Chimamanda: Nigeria lacks heroes to inspire the youth

Chimamanda Adichie, the award-winning author, says Nigeria is “starved” of heroes to inspire its citizens, particularly the young people.

The writer spoke on Monday while delivering her keynote address at the ongoing annual general meeting of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) in Lagos state.

Recently, Nigeria has been faced with several challenges ranging from leadership, economic, socio-political issues and insecurity.

In her remark, the writer said it has become difficult for young Nigerians to get heroes to mentor them.

“We are starved of heroes. Our young people do not find people to look up to anymore,” she said.

The writer also enjoined Nigerians to embrace self-criticism to foster transparency and good governance in the country.

“As long as we refuse to untangle the knot of injustice, peace cannot thrive. If we don’t talk about it, we fail to hold leaders accountable and we turn what should be transparent systems into ugly opaque cults,” she added.

“My experience made me think there’s something dead in us, in our society; a death of self-awareness and ability for self-criticism.

“There’s need for resurrection. We cannot avoid self-criticism but criticise the government. We cannot hide our own institutional failure while demanding transparency from the government.”

The conference with the theme ‘Bold Transitions’ started on August 19. It will end on August 26.