Ikemesit Effiong: Nigerian youth and the ‘get rich quick syndrome’ (Y! FrontPage)

Let’s cut a long story short. That section of Nigeria under the age of 35 inhabits a fabled existence.

We want to get out of university (which all of us cannot possibly attend), with superb grades, breeze through that necessary evil that is the NYSC; land a plum job in a prestigious organisation. Need I mention the expansive home, the ritziest car, trips to exotic destinations abroad and excellent in-laws – that is, if you decide to drop the badge of ‘sexy, bad playboy’ or ‘high octane, classy, choosy, upwardly mobile lady’ – and get married.

And if all these happen before you turn 35? Excellent!

The reality couldn’t be drabber.

What is more likely to happen is that you are more likely to make average or slightly above average grades, get a few knocks BEFORE the clarion call comes calling, work your ass off and maybe, just maybe land that fancy job title – and that’s just the beginning of your professional slavery. As for the home, car, accolades from your friends and admirers, peaceful in-laws and that trip to London, err; put that in the I-may-get-to-do-that-if-things-REALLY-work-out file.

How’s that for reality?

Absent from many a conversation on the state of the nation vis-à-vis corruption in public life, abysmal educational performance, dilapidated infrastructure and the rise (or more accurately, the increasing consciousness) of ‘stomach infrastructure’ is a key component – the utter disregard for the concept of delayed gratification in the modern Nigerian psyche.

Delayed gratification, in the simplest terms possible, is associated with resisting a smaller but more immediate reward in order to receive a larger or more enduring reward later. A growing body of psychological literature has linked the ability to delay gratification to a host of other positive outcomes, including academic success, physical health, psychological health, and social competence – things that are not in ample supply if you consider every facet of Nigerian national life.

This problem is especially acute among young people, especially the youth in today’s inter-connected, hyperventilating world (no thanks to social media for taking the peer comparison game to whole new levels). One of the cardinal factors that aid, or kill the development of an attitude of delayed gratification are cultural factors.

The thing is, it is difficult to teach delayed gratification when children grow up expecting a large, instant reward for their years of schooling. Societal impacts and current media trends have had the effect of teaching people to expect instant gratification. The idea of waiting for a good job, earned through working from the bottom up, frequently upsets and frustrates emerging adults in today’s society. And in case you think Nigeria is an exception, it isn’t.

It is the desire for instant reward that drives a contractor to inflate rates, a public official to make a false declaration, or ‘sit’ (that is delay the implementation) on a policy move until he receives a kickback, a traffic official to detain you for committing a traffic offence, until of course, you produce the customary bribe or the not-so-new rave of the movement – the cash for jobs racket pervading nearly every government establishment in the country.

However, an attitude of building for the future demands a healthy dose of rationality as well as reality, saving for a rainy day, taking on jobs with a view to learning and acquiring crucial life skills and being a little more stingy than usual (On the idea of financial frugality, an aspect of delayed gratification, this comparative study of China and India summarises the link between their national savings rate and their economic rise). This kind of attitude, adopted on a massive scale nationally would help stem the tide of stagnant growth, rife corruption and a nation continually flirting with the embers of a collective meltdown.

Don’t get me wrong, deciding to dwindle your expectations a little bit will not be the silver bullet that jump starts an accelerated push toward a better state of well-being for Nigeria. But it will at least nudge us in that direction.

All of us cannot keep ‘hustling’ our way, no matter the consequence, to individual prosperity. If we keep at this present national attitude, there will be only one casualty – Nigeria.

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Ikemesit Effiong is a legal practitioner, political blogger, research consultant and avid troller of online curiosities. He reads too much for his own good, talks too little for others’ comfort and believes that the best place to be is underwater – with a swim trunk of course. He tweets from @JudgeIyke.