By SAM AMADI, Ph.D
Terrible things happen in Nigeria. We have lost the present and we want to lose the future. I just left Transcorp Hotel Abuja after my news analysis at Arise News TV. As I stepped to the lobby of the hotel, I saw a bevy of pretty young girls in their early 20s crowded in a corner. They were all skimpily dressed as if they were commercial sex workers. The time was 10.30 pm.
One of them rushed to greet me. “Good evening, sir”. She was one of my students. I recognized her clearly because she had a slight disability and I paid attention to make sure she followed the coursework. I was shocked. I recognized three of those hotly dressed pretty young girls as fresh graduates of my department.
What are they all coming to do at this kind of Hotel at this hour and dressed in this manner? Of course, I think I know what it is. A Nigerian politician or man of means have arranged them for his pleasure and those of his friends and acquaintances. Every day, our girls are disoriented by these politicians who have neither shame nor conscience because they have access to power and money.
We pride ourselves that having a large youth population, and that is a huge asset. But the truth is that we have a large hardware. The software is highly corrupted. Why do we intend to organize these adolescents into the life of immorality?
This reminds me of the experience I had as a special adviser to the Senate President. Once we went to open a new government house built by a governor in one of the southeast states. The governor arranged a special reception for us. When we got to the venue of the so-called reception, I was shocked. Tens of very young girls sourced from the nearby university—between 17 and 22 years- were already dancing with top government officials.
I screamed and accosted the majority leader of the State House of Assembly. He boldly answered, “Man Sammy, these adolescents are our counterparts”. Wow. What? I requested to be taken back to the hotel. That was the end of the reception for me. I couldn’t believe that someone would arrange first-year students for an entourage that has the Senate President and the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Education. We are finished.
These politicians have done more harm than you can imagine. They have destroyed the economy. They have destroyed infrastructure. They have also destroyed the morality and the viability of our human capital. How can such young girls who are debased that early rise up to be moral champions of tomorrow? How? Pretty difficult.’
