In the age of digital acceleration and moral confusion, a haunting paradox confronts Nigeria’s socio-political landscape: the generation that should be steering the nation toward renaissance appears adrift in a fog of indecision. At forty, many of today’s men and women—once expected to embody the vigor of purpose and vision—wander through cycles of uncertainty, drowning in the shallow waters of social validation and economic dependency. The tragedy is not merely their lack of achievement but their startling indifference to it.
Contrast this inertia with the illustrious legacies of figures like the late Prince Abubakar Audu, Echocho, Ibrahim Idris (Ibro), and Achema, who, by the same age, had carved indelible marks in governance, enterprise, and public service. They were visionaries molded by discipline, civic passion, and a transcendent sense of duty. Their generation viewed forty not as an age of confusion but as a threshold of impact—an altar of responsibility to history and posterity. In them, leadership was not an accident of privilege but the consequence of clarity, competence, and courage.
Today, that moral and intellectual fire seems extinguished beneath the weight of distraction and comfort. The modern forty-year-old, ensnared by the illusion of social media relevance and ephemeral luxury, has traded long-term vision for fleeting applause. Many possess education but lack enlightenment, speak fluently yet reason shallowly, and seek visibility more than virtue. The societal structures that once inspired diligence have been replaced by systems that reward mediocrity, while mentorship—a sacred bridge between generations—lies in ruins.
This generational lethargy signals not just personal failure but national decay. When those meant to inherit and transform power remain uncertain of purpose, the nation’s destiny drifts into inertia. The crisis of direction among today’s middle generation reflects deeper fractures—moral erosion, economic manipulation, and the absence of ideological conviction. A society that normalizes complacency among its most productive age group sows the seeds of perpetual decline.
Reviving that lost spark demands more than nostalgia; it requires an awakening of conscience. The generation that once built legacies from scarcity must challenge this digital generation to rediscover meaning beyond survival. True relevance is not measured by trends but by transformative footprints. If the forty-year-olds of today do not rise from their intellectual slumber, history will remember them not as heirs of greatness, but as the generation that watched potential wither—beautifully dressed, socially active, yet dangerously purposeless.
– Inah Boniface Ocholi writes from Ayah – Igalamela/Odolu LGA, Kogi state.
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