According to a UN Report, Nigeria has the 6th largest youth population in the world with a population of about 57 million young people. Ahead of Nigeria are countries like Pakistan, the US, China, Indonesia and India.

I don't exactly know how things operate in these other countries because I don't like there and you really can't tell what goes on in a place unless you live and operate within the environment. For this reason, I can only speak about the expectations of a youthfully vibrant nation from the point of Nigeria.

When a country or nation has a high population of youth, some things are expected like; fresh ideas and innovation, freedom of expression and well, life. It only makes sense that where youth occupy over 50 million of the overall population that there should be a reason to want to live.

Fresh Ideas

During my second year at the university, we had this course we called Entrepreneurial Studies or something like that. The course now that I think about it was a motivation-based course.

We had a lecturer who, although seemed poor, came to class to recite a lot of motivational quotes and tell us how we could all start businesses and how we obviously won't get jobs. He didn't say it directly, but it makes sense now.

Asides from the motivational aspect, this lecturer made some strong points about starting a business and I loved every bit of it. I'm big on planning to I spent an entire year planning out my cake business and didn't do anything.

Some others started their businesses. Some failed and some have thrived for the past 5 years in sustaining these businesses.

Are Nigerians always fresh with ideas? Yes!

One fact everyone knows is that in a favourable environment, Nigerian thrive beyond their home abilities. Personally, I think the strongest people are those who are able to thrive with these abilities while being in the country.

There are always new ideas, new businesses and new structures being developed among young people today. Not just fraudulent ones alone. People are actually thinking. It's one thing to be poor, it's another thing to be poor and dumb, but it's a totally different thing to be poor, ignorant and dumb.

We're poor by default, the rest is up to us.

Freedom of Expression and Speech

I'm a very expressive person but to an end. I remember when I was younger and even up until today when I would try to explain myself to my mother and she would shut me up telling me to stop being disrespectful.

Freedom of expression and speech as a Nigerian has always been at the detriment of whoever is older. Now we have social media where we agree amongst ourselves that we no longer care about how old you are, we'll call you out on your bullshit.

The older generation cannot fathom this. It is disrespectful to them. How dare you speak ill of them and even make demands? How dare you call them out on their bullshit? It could never have happened in their time. That's why they banned Twitter.

A disrespect to the old Grandpa Bubu is a disrespect to an entire nation of nearly a billion people. How absurd you might wonder. Well, it's the situation we find ourselves in.

This is one of the reasons I'm grateful for Hive. I started off writing this wanting to highlight why Hive is the best thing for Nigerians right now, but I guess I'll write that some other day.

Right now, the only freedom of expression and speech we have is in our bedrooms as long as our parents are absent.

I try to adjust to this mentality but it's running deep. I shut my nephews up when they try to press themselves when they do something stupid. I tell myself that they have no right to speak, or maybe they just talk too much. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe I'm right. I really don't know.

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Life

Nigeria has some of the best musicians the world has ever heard. We have life. I could never imagine having fun at a club with anything other than Nigerian music. How would that make any sense???

Remember how we turned the #Endsars protest into a street party? That's what a youthful nation is about. LIFE! There should never be a dull moment. We expect cool pictures, amazing songs, crazy videos. The world ought to feel our energy to understand us.

You might wonder how this relates to what Democracy Day means to me. But I thought about writing a sad story about what we expect versus what we get and I felt bad.

We know Democracy Day is about freedom and a celebration of the life we have and the labour of our heroes past and all that rubbish.

But Democracy should be about you and me. It should be about what we understand and have come to love about the people around us. Nigeria is bad, yes, but you found the love of your life here. You found love in your mother, father and siblings. You have some of the best friends you could never imagine life without.

Think about the good times sometimes and feel at peace with where you are while you anticipate where you want to be. Turn down the news, you'll be anxious. Show love where you can and be open to receive love.

Stay alert and still be happy.

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