Weekend Arena - Nigerian Youths Are BIPOLAR

The stories coming out of Mali, the impoverished West African country of 19 million people will continue to trend in political circles till God-knows-when. The political scene in that country has been overcharged in the past couple of months due to poverty, insecurity, political intimidation and electoral manipulation. 

All these, culminated in an anti-government protest, driven by the people, and had defied all regional and international mediations. It was only natural that a coup would happen to remove all the knots in their polity, in spite of the fact that coups are no longer fashionable in today’s world.



But the Malians seem excited. They are apparently happy about the coup and the resignation of the ex-leader, President Keita. Despite the threats and sanctions by members of the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS and African Union, AU, many voices are in support of the military on their streets. While it is not in our place to ‘take paracetamol over another man’s headache’, it is pertinent to note that the ‘firewood available in every land, understands how to cook their various meals’. 

Nigeria, as a country has all the symptoms that are visible in Mali, but will never react like the Malians to their socio-economic woes. Instead, they would play the ‘Marlians’.

I will explain.

Looking at the two terms (Malians and Marlians) as personalities, the Malian is the young man who is concerned about his country moving forward. He is politically aware and knows that the bricks of today are used to lay the foundation of the future. In spite of living in deprivation, he trusts that getting it right in terms of leadership can go a long way in ameliorating the collective challenges of his country. He is passionate about his country and will not bat an eyelid about joining a movement, whose actions are redemptive. He can defy the tear gas and water cannon for his country, because he is determined to leave a better nation for his children.


The Marlians, however are a complete opposite of the Malians. Leveraging the traits, exemplified by professed followers of Naira Marley (Azeez Fashola), they are everything you get amongst most Nigerians youths. They believe in something but cannot really define what that thing is. 

They desire a better life but rely on finding the shortest route to this destination, not minding if that is genuine or not. They are buoyed by great hopes and optimism of a better tomorrow and will not be ready to put in any work to actualize this. That is why you will see them shuttling from one betting house to another, hoping to win one hundred million naira with a bet of one hundred naira. Success for them is defined by the number of posh cars, designer clothes and wristwatches, or heaps of dollars one is able to show off on Instagram.

 They are driven by fake life and have this creed: Fake it until you make it.


While contending with one oppressive government after another, they care less about how their political leaders emerge. If there is an announcement for voter registration, they will not come out but when they do, it is only in the hope to get an ID card they will use to cash out the dollars ‘a white maga’ will pay, when he falls for their online scam. 

On election days, they would either sit at home or come out to play football on any available space. If they do find their way to the voting arena, they do so in the hope that one politician will pay two thousand naira for it, or hire them as thugs to snatch ballot boxes.

Unlike the Malians, who will troop to the streets to protest against corrupt politicians; they get paid to protest for corrupt politicians. That is why in Nigeria, while one group is protesting against something evil; another group will be in another part of the same town protesting in support of it. Of course, many of them are social media savvy. But don’t think they are ready to use it for responsible ventures like social media marketing or the likes. No, they serve as trolls for politicians.

 They move from timeline to timeline looking for those making comments against their paymasters, the corrupt politicians. If they see any, be sure they will dress the person down irrespective of the age difference. They will copy the picture of one flyover in Malaysia and post it as the latest achievement by a governor or minister, further confusing the citizens over the real state of their state. For some of them ‘working independently’, they are the guys hacking social media accounts to make posts about investments that return 100% profit in 30 minutes. 

They do believe that things are not working normally in Nigeria, but hope that in this confusion and aberration will come their own slice of the national cake.

So that Marlian in terms of personality profiling depicts aloofness, insouciance, nonchalance. And they are more in number today.

Hmmmmm,Ngozi this one touch me,really deep!!!