Same Generation, Different Systems: When Talent Meets a System Without Pathways
Intelligence, education, craftsmanship, integrity and ideas may not, by themselves, be sufficient to guarantee a sense of belonging or pride in one's heritage when the systems surrounding young people fail to create meaningful pathways for their abilities to translate into influence.
This is one of the questions confronting Africa's younger generation.
Having observed the political environment closely, I foresee several platforms struggling to survive the realities of a changing society. The challenge is not necessarily a shortage of intelligent or educated young people. Rather, it is the difficulty of converting individual capacity into institutional influence.
A highly educated engineer, researcher, economist, lawyer, administrator, entrepreneur or creative professional can still remain on the margins when the political environment places greater practical value on money, networks, patronage, organisational machinery, strategic alliances and political access.
This raises questions that should awaken the sleeping giants.
What happens to the Malian Coulibally, the Nigerian Abubakar, the Kofi of Togo and the Ciesee of Equatorial Guinea who possess ambition, talent and determination, but encounter systems in which survival can become more important than professional development?
What happens when young people who might otherwise become policymakers, researchers, entrepreneurs or institutional leaders are instead pushed towards informal economic activities simply because the structures around them cannot absorb their potential?
Across Africa, the consequences are visible.
I have seen young people bearing the burden of difficult economic and political conditions. I have seen communities where houses remain built with mud, roads remain untarred and basic infrastructure remains inadequate, while public conversations continue to place much of the responsibility on colonialism long after colonial administrations departed.
Colonial history remains important in understanding Africa's present circumstances. But history cannot become a permanent substitute for contemporary responsibility.
The young African walking the streets today did not design the colonial system. Yet he inherits its consequences alongside the failures of successive generations of African leadership.
I have seen younger people roaming the streets, replacing the tools of aspiration with the instruments of survival. A pan becomes a means of begging for a living. Informal work becomes the only available economic pathway. Dreams of professional achievement become secondary to the immediate need to survive.
This is where the comparison with other parts of the world becomes uncomfortable.
Elsewhere, young people of the same generation can walk into political chambers, participate in legislative processes, sponsor bills, develop policy proposals and engage institutions designed to receive their ideas.
Here, another young person may spend the same years trying to determine how to put food on the table.
One may be discussing public policy.
Another may be discussing how to raise enough money to build a block of rooms.
One may be sitting in a parliamentary chamber debating legislation.
Another may be standing by the roadside looking for the next customer.
One may sip coffee while preparing for another institutional meeting.
Another may be searching for another means of survival.
One generation. Different systems.
Different opportunities. Different institutional pathways.
Different outcomes.
The difference is not necessarily intelligence. It is not necessarily ambition. It is not necessarily creativity.
It is often the structure within which those qualities are required to operate.
That is why craftsmanship alone may not be sufficient.
Education alone may not be sufficient.
Hard work alone may not be sufficient.
A young person can possess extraordinary talent and still remain invisible if there is no credible pathway from competence to institutional influence.
The problem therefore goes beyond producing educated young people. Africa must build institutions capable of recognising, developing and deploying their abilities.
The Nigerian Abubakar should not have to abandon his potential simply because the system has no room for it.
The Kofi of Togo should not have to choose between intellectual development and survival.
The Ciesee of Equatorial Guinea should not have to remain permanently outside the institutions that shape his future.
And the Malian Coulibally should not have to regard political influence as something reserved exclusively for those with money, connections or patronage.
This is not an argument against hard work.
It is an argument for a system in which hard work has a pathway to consequence.
The question Africa must confront is simple:
How do we move from producing brilliant young minds to building institutions that can actually hear them, accommodate them and give them room to lead?
The world is the same.
The generation is the same.
The human capacity is the same.
But the systems are different.
And systems determine how much of a generation's potential becomes history.
We shall meet again.
Abioye Tosin Lawrence
Publisher | Memoirist | Public Commentator
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