Building The Nigeria We Deserve: A Call To Action For The Next 35 Years
BY BARNABAS AKINDELE
Nigeria stands at a defining moment in her story. As the nation celebrates sixty-five years of independence, the next thirty-five loom large, carrying us to the symbolic centenary in 2060. Whether that future glitters or falters will depend less on chance and more on the power of the generation now filling classrooms, launching startups, and marching in the streets.
With more than seventy percent of the population under thirty, Nigeria’s young people are not merely tomorrow’s leaders; they are the engine already humming beneath today’s society.
Across the country, evidence of their potential is everywhere. In bustling tech hubs from Lagos to Abuja, coders and creators are building apps that move money faster than banks can track. Filmmakers and musicians export culture that pulses through global playlists. Climate-minded entrepreneurs’ experiment with solar micro-grids in villages once written off the map. These sparks hint at what is possible when curiosity meets opportunity. Yet opportunity remains uneven. Too many children still struggle to finish secondary school, and too many graduates search endlessly for jobs that match their skills.
Without deliberate investment in education, digital infrastructure, and research, the promise of this demographic wave could become a heavy weight.
The next three decades demand a different kind of governance as well. The #NotTooYoungToRun movement proved that the youth could pry open doors to political participation. The challenge now is to move beyond protest into policy: to vote consistently, to run for office, to insist on transparency, and to design institutions that endure beyond personalities.
Imagine a Nigeria in which today’s teenage activist becomes a governor who treats public trust as sacred, or where a young civic hacker builds platforms that make corruption nearly impossible. That is not utopia; it is a choice.
Sustainability will be another defining test. By 2060, a hundred million more people may call Nigeria home. Feeding, housing, and powering such a population without striving the land requires innovation in agriculture, renewable energy, and water management. Already, youth-led projects in reforestation and clean technology point the way. Scaling these efforts could transform Nigeria from an oil-dependent economy into a model of green growth on the continent.
To reach that centenary with pride, Nigeria must start now. Classrooms need to teach critical thinking and coding alongside literature and history. Capital must flow into small businesses and social enterprises, not just established conglomerates. Laws must reward invention and protect intellectual property. These are not abstract ideals; they are the scaffolding for the Nigeria that will celebrate its hundredth Independence Day.
The next thirty-five years are not some distant horizons. They begin today, in the ambitions of a student sketching designs in a dusty notebook, in the persistence of a young woman pitching her startup for the tenth time, in the quiet resolve of a voter who refuses to sell a ballot. If the nation listens to and invests in these voices, Nigeria’s centenary will not merely mark survival. It will stand as proof that a generation dared to turn boundless potential into lasting progress, carrying the green-white-green flag into a future bright enough to match its people’s dreams.
Barnabas Akindele is a PR Consultant and a communications Strategist
