Some Nigerians on Tuesday expressed surprise on the social media after four ladies in their 20s were unable to recognise former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
A female influencer had posted a video where Obasanjo was being interviewed and asked the four ladies, who were inside a salon, who the person being interviewed was.
To her surprise, the ladies could not provide the correct answer. While two of them said it was ex-President Muhammadu Buhari, one other said it was President Bola Tinubu and the fourth lady was blank.
A few minutes after the video went viral, some Nigerians spoke on the matter, with some of them calling for return of History into school curriculum.
@Updateboyx wrote: “Clowns aged 26 to 28 don’t know the man who left the highest office of their country in 2007. Una no go school at all?”
Oloye Akin Alabi, Member of House of Representatives wrote: “History is something we have to teach, not assume everyone remembers. Not too many people know who the governors and presidents were before they were born, or when they were toddlers.
“Baba left office in 2007, almost 20 years ago. With Nigeria’s median age now around 18, roughly half of the population today were either not born yet or were too young to have any meaningful memory of him or his presidency.”
Tolu Ogunlesi: “50% of the Nigerian population was not yet born when Obasanjo was President. That’s 100 million people. Think hard about that.
Yesterday, I said, and I quote: ‘And then OBJ gets a new audience (including many who didn’t really know his presidency), and CMMA affirms itself (deservedly) as a show that can pull a former President. It’s a special ‘television’ moment in Nigeria.’
Richard Ogunsakin: “I wasn’t yet born during the time of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, MKO Abiola, Tafawa Balewa… But with just their pictures, I know them and I can even tell you little things about them. This particular GenZ are so dull, all they are for is iPhone series and human hair.”
Arinze Odira: “I don’t know if this was scripted, but this is one of the reasons I’ve stopped talking about the quality of leaders we have in Nigeria. In a country with a large number of uninformed voters, it will be nearly impossible to produce good leaders through a democratic process that is already marred by malpractice.
Before we start building airports and flyovers, we need to build schools and invest in quality basic education. Otherwise, we will forever remain in the trenches.”
@jassjegz: “I don’t even know what’s funny to them. This is another reason why History should be brought back. We used to have calendar of all past and present president/governors of Nigeria and we memorised them from A-Z.”
@DanielWhalee: “There is no reason adults like these should not know Obasanjo even if they were not born when he was president. They didn’t go to school? What were they taught in school?
Unfortunately, people like these are the loudest on social media arguing politics.
I can guess the candidate they support.”
Julius Adebayo wrote: “OLODO UPRISING! Many of us weren’t born during the days of Tafawa Balewa, Obafemi Awolowo, Ladoke Akintola, Ahmadu Bello, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Murtala Mohammed, but we can recognise them when we see them on screens or anywhere
This generation has lost the consciousness to seek knowledge and must have been told to hate on the country so they do not bother at all
How can you not know President Obasanjo while he’s still alive? How can you not know President Tinubu? How can you not know President Buhari?
Is this the same generation you want to hold their governors to account? The ones who do not even know their president? You think they’d recognise their state governor by face or name? We won’t even mention their Senator, Reps member or LGA Chairman.
No wonder voter turnout since 1999 has been woefully declining. This is shameful.”
@accoid: “God please! How old are they? Didn’t they attend nursery and primary schools where they teach pupils heads of states in Nigeria. Are they stupid? My nine-years-old will boldly say who the person is.”
