What our politicians mean by mentorship is engaging you to clown as their attack dogs, to insult their opponents and your peers in proving your loyalty to them. It’s hardly about acquiring any life lesson, about learning leadership tips.
There’s a generation of brilliant young Nigerians trapped in this scam called mentorship, a lot of them distracted from their career and tasked with existing as inconsequential and underpaid aides. They can’t even advise their principal. They don’t want to hurt their feelings.
A friend once led me to say hello to his boss, and I was shocked to realize he couldn’t shake hands with the man, couldn’t even sit on the couch in his presence. This he thought was reverence. Sad, this “ranka ya dade” (long may you live) syndrome is what excites our politicians.
Our young people need to see the line between abuse and public service, and of course between slavery and mentorship. The fastest way to realize that you have actually been enslaved is ask yourself whether in fact you can call your principal to order whenever he fumbles.
Nigeria doesn’t have a succession plan; it’s an enterprise that recruits young people not to discharge any serious managerial duties but protect the interests of a corrupt management, while bearing bogus titles as SAs and whatnots to give them an illusion of importance.
For so long, Nigerian youths have functioned as mere image-makers and praise-singers for a people mismanaging a venture in which they have equal stakes. We’re taught to massage the ego of those we should be questioning, and we humiliate ourselves in defence of their shortcomings.
