Correspondence: "I will open my heart and speak my mind"

Today’s generation of young people, though they are faced with a burden of debt, should heed calls to help improve society and become good citizens, writes 22-year-old Nnadozie Onyekuru from Maiduguri in Nigeria.

“In a democracy, the most important office is the office of a private citizen.” – Justice Louis Brandeis

My fellow citizens, I am tired of always wishing that you were in my mind. It is time to speak out.

When it comes to changing my world, it is no longer safe to assume that my silence is golden. In this case, it won’t even earn a medal for my future.

I begin this journey with regret that my earlier indifference has dug a deficit of power in the might of the citizenry. History is a witness to this might. History shows that every generation has been called on to ensure the greatness of its society.

Some have answered this call, while others have ignored it. Our generation does not inherit the privilege of choice but a debt of emergency. The times are rough and the promise of our nation is increasingly spinning into a web of uncertainty.

This wave cannot change overnight and I know that the naked lines I create cannot alone turn the tides. But I also know that doing nothing is waiting for nothing. When I minded my business and let others do the talking, it was because I was too steeped in the process of building my own future.

But over the past years, I have pondered over the things that really matter and I am happy that I have cast off that original sin of being too busy with my life trying to build individual dreams, which are ultimately threatened by the carelessness and selfishness of insincere leaders.

I will open my heart and speak my mind. For I am a citizen. I occupy the most important office in a democracy.

I am the boss. Call me OGA CITIZEN.

*OGA is a a Nigerian pidgin word for boss.