attendees got 150 thousand naira each. This is disgusting and a huge blight on everyone who collected the money. Why must everything be soiled with the Ghana must go bag syndrome. If you don’t know, you have no moral justification to blame our ‘sinnators’ and ‘irrepresentatives’ in the National Assembly. You got 150K for eating with Jonathan, they should collect much more for being exposed to chair throwing and other forms of violence.

3. D’Banj is a saint: If you were there only to offer concrete ways of moving Nigerian forward, I would understand but you are even worse than D’Banj if you collected the money. D’Banj endorsed GEJ openly, you didn’t. So what have you been paid for? Your share of the national cake? I believe some attendees turned down the so called transport allowance, and I salute them.

4. GEJ can now spend 5Billion on his Inauguration: There is a popular peom – How much land does a man need?
I am asking you, how much is a taxi ride from one end of Lagos to another? 50 Thousand Naira? How much is an air ticket from Rivers to Borno? 150K. You have now endorsed the normal Nigerian politician system of inflating figures. Let’s say you are jobless and you couldn’t afford transport to the lunch, must the amount be inflated. So, you must never blame GEJ and others when they inflate contracts.

5. The so called progressive youth might just be a mirage: It is interesting to see how the ruling class have successfully demistified the so called Twitter generation. Blowers of hot air on social media and chickens when the time comes to make a stand. We might have proved to the whole world that we are just the same and only waiting for an opportunity to start ‘chopping’ when we get there.

I sincerely hope the twitter generation will be able to rise above this mess.