Nigeria's Future Tied to Present Actions: Rebuilding Institutions for a Sustainable Old Age

Nigeria's current trajectory, characterized by a burgeoning epidemic of loneliness and social isolation, is not an accident but a direct consequence of decisions made decades ago, according to columnist Bámidélé Adémólá-Olátéjú. The "sentence" the nation is serving, she argues, was written in the 1980s and 1990s through a series of choices and, perhaps more critically, refusals to act.

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If there is a way out of the sentence we have written for ourselves, it will not come from the children we sent away, and it will not come from the country we abandoned in our hearts, even while our bodies remained in it.

The author paints a stark picture of the current generation's middle age, facing a social landscape devoid of the rich communal life and continued relevance that their parents enjoyed. The traditional intergenerational support system, where elders provided wisdom and younger hands reached for high shelves, has been disrupted. This breakdown is attributed, in part, to the exodus of skilled professionals, teachers, professors, engineers, and doctors, who fled the country, marking the true beginning of the collapse in education and public services.

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It will come only if those of us still standing in the marketplace choose, before it is too late, to act like elders again, to build the schools, the hospitals, the institutions, and the security that would give the next generation a reason to stay, or a reason to come home.

While the young initially left primarily for economic survival, the lack of opportunity and social mobility meant that even those who stayed eventually confronted the harsh reality that there was no future for their own children. This led to the decision to send children abroad for education, a hope that education would still serve as a gateway, mirroring the earlier faith placed in Nigeria's public schools before their decay.

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Our fathers: the teachers, professors, engineers, doctors, civil servants, and lawyers who are now in their seventies and eighties, retired into something we will not have: a rich communal life, continued relevance in their towns and professional guilds, and children within reach.

Adémólá-Olátéjú contends that the way out of this self-imposed predicament lies not with the children sent away, nor with a country abandoned in spirit, but with those who remain. The call is for the current generation to act with the wisdom of elders, to prioritize the rebuilding of essential institutions, schools, hospitals, and security infrastructure. Only by investing in these foundations can Nigeria offer its next generation a compelling reason to remain or to return, thereby securing a more communal and connected old age for all.

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Our fathers in academia and Medicine fled in numbers, and their departure marked the true beginning of the collapse in the quality of education and public service that has never been arrested since.